{"id":703879,"date":"2026-06-14T17:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T17:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703879\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T17:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T17:02:10","slug":"donna-summers-last-no-1-single-was-based-on-a-very-personal-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703879\/","title":{"rendered":"Donna Summer\u2019s Last No. 1 Single Was Based on a Very Personal Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1983, <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/donna-queen-of-disco-summer-posthumously-inducted-into-the-songwriters-hall-of-fame\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Donna Summer<\/a> released \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/blue-collar-anthems-to-listen-to-in-honor-of-labor-day\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">She Works Hard For The Money<\/a>\u201d. The song, the title track of a record also released in 1983, is written by Summer and Michael Omartian. \u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d is Summer\u2019s final No. 1 hit of her career. It is also one based on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/facts\/donna-summer\/she-works-hard-for-the-money\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">true story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d says in part, \u201cIt\u2019s a sacrifice working day to day \/ For little money, just tips for pay \/ But it\u2019s worth it all \/ To hear them say that they care \/ She works hard for the money \/ So hard for it, honey \/ She works hard for the money \/ So you better treat her right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1983, Summer was at an afterparty at a now-closed restaurant, Chafen\u2019s. A bathroom attendant, Onetta Johnson, was taking a nap when Summer discovered her. Johnson revealed she was working two jobs to pay the bills. Summer had the idea for \u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d while talking to Johnson. Immediately, she began penning some of the lyrics on toilet paper.<\/p>\n<p>Donna Summer Shares the Story Behind \u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Summer later recounted the profound impact meeting Johnson had on her.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cI went to the ladies\u2019 room with my manager [Susan Muneo]. And there was a little woman [in there],\u201d Summer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.udiscovermusic.com\/stories\/donna-summer-she-works-hard-for-the-money-feature\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">remembers<\/a>. \u201cWe peeked around the corner, and there was a little lady sitting there with her head tilted to the side, and she was just gone \u2013 she was asleep. \u2026 I looked at her, and my heart just filled up with compassion for this lady, and I thought to myself, \u2018God, she works hard for the money, cooped up in this stinky little room all night.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Johnson appears in the artwork for the record. For the video, Johnson chose several hard-working jobs to be represented. One of the occupations is a waitress, which is what Summer dresses as for the album, along with Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>In the Love To Love You, Donna Summer\u00a0documentary, Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/360degreesound.com\/5-things-i-learned-from-love-to-love-you-donna-summer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">reveals<\/a> what it meant to her to be the inspiration for \u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t believe it,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt\u2019s like a fairy tale for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Summer also helped make history with \u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d. The video marks the first time a Black female artist had a video in heavy rotation on MTV. Of Summer\u2019s many hits, she later said it\u2019s \u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d that most of her female fans identify with the best.<\/p>\n<p>Photo by Paul Natkin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1983, Donna Summer released \u201cShe Works Hard For The Money\u201d. The song, the title track of a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2617,161499,88,216],"class_list":["post-703879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-classic-rock","tag-donna-summer","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}