Oasis Recording Studios and Studio 55 (Los Angeles, California, USA); Conway Studios, Soundcastle and One On One Studios (Hollywood, California, USA); Musicland Studios, Red Deer Studios and Union Studios (Munich, Germany).
All Systems Go is the thirteenth studio album by Donna Summer. It was released on September 15, 1987; it would be her final release on Geffen Records, which had been Summer's label since 1980. There were two singles released in the US, "Dinner with Gershwin" and "Only the Fool Survives". The title cut, "All Systems Go" was released as single in the UK.
The album was Summer's first release since her 1984 album Cats Without Claws. In 1986 David Geffen hired Harold Faltermeyer, to produce the album at Donna's urging. The objective was a tough FM-oriented sound, Harold Faltermeyer had just finished the scores for the movies Fletch (1985) and Top Gun (1986). Donna was adamant that it should have a stronger R & B influences on it. After the album was completed, Geffen heard the cuts and liked them but his executive team didn't think there were enough songs that could be deemed as singles. They had another song they wanted Harold to produce, but he was already working on other soundtrack projects. The song was "Dinner with Gershwin", and Richard Perry was hired to produce it with track writer Brenda Russell. Harold was surprised that nobody on the Geffen team heard the potential for singles on "Fascination", "Voices Cryin Out" or "Thinkin' Bout My Baby". "We had other song completed for All Systems Go that didn't make the final cut. Like "Money Talks", which I was surprised they passed on, and there are a couple others that would have completed our original version for the album, before "Dinner with Gershwin" and "Bad Reputation" became substitutes. The decision was made afterward by executives who were looking for a radio hit for 1987, and not something that would perhaps last beyond then".[1]
Summer was credited as co-writer on seven of the nine tracks.
In the US "Dinner with Gershwin" became Summer's last Top Ten R&B hit and reached #48 on the pop charts.[4] It gave Summer her highest UK chart placing (#13[5]) since the '70s, also reaching #13 in Ireland and #43 in the Netherlands.[6]
All Systems Go became the first album by Donna Summer to fall short of the Top 100 on Billboard's album chart, peaking at #122[7] and dropping off completely after six weeks. It also failed to reach the UK Top 75.
