Yes, Beyoncé made history this week by becoming the first black woman to go No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs with her bluessgrassy bop âTexas Hold âEm.”
But, in the last week of Black History Month, we gotta give props to another African-American diva who broke down genre barriers on the country charts long before Bey made her two-step statement.
That would be Donna Summer, who, when she was the Queen of Disco, made her own history as the first African-American woman to co-write a No. 1 country single in 1980 with âStarting Over Again,â a tune that the late legend wrote with her widower Bruce Sudano for none other than Dolly Parton.
Take a minute and think about that. (Weâll wait.)
Thatâs also 43 years before Tracy Chapman became the first black woman to be the sole writer of the top tune on Billboardâs Hot Country Airplay chart with Luke Combsâ cover of âFast Carâ last summer.
Summer and Sudano â who got married in May 1980, the same month that âStarting Over Againâ became Partonâs 12th country chart-topper â had previously co-written the certified disco classic âBad Girlsâ together.
But âStarting Over Againâ â a country-pop ballad, from Partonâs âDolly, Dolly, Dollyâ album about getting your giddy up back post-divorce â was a radical departure from the Studio 54 anthems that had made Summer the Beyoncé of the disco generation.Â
âI loved it,â Summer â who died from lung cancer in 2012 at age 63 â once said of Partonâs rendition to Country Music Today magazine in 2003. âIt was so exciting to me. You can cut it, but itâs not the the same as when someone else cuts your song.
âThe ability to transform another personâs life or to enter their being is so profound.â
“My parents listened to country music, R&B music and gospel music,” she went on. “They listened to Willie Nelson as much as they would Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra. I grew up loving country music. My daddy used to play Patsy Cline. We used to watch the [country music] programs on television when we were little.”
âStarting Over Againâ would also be covered by Reba McEntire in 1995, but Summerâs own version, while recorded, was never officially released.
Ironically, Beyoncé â who also released â16 Carriagesâ from her upcoming country album âRenaissance: Act II,â due March 29 â paid homage to the âHot Stuffâ singer by borrowing from “I Feel Love” on âSummer Renaissance,â the final track on 2022âs âAct 1.â
In fact, after moving to Nashville in 1994, Summer even became a board member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
So letâs give respect to the black country queens who came long before Beyoncé made the hoedown popping.