"On the Radio" is a song by American singer and songwriterDonna Summer, produced by Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, and released in late 1979 on the Casablanca record label. It was written for the soundtrack to the film Foxes and included on Summer's first internationalcompilation album . It was released as a single and became, in February 1980, her tenth top-ten hit in the U.S. as well as her eighth and final consecutive top-five single. "On the Radio" peaked at number five on the BillboardHot 100 and number nineon the soul chart. The song was also Summer's 14th entry on the Billboard Disco chart, where it peaked at number eight. In Canada, it peaked at number two.
History
The song was released in three formats: the radio 45rpm single; the 5+ minute version included on Summer's Greatest Hitsdouble album package, and a DJ Promo 7+ minute version released on 12" single. This last version was later released on the Bad Girls CD digipack double CD release. The Foxes soundtrack also includes an instrumental version of the song in a ballad tempo and crediting Moroder as a solo artist. In the film, the ballad tempo and the disco version are both heard with Donna Summer's vocals. Donna Summer performed "On the Radio" on many television shows such as American Bandstand. The instrumental parts of this song were occasionally heard on the US version of The Price Is Right in the early 1980s when they displayed jukeboxes and stereos as prizes. While the first two versions included all written lyrics, the DJ Promo omitted the final verse, opting instead to repeat the third. Only the first "short" version ended with the famous "on the radio – adio – adio" echo vocal effect. For the second consecutive year, Summer placed at least three singles in the Billboard Year-End charts in 1980.
English singer and actress Martine McCutcheon covered "On the Radio" in 2000 and released it as the second single from her second album, Wishing, in January 2001. Her version was produced by John Poppo. Although it became McCutcheon's fifth consecutive top-ten hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number seven, it is to date her last single to appear within the top 100 on the UK chart, and it would be her last single until 2017's "Say I'm Not Alone". In Ireland, "On the Radio" reached number 18, matching the peak of the original.
