Donna Summer performed ‘Starting Over Again’ on TV to stop her in-laws from divorcing.
The ‘I Feel Love’ hitmaker had been due to promote her new single in a high-profile appearance, but told her husband Bruce Sudano she would instead perform the track in a bit to persuade his parents Margaret Alessio and Louis Sudano to stay together.
Bruce – who was married to Donna for over 30 years until her death in 2012 – exclusively told BANG Showbiz, Bruce, recalled: "’Starting Over Again’ is a song that I wrote about the divorce of my parents and Donna was going on a big late night TV show to promote her next single.
"She came to me and said, ‘Bruce I’m going to sing Starting Over Again on the TV show tonight and I said, ‘Donna you can’t do that, you need to promote your new song and she said, ‘No maybe if I sing ‘Starting Over Again’, maybe they’ll hear the song and stay together’, and I was like, ‘Honey there’s no way’."
But determined to be positive, Donna sang the song and later Dolly Parton picked up the record.
Bruce added BANG Showbiz: "The next day, Dolly’s people called about the song and that’s how she recorded the song. "
Sadly, Donna’s attempt to persuade her in-laws through song didn’t work.
Bruce said: "No [my parents didn’t] stay together. My mother loved the song, my father was a little upset because there was a line in the song which said, ‘He’s out scheming big deal with one of his friends’ he was like, ‘Why did you say scheming? Why couldn’t you say dreaming?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know dad, that’s what I wrote’. That is the danger when you write songs about real-life people."
Bruce was signed as a solo artist by RCA and released his first record ‘The Fugitive Kind’ in 1981.
That record featured ‘Starting Over Again’ and but in 1980, the song was also recorded and released by Dolly Parton on the album ‘Dolly, Dolly, Dolly’, and hit #1 on the U.S. country charts.
And Bruce, who used to live around the corner from Dolly, 71, in Nashville, admitted he no longer keeps in touch with the country music star.
Bruce Sudano’s album ’21st Century World’ is out on June 2.
Donna Summer made musical plea to in-laws
