[3][4] Influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s, Summer became the lead singer of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and moved to New York City.

Summer returned to the United States in 1976,[6] and more hits such as "Last Dance", "MacArthur Park", "Heaven Knows", "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Dim All the Lights", "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" with Barbra Streisand, and "On the Radio" followed.

While her fortunes on the Hot 100 waned in subsequent decades, Summer remained a force on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart throughout her entire career.

[9] In her obituary in The Times, she was described as the "undisputed queen of the Seventies disco boom" who reached the status of "one of the world's leading female singers.

She landed the part of Sheila and agreed to take the role in the Munich production of the show, moving there in August 1968 after getting her parents' reluctant approval.

The cast included: Helga Charlotte Tolle, Reiner Schöne, Ron Williams, Gudrun "Su" Kramer, Elke Koska, Jürgen Markus, Jutta Weinhold, Peter Kent, who all starred alongside Summer in the musical Hair.

[17] While working as a model part-time and backing singer in Munich, Summer met producer Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte during a recording session for Three Dog Night at Musicland Studios.

"The Hostage" reached the top of the charts in France, but was removed from radio playlists in Germany because of the song's subject matter: a high ranking politician that had recently been kidnapped and held for ransom.

The song generated controversy due to Summer's moans and groans, which emulated lovemaking, and some American stations, like those in Europe with the initial release, refused to play it.

Summer performed at the world-televised Music for UNICEF Concert, joining contemporaries such as ABBA; Olivia Newton-John; the Bee Gees; Andy Gibb; Rod Stewart; John Denver; Earth, Wind & Fire; Rita Coolidge; and Kris Kristofferson for a TV special that raised funds and awareness for the world's children.

[25] Summer's first Geffen album, The Wanderer, featured an eclectic mixture of sounds, bringing elements of rock, rockabilly, new wave, and gospel music.

The album included the top-ten hit "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)"; for which she received a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

After the rehearsal Grant was informed that he could not use the kids because the concert would end after 10 pm; children could not be licensed to be on stage at such a late hour (California had strict child labor laws in 1983).

Summer was happy that Geffen and his executives stayed out of the studio during the recording and thanked him in the album's liner notes, but her request for the lead single would be rejected.

Summer's main objective for the album was that it have stronger R&B influences; Faltermeyer who had just finished doing the soundtracks to Top Gun and Fletch, was after a tough FM-oriented sound.

[32] For Summer's next album, Geffen Records hired the British hit production team of Stock Aitken Waterman (or SAW), who enjoyed incredible success writing and producing for such acts as Kylie Minogue, Bananarama, and Rick Astley, among others.

The single "This Time I Know It's for Real" became a top ten hit in several countries in Europe, prompting Warner Bros.' sister company, Atlantic Records, to sign Summer in the US.

The television network started changing the premise of the show, making it less funny, says Sudano, "And because we were an interracial couple, they didn't want us to be married anymore".

[35] The following year, Summer worked with producer Keith Diamond emerged with the album Mistaken Identity, which included elements of R&B as well as new jack swing.

In 1998, Summer received the first Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, after a remixed version of her 1992 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, "Carry On", was released in 1997.

[18] In 2000, Summer participated in VH1's third annual Divas special, dedicated to Diana Ross; she sang the Supremes hit Reflections, and her own material for the show.

[41] On September 15, 2010, Summer appeared as a guest celebrity, singing alongside contestant Prince Poppycock, on the television show America's Got Talent.

In July of that same year, Summer was working at Paramount Recording Studios in Los Angeles with her nephew, the rapper and producer O'Mega Red.

[44] On December 11, 2012, after four prior nominations, Summer was posthumously announced to be one of the 2013 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,[45] and was inducted on April 18, 2013, at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater.

[53] A few years later, she filed a lawsuit against New York magazine when it printed an old story about the rumors as fact, just as she was about to release her album Mistaken Identity in 1991.

[54] According to a Biography television program dedicated to Summer in which she participated in 1995, the lawsuit was settled out of court although neither side wanted to divulge any details.

[59] Summer and her family moved from the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1995,[60] where she took time off from show business to focus on painting, a hobby she had developed in the 1980s.

Singer Natasha Bedingfield honored Summer, calling her "a remarkable woman who brought so much light and who inspired many women, including myself, through her music.

[7] She became a cultural icon and her prominence on the dance charts, for which she was referred to as the Queen of Disco, made her not just one of the defining voices of that era, but also an influence on pop artists from Madonna to Beyoncé.

Unlike some other stars of disco who faded as the music became less popular in the early 1980s, Summer was able to grow beyond the genre and segued to a pop-rock sound.