Blindspotting: Donna Summer, "Bad Girls"

The Legacy: If 1979's Bad Girls isn't the album that officially crowned Donna Summer the Queen of Disco, then it's definitely the gaudiest jewel in that crown. Initially released as a double LP, this 15-song, hour-long set ranks among the most ambitious in a genre chiefly known for getting people's asses up and on the dance floor — although this is not to say it lacks a sufficient number of clubworthy cuts. Instead, in an effort to expand her musical palette, the restless Summer pushed her production team (longtime collaborators Georgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte) to incorporate extra elements of rock and soul. Truthfully, those elements are relatively subtle, but that's also just another way of saying the whole thing meshes together really well; the public agreed, sending Bad Girls to No. 1 and platinum sales while making smash hits out of three singles ("Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," and "Dim All the Lights").

First Impressions: I grew up having a passing familiarity with Donna Summer as a recording artist, but that's basically it — "Hot Stuff" was on radios near me a lot when I was a kid, "She Works Hard for the Money" was a major hit as I aged into "active music consumer" status, and "This Time I Know It's for Real" gave her a comeback blip the year I turned 15. All of which is to say that while I'm conversationally versed in the general arc of Summer's career, I'd never really spent much time thinking about the music, so reading the Bad Girls liner notes felt a little like stepping back, looking at the Top 40 of the '80s, and realizing for the first time just how much of the decade's general vibe ties back to the Queen of Disco. Moroder! Harold Faltermeyer! Joe "Bean" Esposito! Bruce Roberts! I'm certainly not going to argue that she was the most influential artist of the era, but her musical family tree casts a taller shadow than one might suspect.

As for Bad Girls itself, the more I listen to this record, the more I like it. At first, it struck me as a relatively standard set of dance tracks and ballads, but there really aren't any straight up duds in here — and it's sequenced masterfully, with the first two sides taken up by rump shakers that run seamlessly into one another, followed by a string of ballads, followed by a couple of more contemplative but still danceable cuts to close the whole thing out (or just send you back to the beginning). Having spent most of my Monday listening to Bad Girls, will I go back to it again anytime soon? Or investigate other corners of Summer's catalog? Most likely not, but this is definitely a blind spot that I'm glad I fixed.

Hidden Gems: I'm sorry, but how was "Journey to the Center of Your Heart" not a single? Despite having a title that makes it sound like it's a 3D rom-com starring Brendan Fraser, I think it might be my favorite song on the entire album.