(Debuted March 29, 1980, Peaked #36, 10 Weeks on the Chart)
As this blog returns to 1980, "Starting Over Again" makes an appropriate title to feature today.
For her first single of the new decade, Dolly Parton went with a song written by the soon-to-be husband-and-wife team of Donna Summer and Bruce Sudano. At the time, Summer was widely identified as the Queen of Disco and Sudano was one of the three members of Brooklyn Dreams (a native of that borough and proud to have been from there). While neither of those backgrounds would indicate success in the country genre, they collaborated on a song that went to #1 in that format.
The subject here is divorce, and was written after Sudano's own parents split after several years of marriage. That reality was far removed from the Disco world that both writers were a part of through their association with Casablanca records, but it's still something that can affect anybody...and a writer can draw on the strength of a pen and paper to help work out the little snags that life can serve up.
As for Dolly Parton, she is blessed with a tremendous voice, which she puts to good use on this song. She shows that -- despite taking her sound in more of a pop-oriented direction -- she can still put some raw emotion into songs that tackle a more adult topic.
No comments:
Post a Comment