She Works Hard for the Money is the eleventh studio album by Donna Summer, released in 1983. This album became her biggest hit of the decade and produced a US top three single with the title track.
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Summer had made her name as the biggest female star of the disco era during the 1970s. Having signed to Geffen Records in the early 1980s, she had gained some success during the post-disco era but had encountered problems in that Geffen had refused to release some of her material. The She Works Hard For The Money album was turned down by Geffen. PolyGram had taken over Casablanca Records, to which Summer was signed at the height of her fame the previous decade. She had left them after a dispute which was resolved by Summer giving PolyGram this album which Geffen rejected. PolyGram agreed to release the album on their Mercury label.
This project became Summer's most successful since the disco era. She Works Hard For The Money was more pop/dance oriented than her last couple of albums, but also contained some soulful ballads, including "Love Has a Mind of Its Own", a duet with gospel singer Matthew Ward. It also contained a reggae-styled song called "Unconditional Love" which featured vocals by young black British group Musical Youth. Lyrically, the album dealt with subjects such as social injustice ("Stop, Look and Listen"), Jesus Christ ("He's a Rebel") and missing children ("People, People"). Many fans saw the album as a "return to form" for Summer - she was once again presented as a strong, powerful woman very much in control. During the 1970s, Summer's management had worked hard to portray her as a powerful, sexual fantasy figure to the point where they had become too involved in her personal life (which led to a period of depression for Summer before becoming a born-again Christian and filing a lawsuit against her record label). Since the disco era, Summer had experimented with different genres including New Wave and rock, and some felt she had got a little "lost" in trying to find her musical place in the new decade. She Works Hard for the Money firmly established her place as a 1980s pop/dance diva.
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