Disco

When Donna Summer played the Bank of America Pavilion in August 2010, she explained to the audience how much she loved those early iPod commercials. They featured silhouettes of people listening to music and dancing with wild abandon. "That's the way music makes me feel inside," she said. That's the way Summer's music made many of her fans feel, too: safe in a bubble of beats and beauty, and moved to dance like no one was watching. The first record I bought with my own money was "On the Radio," Donna Summer's 1979 double greatest hits album.

Donna Summer 's hit "I Feel Love" is one of the songs being preserved for posterity. The 1977 hit by the Boston-bred disco star, who died last week of cancer, is among 25 inductees announced Wednesday by the Library of Congress. (AP)

Donna Summer's funeral will be a private one for family and close friends. Publicist Brian Edwards said in a statement Friday that Summer's family is overwhelmed and appreciates the outreach from fans and friends, but that her funeral services will remain private. He didn't provide details on when and where services would be held. Summer died Thursday morning of lung cancer at age 63 in Naples, Fla. Edwards also said that the singer did not smoke. Summer earned the title of Queen of Disco after releasing a string of dance hits in the 1970s, including "I Feel Love,"...

Family and some of her closest friends helped celebrate the life of Donna Summer at the singer's funeral. A private memorial service was held Wednesday for Summer at Christ Presbyterian in Nashville, Tenn., where she had been a resident since 1995. Summer, deemed the "Queen of Disco" for hits like "I Feel Love," "Love to Love You Baby" and "Last Dance," died May 17 of lung cancer at 63 in Naples, Fla. Producer and close friend David Foster performed "The Prayer" with Natalie Grant.

Donna Summer, the singer who turned disco anthems into ecstatic fantasias emblematic of the 1970s and became one of the most celebrated pop stars to emerge from Boston, died Thursday. Ms. Summer, who had not spoken publicly about her cancer diagnosis, was 63. Her publicist, Brian Edwards, said in a statement that Ms. Summer died in Naples, Fla., at a second home she shared with her husband, Bruce Sudano. Although not widely associated with her local roots, the Boston native attended Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester.

Twirling her leopard-print dress on stage in the '70s, proudly holding many of her music awards and performing in recent years on "American Idol", Donna Summer was the ultimate disco queen Summer, whose hits such as "Last Dance" and "Bad Girls", were the soundtrack to much of the seventies and eighties, died Thursday in Florida. She was 63. Here's a look at the life of Summer whose career transcended disco's demise to make her a cross-generational star.

NEW YORK (AP) — Disco queen Donna Summer, whose pulsing anthems such as ‘‘Last Dance," ‘'Love to Love You Baby" and ‘‘Bad Girls" became the soundtrack for a glittery age of sex, drugs, dance and flashy clothes, has died. She was 63. Her family released a statement, saying Summer died Thursday morning and that they ‘‘are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy. " ‘‘Words truly can't express how much we appreciate your prayers and love for our family at this sensitive time," the statement read.

Robin Gibb, a founding member of the Bee Gees who helped propel the group to international stardom, has died. He was 62. Gibb's representative Doug Wright announced in a statement that Gibb passed away Sunday "following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery. " Gibb was one of three brothers whose soaring falsetto harmonies helped power such hits as "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever. " The band was best known for the influential "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack album that became one of the fastest selling albums of all time.

CAMBRIDGE -- "You must all be single," said Electric Six frontman Dick Valentine at the band's sold-out show at the Middle East on Tuesday night. "If you had one night of the year when you show someone how much you love them," he continued, "you wouldn't be here. Listening to this [expletive]. " Valentine's crack came halfway through what had been a high-powered, triumphant set of seemingly mindless fun. Surely that left no doubt that Electric Six's disco-rock songs are as danceable and catchy as they are utterly meaningless.

Family and some of her closest friends helped celebrate the life of Donna Summer at the singer's funeral. A private memorial service was held Wednesday for Summer at Christ Presbyterian in Nashville, Tenn., where she had been a resident since 1995. Summer, deemed the "Queen of Disco" for hits like "I Feel Love," "Love to Love You Baby" and "Last Dance," died May 17 of lung cancer at 63 in Naples, Fla. Producer and close friend David Foster performed "The Prayer" with Natalie Grant.

LONDON - With his carefully tended hair, tight trousers, and perfect harmonies, Robin Gibb, along with his brothers Maurice and Barry, defined the disco era. As part of the Bee Gees - short for the Brothers Gibb - they created dance floor classics like "Stayin Alive," "Jive Talkin,' " and "Night Fever" that can still get crowds onto a dance floor. The catchy songs, with their falsetto vocals and relentless beat, are familiar pop culture mainstays. There are more than 6,000 cover versions of the Bee Gees hits, and they are still heard on dance floors and at wedding receptions,...

When Donna Summer played the Bank of America Pavilion in August 2010, she explained to the audience how much she loved those early iPod commercials. They featured silhouettes of people listening to music and dancing with wild abandon. "That's the way music makes me feel inside," she said. That's the way Summer's music made many of her fans feel, too: safe in a bubble of beats and beauty, and moved to dance like no one was watching. The first record I bought with my own money was "On the Radio," Donna Summer's 1979 double greatest hits album.

Robin Gibb, a founding member of the Bee Gees who helped propel the group to international stardom, has died. He was 62. Gibb's representative Doug Wright announced in a statement that Gibb passed away Sunday "following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery. " Gibb was one of three brothers whose soaring falsetto harmonies helped power such hits as "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever. " The band was best known for the influential "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack album that became one of the fastest selling albums of all time.

Donna Summer's funeral will be a private one for family and close friends. Publicist Brian Edwards said in a statement Friday that Summer's family is overwhelmed and appreciates the outreach from fans and friends, but that her funeral services will remain private. He didn't provide details on when and where services would be held. Summer died Thursday morning of lung cancer at age 63 in Naples, Fla. Edwards also said that the singer did not smoke. Summer earned the title of Queen of Disco after releasing a string of dance hits in the 1970s, including "I...

NEW YORK (AP) — Disco queen Donna Summer, whose pulsing anthems such as ‘‘Last Dance," ‘'Love to Love You Baby" and ‘‘Bad Girls" became the soundtrack for a glittery age of sex, drugs, dance and flashy clothes, has died. She was 63. Her family released a statement, saying Summer died Thursday morning and that they ‘‘are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy. " ‘‘Words truly can't express how much we appreciate your prayers and love for our family at this sensitive time," the statement read.

Donna Summer, the singer who turned disco anthems into ecstatic fantasias emblematic of the 1970s and became one of the most celebrated pop stars to emerge from Boston, died Thursday. Ms. Summer, who had not spoken publicly about her cancer diagnosis, was 63. Her publicist, Brian Edwards, said in a statement that Ms. Summer died in Naples, Fla., at a second home she shared with her husband, Bruce Sudano. Although not widely associated with her local roots, the Boston native attended Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester.

Reprinted from late editions of yesterday's Globe. The kids are all right, and so are the parental units who earned their breakfasts-in-bed by spending Mother's Day evening with Panic at the Disco. Retro chic has wormed its way into that last bastion of youthful solidarity, punk-pop, and there was something for everyone (wild-eyed girls and chaperones alike) on the Honda Civic Tour, which might as well be called the Fueled by Ramen tour after the teen-oriented indie label that three of the four groups call home.

It was quite a case of Tuesday night fever when disco icons Earth, Wind & Fire launched a new tour at the Bank of America Pavilion. Hits "Shining Star" and "Boogie Wonderland" were shined up to a sparkle, glittering reminders of the band's '70s heyday under the mirror ball. This string of shows is dubbed the Illuminate Love Tour in honor of the band's latest CD, "Illumination," but the show was distinctly nostalgic. Few would have had it any other way. It was impressive, however, that after three decades EW&F didn't simply parrot old hits.

(Jay Connor for the Boston Globe) Summer entertaining fans on a 2010 summer night at the Bank of America Pavilion. By Roy Greene, Globe Staff Before Donna Summer became Queen of Disco, the Boston native was nurtured by the music program at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester. "When I was at the Jerry, I sang in everything they had and was a permanent member of the glee club. If I couldn't have sung, I wouldn't have gone to school," she told the Globe's Ernie Santosuosso in an interview in 1977, just as the...