♫ Last Dance ♫

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A few nights ago I was planning to play this one, and some other song … I don’t even remember which just now … popped into my head and demanded my attention.  I woke this morning with this one interspersing itself at various intervals with the last song I played, so I am sharing it with you in hopes of expunging it from my own head.  Not, mind you, that I don’t enjoy the song, for I do, but I like a bit of variety.

I have a funny Donna Summer story.  When my children were young, and I was a perpetually-exhausted young mother, I was dozing in my chair during a lull in the chaos one day.  My two oldest shook me awake to ask me, “Mom, what colour is Donna Summer?”  Well, you all know how I don’t hear well, never have, and I thought they asked what colour dinosaurs were, so I naturally replied, “green”.  Thereafter, it became a standard joke in our house that Donna Summer was green.

Paul Jabara wrote this for the 1978 movie Thank God It’s Friday. The movie takes place at a dance club, and Jabara played the role of Carl, a clueless club patron. The film didn’t do nearly as well as Saturday Night Fever, which was released a year earlier and was also centered around a disco. This song, however, was a huge hit and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Summer performed this in the movie, which also featured a performance by the Commodores singing Too Hot To Trot. It was Summer’s first role in a major motion picture, and she played an aspiring young singer named Nicole. In the film, she tries to convince the DJ at a hot nightclub to let her sing, and at the end of the night, she gets her chance and performs this, knowing it might be her last chance.

Last Dance
Donna Summer

Last dance
Last chance, for love
Yes, it’s my last chance, for romance, tonight

I need you, by me,
Beside me, to guide me,
To hold me, to scold me,
‘Cause when I’m bad
I’m so, so bad

So let’s dance, the last dance
Let’s dance, the last dance
Let’s dance, this last dance tonight

Last dance, last chance for love
Yes it’s my last chance
For romance tonight

Oh, I need you, by me,
Beside me, to guide,
To hold me, to scold me,
‘Cause when I’m bad
I’m so, so bad

So let’s dance, the last dance
Let’s dance, the last dance
Let’s dance, this last dance tonight

Will you be my Mr. Right?
Can you fill my appetite
I can’t be sure that you’re the one for me
But all that I ask is that you dance with me
Dance with me, Dance with me, yeah

Oh I need you, by me,
Beside me, to guide me,
To hold me, to scold me,
‘Cause when I’m bad
I’m so, so bad

So let’s dance, this last dance
Let’s dance, this last dance
Let’s dance, this last dance
Let’s dance, this last dance tonight

Oh I need you, by me,
Beside me, to guide me,
To hold me, to scold me,
‘Cause when I’m bad
I’m so, so horny

So, come on baby, dance that dance
Come on baby, dance that dance
Come on baby, let’s dance tonight

Songwriters: Paul Jabara
Last Dance lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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21 thoughts on “♫ Last Dance ♫”

      • Donna Summer is an amazing artist, she started out as a gospel singer as most of the great ones did. With so many great #1 hits she was posthumously elected to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. She’s forever known as the queen of disco and mother of modern dance music. Now that’s a story book life!

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  4. This song sets feminism back a hundred years at least, a girl begging to have a man guide her and scold her, I won’t even listen to it. I’m glad I never knew it at the time, missed the movie and the Awards show. Sorry. Two thumbs down.

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  5. I like the Bee Gees except during this Disco era ( and squeaky brother’s lead singing ) and I feel pretty much the same about Donna Summer and mindless lyrics like these..Keep your Olivia Neutron Bomb and John Travolta and that era under wraps and take me to the singing of the Walker Brothers (No Regrets) and lyrics that matter.
    Cwtch

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