Donna Summer’s versatility doesn’t get recognized enough. Sure, she was the Queen of Disco, but it wasn’t like every song she was able to convincingly sell was 180 BPM. Hell, she started out in theater. A voice like hers can’t be constrained to one genre.

“Cold Love” is a straight ahead new wave/rock song. It would’ve fit perfectly on Pat Benatar’s Crimes of Passion album. I guess Donna and her producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte saw the writing on the wall during the mainstream “Disco Sucks” movement. Or maybe Donna, flush off the massive success of Bad Girls and On The Radio, felt like spreading her artistic wings. Whatever the inspiration, it was a highlight (the highlight, in my opinion) of 1980′s The Wanderer. I love that dry-ass drum track in the intro.