[5] By 1975, Donna Summer had been living in Germany for eight years and had participated in several musical theatre shows.

"[6] A tape of the song was sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in the US, and he played it at a party at his home.

He later contacted Moroder and suggested that he make the track longer - possibly as long as 20 minutes.

Nevertheless, she imagined herself as an actress (namely Marilyn Monroe)[7] playing the part of someone in sexual ecstasy.

The studio lights were dimmed so that Summer was more or less in complete darkness as she lay on the floor.

In the US, it became Summer's first US Top 40 hit, spending two weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 7 and 14, 1976,[8] being held off the number one spot by Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and logged four weeks atop the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart,[9] as well number three on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.

[citation needed] As a result of the success of the song, Summer would be named "the first lady of love," which labeled her with a sexually oriented, fantasy image from which she would struggle to free herself.

[13] According to Peter Shapiro, a freelance British music journalist, the song was marked by "little more than Donna Summer simulating an orgasm over a background of blaxploitation cymbals, wah-wah guitars, a funky-butt clarinet riff, and some synth chimes."

The song reached number two in the American charts and was largely responsible for the development of the twelve inch single.

Note: This Dutch re-release was issued shortly after the song became a hit internationally, with "Baby" being added to the title.