Song #477: "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer

Date: Nov 24, 1979
Weeks: 2

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Oh no. Not another 1930s-style Barbra Streisand soft song. Oh no! Suddenly it turned into a repetitive Donna Summer disco song. It's the worst of both worlds. I've disliked both of their songs separately, and now I have to endure one where they mix their styles. How am I going to get through this?

Okay, okay. Start by saying something positive. Well, in the soft part of the song, Summer's part is quite good. The 70s disco music that I'm used to hearing from her doesn't do her voice justice. Of course, that's kind of ruined by Streisand doing the same fake-sounding oversinging thing I've complained about before.

No, stay positive! The disco part of the song actually seems more compatible with Streisand's singing style. The bold music seems to actually match it. She should make this kind of music more often. Then again, she even manages to find ways to overwhelm the frantic disco music.

Okay, okay, what else. Well, the lyrics seem to be feminist. "Enough is enough is enough." Great message for women in tough relationships: get out. Of course, the song kind of undermines that when it tries to explain what's so wrong about the guy and comes up with "My love life is boring me to tears." Okay, but maybe it's a song about having the self-awareness to understand when a relationship is over. No, the song says "Pack his raincoat, show him out."

It's really two songs that have failed to properly integrate. One is a soft song that laments the sadness of a relationship that has gotten stale and just isn't exciting any more. The other is about a woman who has been wronged. They don't quite go together correctly.

Musically, each song is pretty mediocre. The first half is piano and strings, and resists the temptation to add too much additional sound to it, but is kind of plain and unexciting. The second half sounds a lot like "Hot Stuff" (#465). It's okay, but has the usual 70s problems of adding too many strings and not enough guitars.

The best part of the song is probably the bridge, when the song gets quiet except for the bongos driving the song forward. There is an extended version of the song that extends this bridge, and I think I like the extended version better for focusing on the best part of the song. Or maybe I've just taken the whole idea of staying positive too far and found the part that annoys me least.

My verdict: Don't like it. It's like they took two songs I didn't like and stuck them together with tape and glue.

Song #465: "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer

Date: June 2, 1979
Weeks: 3

 

This one's tough to evaluate on its own merits. It has carved out a very particular niche context that is hard to separate it from. Wikipedia cites a representative example: "'Hot Stuff" is the background song in Episode 31 of Sex and the City in which Carrie Bradshaw is a guest celebrity judge on Staten Island for the New York City Fire Department's 'Calendar Contest'." That's exactly the image that pops into my head when I hear this song. But I'll try to ignore that and focus on the song itself.

Is this disco? I'm not even sure. It's certainly a dance song from the disco era, but its disco sounds are relatively muted, and it employs heavier drums than most disco songs I've heard. There's even a prominently featured rock guitar, which gets a lengthy solo during the bridge. The guitar is really pretty good. I enjoy the solo.

The song's lyrics are straightforward and consistent. Donna Summer is looking for loving and she's calling everybody she knows until she gets some. I don't know that the sentiment is all that interesting or relatable for me, but full credit for a consistent message and lyrics that all apply to the point the song is trying to make. 

The lyrics "hot stuff" start to wear out their welcome, though. It's not necessarily a problem within the chorus, where the repetition is used effectively, but when the background singers get involved it starts to get tired. The part just after the guitar solo where the background singers sing "hot, hot, hot, hot, stuu-uff, hot, hot, hot" is intolerable both lyrically and musically. There's repetition for emphasis, and then there's having no other ideas what to do in the bridge. And the pitch bending they do on "stuff" is trying to be interesting, but just sounds flat and out of place.

Ultimately, the repetition is the thing that hurts the song most. It's not so bad if you listen to the song just once. But as part of my review process I listen to every song several times, and I'm really dreading my next listen because I find myself getting tired of the repetitive chorus. There are some attempts to inject variety around the phrase, but they mostly fall flat because all I hear is "blah blah Hot Stuff blah blah blah. blah blah Hot Stuff blah blah blah."

My verdict: Don't like it. It's a fine enough song to listen to once, but pop songs need to be fun to listen to multiple times. I don't think this one passes that test.