Early Donna Summer labels question...

**Masdefi** · October 17th, 2002, 03:03 PM

Hi there! My great friend Kelvy sent me a lot of records of Donna, and I saw specially on the "A love trilogy" and "Love to love you baby" they are on OASIS label. But I do remember that once saw the same on CASABLANCA original label. Am I right or maybe I don't remember well? Do those two are also on CASABLANCA !?!? :???:
Thanks

ps: KELVY where are you?

**BrunoRepublic** · October 17th, 2002, 07:03 PM

Oasis was Giorgio's own label in Germany. When Casablanca first signed Donna Summer, the album was released on Oasis but still distributed and promoted by Casablanca (much like Chocolate City, Millennium, and later Parachute). A total of six albums were put out on Oasis USA:
OCLP 5001 - Einzelganger: Einzelganger (Giorgio solo LP, supposedly mostly electronic... I have been trying to find this for years)
OCLP 5002 - Schloss: Schloss (no idea what this is like)
OCLP 5003 - Donna Summer: Love To Love You Baby
OCLP 5004 - Donna Summer: A Love Trilogy
OCLP 5005 - Roberta Kelly: Troublemaker
OCLP 5006 - Giorgio: Knights In White Satin

The first Munich Machine LP was intended to be OCLP 5007. You can see the original matrix number on the runout groove.

For whatever reason, Casablanca decided to do away with the Oasis sub-label in 1976 or so. The albums were reissued with the catalog prefix changed to NBLP (the NB stands for Neil Bogart, founder of Casablanca Records). To make matters even more confusing, Casablanca later released another album Donna Summer album called "Love To Love You Baby". This one has LTLYB on one side, and the "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" suite on the other.

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[ This Message was edited by: Graham Start on 2002-10-17 20:05 ]

**Masdefi** · October 18th, 2002, 01:04 AM

Thanks, Graham. Did "A love trilogy" appeared on CASABLANCA label then, too?
And what about "Four seasons of love"?
Thanks
Masdefi

**totoman** · October 18th, 2002, 06:41 AM

I think they reprinted Love Trilogy on the Casablanca label but certainly issued Four Seasons on Casablanca. For some sad reason the number NBLP 7036 sticks in my mind but I may be wrong.

toto

**darrens** · October 18th, 2002, 06:46 AM

In the UK, LTLYB, Love Trilogy, Four seasons of love and I remember yesterday were all released on GTO records, as well as all of the singles from these albums. Down deep inside from "The Deep", the "Once upon a time" album, and so on were all released on Casablanca.

Looking at British Hit Singles, singles were being released from GTO and Casablanca at the same time at the back end of '77, with both "Love's unkind" from I remember yesterday, and "I love you" from "Once upon a time" (Casablanca) in the Top 10 concurrently. A bit of a "label war".

Does anyone know why GTO had Donna Summer here, and what the circumstances were of the change to Casablanca?

Darren

**BrunoRepublic** · October 18th, 2002, 07:28 AM

To answer several questions at once...

Both of Donna's Oasis LPs were rereleased on Casablanca, as were Knights In White Satin and probably Troublemaker. Einzelganger and Schloss probably weren't, simply because these albums were not commercially successful and were likely deleted by then.

"Four Seasons Of Love", and the rest of Donna's following LPs up until 1980 were released only on Casablanca. "The Wanderer" and a few LPs after that were originally released on Geffen, although if memory serves me correctly, the current CD releases are on Casablanca. However, this is a bit of a moot point, as Casablanca was absorbed into the PolyGram empire in 1980 and basically has existed in name only ever since then. (And then PolyGram was absorbed into the Universal empire, but that's another story).

Donna's earlier LPs were probably licensed to GTO in the UK because Casablanca was still a relatively small label at the time, and didn't have the means to market them properly.

On a related note, early Casablanca/Oasis material was distributed by Quality Records in Canada, but Casablanca moved to Polydor (later PolyGram) at around the same time. Unfortunately, neither of these operations were known for decent mastering or quality control.

_________________
'Fess up to the boogie!

[ This Message was edited by: Graham Start on 2002-10-18 08:33 ]

**DISCODISK** · October 18th, 2002, 05:59 PM

DONNA SUMMER had a strange release on another english label in 1974! the shortlived people label that also issued don downings dreamworld here, it was called the hostage a strange tale of well a hostage!i have never seen an import of this so dont know much about it though i do have an english copy,it would be an o.k dance record but it just stops and starts all the time nothing special at all but quite scarce

**Masdefi** · October 20th, 2002, 02:25 PM

Thanks to all guys. Now It's a bit clear to me. In Italy too, Donna was released on an italian label "Durium", I have got "For seasons of love" with such a label. If someone is interested in having this one I can swap... with Casablanca label.
Thanks for your help

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[ This Message was edited by: Masdefi on 2002-10-20 15:26 ]

**BrunoRepublic** · October 20th, 2002, 02:45 PM

Does the Durium copy of "Four Seasons Of Love" have a different cover? I guess you wouldn't know...

I have both Durium and Casablanca copies of Roberta Kelly's "Zodiac Lady", and the sleeves are somewhat different.

FWIW, I'm still trying to find a copy of "Four Seasons Of Love" with the calendar.

**BrunoRepublic** · October 20th, 2002, 03:01 PM

On 2002-10-18 18:59, DISCODISK wrote:
DONNA SUMMER had a strange release on another english label in 1974! it was called the hostage

Donna released several singles and one LP prior to LTLYB. Most of these were released only in Germany and maybe a few other parts of Europe. There are several Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder fansites out there with details on these... it appears that some of them are very rare today, although I seem to recall that "The Hostage" was a sizeable hit in its day (enough of one for a UK label to license it anyway). I *think* it's on her debut "Lady Of The Night" album, which is still available in Germany.

A couple of other points about early DS works:

- These singles aren't disco at all, but more rock/pop. Side 2 of LTLYB will give you an idea of what to expect.

- There are scores of reissues of an early demo tape that DS did with a few others, sometimes sold as "Donna Summer & Friends". The titles vary ("Fun Street", "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", etc.), but they are all the same album in one of two versions: the original, and a version that was remixed sometime in the 80s. This album is utterly forgettable and was never intended to be released. Unfortunately, Donna does not own the rights to this recording and has no control over it. It was put out after she became a superstar to cash in on her success. If you're a DS fanatic and simply must have everything you can get, *don't* pay a lot of money for this one. Many of the various releases of this sell for very little; none are worth anything.

**Masdefi** · October 21st, 2002, 08:43 AM

On 2002-10-20 15:45, Graham Start wrote:
Does the Durium copy of "Four Seasons Of Love" have a different cover? I guess you wouldn't know...

I have both Durium and Casablanca copies of Roberta Kelly's "Zodiac Lady", and the sleeves are somewhat different.

FWIW, I'm still trying to find a copy of "Four Seasons Of Love" with the calendar.

I think the cover is the same, on my Durium copy there's Donna sitted on a quarter of moon.

**Rugger57** · August 16th, 2007, 05:39 PM

Graham~

Sounds like you know yer business with Casablanca.

Tell me this...do you remember the original label of Casablanca, the purple background and the guy with a fedora hat....?????

Also, do you remember a song on the original Casablanca label called "Howdy Captain Howdy"? I don't remember the original artist, but the flip side was titled, "I fell for her, she fell for him, he fell for me".

That was my first intro into to ANYTHING gay....except my own thoughts!

**BrunoRepublic** · August 17th, 2007, 08:59 AM

Originally Written by Rugger57

Graham~

Sounds like you know yer business with Casablanca.

Tell me this...do you remember the original label of Casablanca, the purple background and the guy with a fedora hat....?????

I have a couple of KISS 7" singles with that, but no LPs. They didn't really get into disco until after they'd changed designs. BTW, that "guy" was supposed to be Neil Bogart, the founder of the label.

Originally Written by Rugger57

Also, do you remember a song on the original Casablanca label called "Howdy Captain Howdy"? I don't remember the original artist, but the flip side was titled, "I fell for her, she fell for him, he fell for me".

That was my first intro into to ANYTHING gay....except my own thoughts!

Nope, can't say I know that one...

**remicks** · August 17th, 2007, 11:35 AM

Originally Written by Graham_Start

. BTW, that "guy" was supposed to be Neil Bogart, the founder of the label.
.

Was it Neil or Humphrey ??? Or a mix of both ?? I seem to recall that when Casablanca split from Warners (owners of the movie Casablanca) they had to give up using that image .... :icon_question:...

....

*******

**EricHG23** · August 17th, 2007, 09:41 PM

"OCLP 5001 - Einzelganger: Einzelganger (Giorgio solo LP, supposedly mostly electronic... I have been trying to find this for years)"

IAs was I till I found it this year--I ripped it to mp3 if you're cutious. Let's just say as a huge Moroder fan I was *very* disappointed

**Nano** · August 18th, 2007, 02:32 PM

Hey Graham, I have FOUR SEASONS OF LOVE with the calendar! :icon_cool:

**VINYLLIFE** · August 20th, 2007, 04:48 PM

Whats up Graham
Hey while diggin this weekend...I came up with a copy of the Four seasons album, with the calender still intact...............it's yours. Consider it a thank you for all the info you always share with us. Besides I'm feeling pretty good about my score of 40 records from this estate sale, one of em being the 12" PROMO of Getaway EWF:icon_eek::icon_cool::icon_cool::icon_cool:.... ...that was sanwhiched between a mk-75 Rush promo and a Tyrone Davis AS promo single, Give it up (turn it loose). Yeah i'm braggin

Anyways shoot me an address. I love sharing vinyl!!

FWIW, I'm still trying to find a copy of "Four Seasons Of Love" with the calendar.[/quote]