Hello and welcome to the show. You know how sometimes I introduce you to artists you may not have heard of before? Well, this is one of those weeks. My guest today is a guy by the name of Bruce Sudano and he’s had his hands in some of the 20th century’s biggest hits.
Songs that have been sung by megastars from Michael and Jermaine Jackson to Dolly Parton and Donna Summer, who was his late wife. Songs like this one. Bruce is a New York-born musician and songwriter.
He’s had his sights set firmly on songwriting from a very early age when he first fell in love with the names he saw in parenthesis on the 45 records his dad had. These were the songwriter’s names. Did I mention that Bruce has some terrific stories to tell about himself and Donna Summer? Let’s meet him.
Hi. Hi Bruce, how are you? I’m fine, thank you Sandy. How are you? I’m fine too.
Thank you so much for joining me. I love the new album. I want to talk to you about that but I’d love to just step back in time and talk about how you’ve actually reached this place.
Sure, absolutely. Well, you were born in Flatbush in Brooklyn in New York. You started playing your very first instrument, which was the accordion, at a very tender age, didn’t you? Yes.
My Italian grandfather decided to take a trip back to the old country and he returned with an accordion for me. Because of that, I was obliged to begin learning the accordion and I started music lessons at about four years old. Can you still play it today? I can still play.
The accordion is a wonderful instrument. It’s a very complete instrument. You’re learning treble clef on your right hand and you’re learning bass clef on your left hand and it’s a very full scope of musical education.
So when did you make the switch then to play piano and guitar? Well, when I started putting bands together in my early teens, I was 13, 14 years old and in these first bands I was actually playing the accordion. At some point, I just put the accordion down and then I started playing bass guitar. Then I went on to play an Amon Beat 3. Then the band had a hit record and I became a jerk.
I fired everybody in the band, spent all my money, got a penthouse apartment somewhere in Brooklyn. I thought I was going to be king of the world. I was probably 19.
I ended up back in the basement of my parents’ house. This is when I really realigned myself, my mind, my spirit and my musical direction. Six nights a week, playing five sets a night.
I was going to university at the same time. I basically would go home, sleep for a couple hours, go to school and then go back to work. While we were working in this club, a guy whose name is Tommy James, who at the time was one of the biggest pop stars in America, had a band called Tommy James and the Shondells.
He had songs like I Think We’re Alone Now and Moany Moany. He happened to live around the corner from this club I was playing in and came into the club one night. Me, being the aspiring songwriter that I was, in my 20 minutes off, I would run around the corner to where Tommy lived and try to sit there and write songs with him.
At the end of the night, sometimes I would go back in the middle of the night and we would write from two o’clock in the morning until five o’clock in the morning. Tommy was very generous to me. He included me in things as much as he could.
He took me into the studio, my first time ever being in a real recording studio. In those days, recording was a great privilege. You didn’t have iPhones and even cassette players or anything.
There was nothing to record on. When I would write a song, I would play it incessantly until it was buried into my memory because I had no way of remembering the song, only by actually remembering it. And then at some point, I got included in co-writing on this record that he made called Ball of Fire.
And Ball of Fire became a top ten record. I don’t exactly remember, but it became sort of a hit. Through that, my band a lot had been taking that song to Roulette Records, which was the label that Tommy was on.
And then the following year, Tommy produced the band and we had a record called Tider and Tider that was a top ten record in America. You know, I didn’t necessarily see myself as a pop star. I didn’t see myself as a great singer.
I saw myself as a songwriter. It was just natural to me. I would be sitting in class in high school and be writing poems.
That passion had to let me in. It was 1970 and that song Tider, Tider peaked at number seven on the U.S. charts. Bruce’s band was called Alive and Kicking and they were the ultimate one-hit wonder.
So what did Tommy James see in you other than a kid who was extremely keen and persistent? You know, I don’t know, but full circle of that story is a couple of years ago, I was playing in Manhattan and Tommy came to the show and I hadn’t seen him in a number of years. After the show, he came up to me and he said, when did you get so good? I said, I don’t know, but you know, I guess practice will make perfect. I don’t know what he saw in me, but I’m forever grateful because I learned so much.
You know, the funny thing was that when we got signed to Roulette Records, I was in my teens. I had hair down on my knees. I was on fire.
I had no fear. But perhaps he should have because Morris Levy was the co-founder and owner of Roulette Records that had signed him. Morris was a prominent subject of investigations into organized crime and the music industry and was convicted of extortion shortly before his death.
I would just have these conversations and be like, you know, you have to give us money. We have the records ahead and we don’t have any money and we need a PA system. And he’d be like, OK, kid, here’s $1,500.
You know, I never saw a loyalty statement, but every now and then he would give me cash. He taught me something that has stayed with me and benefited me my whole life when he said to me, kid, the money’s in the publishing. At that point, I just wanted to be on the radio, but that stuck with me.
So throughout my career, I’ve always managed to work situations out so that not only could I maintain the songwriting, but also the publishing. I basically had two hit records in a two year period and it was just at the beginning of my career. And I was like, this is easy.
I got this shit. So I learned a good lesson. I was doing a lot of songwriting at that time.
In 1976, Bruce decided to move to the West Coast and settled in L.A. There he continued writing and scored a record deal. I formed another group called Brooklyn Dreams. The foundation of that first album were songs that I had written in my mother’s basement in that time period.
You went on the road with acts like Chicago and Frank Zappa. What was that like for you? It was fun. You know, it was all great foundational stuff to see how venues ran, how promoters worked.
You know, I gained a lot of wisdom, got to play Madison Square Garden opening for Eric Burden and Moore. It was a thrill, you know, for a kid who grew up in Brooklyn to be on that side of the bridge was great. And felt it caressing my face as I fell asleep and dreamed.
I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie, was the star of the movie. This really blew my mind, the fact that me, an over-fed, long-haired, sleeping gnome, should be the star of a Hollywood movie. What Brooklyn Dreams was, was basically a vocal group with very strong R&B influence.
That was something that in New York wasn’t that uncommon. But when we got to the West Coast and got to L.A., what we did was very different from what other people did. And so I think because we were in a different environment, we got seen in a different light.
Things started happening very quickly and we were off and running. The first Brooklyn Dreams album was critically acclaimed. We got a lot of respect, even though it wasn’t a top 10 record or top 10 album.
And we got lucky. When you say that your style wasn’t popular then on the West Coast, what was happening that made you so different? I think it was the soulfulness of the way we sang. The West Coast was more singer-songwriter, The Eagles, that kind of thing.
And we were just a more East Coast, soulful, blue-eyed solo. The magical mystery of music, harmony in a rhythm. When the day-to-day gets me down, I go on into my world, and escape into the sounds.
And it gives me strength, so I can carry on. Even when I fall, all the hope was gone, I can carry on. On and on, cruising in the mystery of music, harmony.
Disco started happening at that time. So part of what happened when our contract got bought by Casablanca, we got kind of pulled into the disco realm, which really wasn’t our home, but it was the popular music band and that’s what they wanted us to do. So we tried to lean what we did in that direction.
That’s where Donna Summer comes into the picture, doesn’t she? Yep. Just as we were making the first Brooklyn Dreams album, we were supposed to record the album. They told us, you’re going to go back to New York to record the album.
So the three of us gave up our apartments and were getting ready to leave for New York when they called us back and said, no, there’s a change of plan. You’re going to record out in Irvine, California. And you will have apartments there, but not for another two weeks.
So we had a girlfriend who grew up with us in Brooklyn, who was the head of publicity at Casablanca Records. And so we went to Susan’s house and said, can we stay here for a week or so because we have no place to stay until our apartments are ready. And she was like, yeah.
So we were just hanging out at Susan’s house, basically sleeping on the floor. One Sunday afternoon, Donna was out learning how to drive because she had just come back to Los Angeles from living in Germany for eight years. And she had just come back to America and she had a big hit record at the time called Love to Love You, Baby.
And so as part of her driving lesson, she stopped by Susan’s apartment and this is how we met. Instantaneously, Joe, Eddie, myself and Donna just sat at the kitchen table and started playing and singing and writing literally from the moment we met each other. Oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby, oh, love to love you, baby That turned out to be a great relationship, you know? The Brooklyn Dreams and Donna.
They used to call us Donnies Boys, you know, because we were just together all the time. Pretty instantaneously she and I got involved in a relationship, which at the first was complicated because she had a boyfriend from Germany with her and I also had a girlfriend that was in Brooklyn so we had some things to navigate our way around but we basically worked together for the next 35 years. How come she hadn’t learned to drive before that? I guess she just never had the need.
She grew up in Boston which was a city where you know mass transit is ever-present the same when she lived in Munich. It’s a city where you can get around with mass transit but then you get to LA and mass transit doesn’t exist so you better learn how to drive. And drive she did although Bruce says driving definitely wasn’t one of her finest skills.
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This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. After the release of Love to Love You, Donna found enormous fame the world over.
She became known as the Queen of Disco, and she and Bruce were having the time of their lives. She was just an amazing person. Supremely generous, supremely intuitive, compassionate, fun to be around, a prankster.
She was completely quirky and super talented, just super talented. Amazing songwriter, could just pull lyrics, poetry out of the air. But not a very good car driver though, I must say.
That was the one thing I don’t think she ever mastered. Her ego hadn’t exploded out of control with the massive success she was having? No, she wasn’t egocentric at all. And the thing that was interesting was that when I first met Donna, I was a bit of a snob in terms of my musical taste.
At that time, she just had that one song, Love to Love You Baby. And that was all I really knew about her until I met her. So I kind of saw it as a novelty.
From that record, I couldn’t really tell her ability as a singer, as a songwriter. I mean, it was a great record, but I quickly found out different. It became a beautiful thing.
We wrote for the Bad Girls album. You know, I co-wrote four songs on that album. A lot of that album was written about the beginning of our relationship.
People don’t really understand that. And I don’t even ever really even talk about that. I don’t know that I ever even say that.
But we were forming our relationship and shifting our lives. So we toured together, Donna and Brooklyn Dreams. And within two years, we were married.
How did the other guys in the band feel about you and Donna having a relationship and all of you being together so much? Well, they were fine. I mean, you know, there was a lot of pressure from all sides, really. The consensus was that there’s no way that Bruce and Donna are ever going to make it.
They’re both too on fire. They’re both too headstrong. My record company was like, Bruce, you’re ruining your career.
You’re going to be in her shadow. It was an interracial relationship. Her family was like another white boy.
You know, my family is going, what are you doing? So there was a lot of stuff going on. But as far as Joe and Eddie, they would pull us apart. Donna and I could be screaming at each other, you know.
And there were times when Joe’s holding me and Eddie’s holding Donna and we’re just screaming at each other. But we were young and we loved each other. And this was the thing.
We both came to the conclusion of whatever the realities are, we love each other and we want to be together. And that was the decision that we made. And that was basically how we lived our lives.
We lived our lives what was best for our lives, not always what was best for our career. So there were times along the way that we would make decisions where the record company would say, you can’t do that. You should do this.
And we would be like, no, this is what we want to do. Because it was better for our family. Mimi was already born.
Mimi was four years old when Donna and I got together. Brooklyn was born right after we got married. And Amanda was born right after that.
And we became an insular family. And family became our priority. You know, not to say that we didn’t work.
We worked hard. But in kind of a balanced way and not always in service to the career. More in service to each other.
Our motto was we want to have a successful life, not just a successful career. Just for friends. Just for friends.
Listen to me, please. Won’t you listen to me? Hell no. It’s not the way it should be.
Hell no. It’s not the way it could be. Don’t you know.
What was the songwriting process like for the two of you? It was varied. But we would do a lot of stream-of-conscious songwriting where we would go into the studio. And I would either be on guitar or piano.
And if Joe and Eddie were there, you know, Eddie would be playing some percussion and Joe might be playing the guitar as well. And somebody would just have an idea. Then we’d hit record on the two-track machine.
And we would just record these jams that we would do. One after the other. One after the other.
One after the other. In fact, that’s how Bad Girls was even discovered was it was the second engineer the following day that he would go through the two tracks and he would make a list of all the different songs and the titles that we had started. And he came to us and he was like, there’s this one song you guys did, Bad Girls, which is really, really cool.
You should really, don’t miss out on that one. So that was definitely one we went back on. And we were like, yeah, that’s a good one.
Let’s work it up. And it became what it became. Bad girl, bad girl.
She fell out of Bridesmaids’ lights. You can’t score with your pockets tight. It’s a good time to ask yourself.
They come from here and go. About the sad girl. The sad girl.
The sad girl. Talking about. What were you writing about? Who are the bad girls? Well, the situation, Casablanca is on Sunset Strip and it’s right across from this place called the Body Shop.
There was the girls that were working at the Body Shop that were always around. And secretaries at Casablanca would come out of work and they would get confused with the girls from the Body Shop. And so there was all this talk going on about that.
And I’m pretty sure that was Donna’s idea. They said we should write a song about this. And it became Bad Girls.
You said you wrote four of the tracks on the Bad Girls album, some of those about your relationship with Donna. Can you point us to one and talk about that? One is called On My Honor. It’s really promising to try is basically the premise of the song.
I promise I will try with all I have to make this relationship work. And it’s a beautiful song. And another one I wrote with a friend of mine.
His name is Bob Conti and it’s called Can’t Get To Sleep At Night. There was this period of time before we got married where I thought maybe we should take a break. Maybe this isn’t a good idea.
Maybe what everybody is telling us is right. And ultimately, as I said, came to the conclusion that we loved each other and regardless of anything, we didn’t want to be without each other. In that period, I wrote this song Can’t Get To Sleep At Night.
And it was just about being haunted by the reality of your heart all put to a nice little disco beat. Did it continue to be an uphill battle for you once you were married? Yeah, no, I mean, it settled down. You know, it settled down.
But, you know, there were always flare-ups. As in any relationship. I don’t think it was anything more or less than anybody else.
Our mantra was divorce is not an option. So we knew that wasn’t going to happen and that’s not a road that we were going to take. So we disagreed, set our peace, puffed off for a minute and then got over it.
But it’s hard to be with your partner 24-7. Yeah, it is and it isn’t. You know, I’m remarried again now.
Now when I go on the road, I’m by myself on the road. And to me, that’s much harder than being on the road with your partner. We love to be on the road together.
We got to travel everywhere together. We shared so many experiences together. You know, when we could, we brought the kids.
It was just a traveling family, really. And it was beautiful. You know, we gave them jobs backstage.
They would steam mom’s clothes before the show. They’d have to set up her makeup on her dressing table. You know, they would steam the band’s clothes.
So they learned early on what it was like to work. Now my daughter Amanda has a group, Johnny Swim, who is super popular in America. And it’s a duo with her husband.
They’re basically repeating Bruce and Donna. You know, traveling and bringing their three kids with them, and a legacy. All I see are angels and all these streets of gold that lead to you.
If touching love is touching God, no wonder I’m in heaven when I’m holding you. Simple as a song, a melody repeating in this heart. I don’t know when the chorus came, where I heard it first, when it started.
I won’t be holding my breath for chariots. I’m not just waiting for skies to part. You’ve been my glimpse of kingdom right from the start.
And you got me touching heaven. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Got me touching heaven. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Donna was talented on the next level. You know, I’ve met many talented people. Donna is top of the list.
I mean, she was extra special. She had a very strong charisma. She was very intuitive.
She was very empathetic. You know, last year we did a documentary. I don’t know if you’ve seen the documentary.
It’s called Love to Love You, Donna Summer. I have seen it. But there was no competing with Donna.
She was the star, obviously. She had an amazing voice, and she had the ability to be a star. You know, for many years, I sang background vocals in the band with her.
And I would always marvel, you know, we would be playing stadiums, and there would be thousands of people just waiting for her. And the anticipation and the energy that you would feel when she would walk out on the stage. And, you know, I remember feeling my knees starting to shake.
The ability to rise to that occasion and to take all that energy and to give it back, you really have to be a special person to be able to do that and handle that. You know, I have great respect for these people who are superstars. It’s a unique ability to be able to do that and not let it confuse you or distort you or send you in the wrong direction.
To be able to maintain your centre is quite an accomplishment. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. The final album that you guys made together was called Won’t Let Go.
A song from that one called Hollywood Nights also had a complete life of its own. Can you share the backstory about that? Sure. As part of Brooklyn Dreams, we got to be a part of two movies.
We were in a movie called American Hot Wax, which was really a very ironic situation for us because American Hot Wax tells the story of Alan Freed and the early rock and roll shows that were done at the Brooklyn Fox and Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, which was very close to where we grew up, and where as an 8- and 9-year-old, these were my first rock and roll shows that I ever saw. So for us to be able to be in a movie about this was just such a treat. Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and just so many people.
It was a great period of time. Then we got asked to be a part of this movie called Hollywood Nights. And we got asked to not only sing in the movie, we were replicating a group from the 50s called Dion and the Belmonts.
And they asked us to write the title track. Somehow, it’s been a song that’s been sampled. Snoop Dogg sampled it and used it on a track that he called These Hollywood Nights.
These Hollywood Nights They drive me crazy Huh, it’s like that, that there They love it when I let down my hair I went from Jessica Alba to Jessica Simpson Even Jessica Biel want to know how I feel So I let them all come to my back table Roll up and lick the paper if they able Bottles of everything, models of everything Everything goes in, yes, I mean everything Cocaine castles, I ain’t sniffing But baby, that plate in that one movie is trippin’ So I invite her over to my party Blonde hair, long legs, a real-life Barbie I was talking to my friend Jobin Esposito the other day and he said, Bruce, did you see the check that we just got for the Hollywood Nights song? And I was like, no, I didn’t see it. He goes, it’s a huge check. You know, we get a song published, we always had this phrase where we said, it’s another caboose on the train.
That’s what Hollywood Nights has been in the last couple of years. The song that keeps giving. Yeah, and it’s a total surprise.
That’s really been the beauty of the music business for me. You know, I say you just have to keep showing up and do what you do, do it to the best of your ability. Keep trying to improve, keep trying to refine what you do.
But, you know, there’s a lot of serendipity involved. There’s a lot of good things that happen that you don’t anticipate. I’ve been fortunate that way, and I know that it’s a story that a lot of my friends who have found success can attest to.
Brooklyn Dreams with Donna Summer released four albums between 1977 and 1980. The band broke up in 1980, and while Bruce and Donna continued to write together, he turned more towards fostering his own solo career.
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This is a breath of fresh air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Bruce continued writing and found further success as many of his tunes went on to become huge hits for other artists.
These included Germaine Jackson singing Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming and Dolly Parton with Starting Over Again, a song that Bruce says is his absolute favourite. Here it is. Cause they’ve never been out on their own Starting over again Where do you begin When your dreams are all shattered And the kids are all grown And the whole world cries There are songs that I write that are really my kind of song.
The kind of song that I write best. And it’s an emotional song, it’s a story song, but it’s also the story of my parents getting a divorce. So it’s a very personal story.
And I was in my late 20s. Even at that age, it shook me. So I wrote this song, Starting Over Again.
And I can give you more serendipity. Donna and I are not married yet, but we’re living together. And I’m in the back bedroom of the house with a Fender Rhodes and I’m writing this song.
And I basically have the song done. And at some point Donna opens the door, sticks her head in the door and says, You need to put a line in this song. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men.
And I said, Oh, okay. I went back and I put the line in the song. And in typical Donna fashion, that’s the line of the song that everyone always remembers.
And how that song got to Dolly Parton is that Donna was getting ready to do a late night TV show to go on and promote her next single. And she came to me and she said, I’m going to do Starting Over Again on the Johnny Carson show tonight. And I said, Well, you can’t do that.
You’re going on the show to promote your single. You got to promote your new single. That’s why you’re going on the show.
She said, No, I’m going to do Starting Over Again. I’m like, But why would you do that? She says, Well, maybe if I sing the song, your parents will stay together. And I said, Oh, that’s so sweet, but that’s no way that’s going to happen.
She said, Well, I’m going to try. So she went on the show that night. She sang Starting Over Again.
She sang it beautifully. My parents still got divorced. But the next day, Dolly Parton’s people called and asked for the song.
That’s how that song got cut. Starting over again. Where do you begin? You’ve never been out on your own.
Starting over again. You’ve never really had. Well, it’s your latest album, which is called Talk an Ugly Truth, Telling Pretty Lies.
It’s a fabulous album. Tell me about the title of that to start. Well, there are two ways to look at it.
It’s basically the story of a couple of renegades, people who want to do things outside the boundaries of the law. They continue to do it and they’re getting away with it. And they think they’re going to get away with it forever.
It’s like a mafia story. You know, the Don gets away with things forever in his whole life. And he gets to his 70s and they arrest him for jaywalking and he spends the rest of his life in jail.
That’s called karma, isn’t it? Yeah. So that’s kind of like the one side of what the story is about on the surface. But on the deeper level of it, it’s we’re living in this culture where truth is undermined.
Lying has become acceptable and truth is a moving target. There, too, it’s something that is going to catch up with us at some point as well. So that’s the other element of the song that I’m trying to highlight.
Growing up in Brooklyn, I knew lots of these people because when I grew up in Brooklyn, there were tons of characters. And Brooklyn in those days, it was, you know, everybody was always finding a way around anything. It’s like, how do you get cable for free? How can you steal it from the pole? How can you get your ID? Yeah.
I mean, this was this was how it was in Brooklyn when I was growing up. Yeah. I knew characters like that, too, for sure.
Was that the inspiration behind these tracks? Yes. This phase of my career basically began when Donna died. It was at that point, which is now 12 years, that I came to this place where I had a choice to make in terms of how do I go on with my life? And here again, this is where songwriting really saved my life.
Because when I was completely devastated and couldn’t see beyond a foot in front of me, it was my ability to go to the piano or to the guitar and just write what I was feeling and write through the experience that empowered me to see a way forward. So I started with this record, which is called With Angels on a Carousel. And to this point, I had never been a solo artist, really.
I had done a solo record once in 1980. And I quickly realized at that point when I married Donna that with her career and me trying to be a solo artist, it couldn’t have worked. So I wanted to be a songwriter.
It didn’t matter so much for me to be a solo artist. So that’s what I did. But here I was on my own.
So it became the challenge that I always was afraid to do. I always surrounded myself with great singers. I had Donna.
I had Jose Esposito. I had Eddie Hodgenson. I had Pepe Cardona and Sandy Toter in Alive and Kickin.
I always had great singers around me. So here I was, OK, Bruce, you’re on your own. You’re going to take on this challenge that you’ve been avoiding your whole life.
So it’s been a wonderful process. It’s challenged me. I continue to be very inspired.
I continue to have things to say. And for somebody who’s had a career as a collaborating songwriter, this phase of my career is without collaboration in songwriting. I have only written by myself.
Can you take the weight off my shoulders? I’m tired of carrying it around. Feels like a ton of bricks I’m wearing. Oh, Lord, only you can help me now.
Somebody set the world on fire. There ain’t no easy way to put it out. Make the world go away.
Make the world go away. Make the world go away. Make the world go away.
There ain’t no rainy day. Make the world go away. It must have been very cathartic for you.
Absolutely. I view songwriting as a calling. In that moment, it was such a beautiful gift to be able to find a place where you know where you are.
You know, I’ve always kind of had a career where I’d be writing a song for a movie. I’d be singing background vocals on the road with Donna. I might be managing Donna for a couple of years.
I might be dealing with the publishing. It was always kind of music related, but diverse. So in this period, it has been very condensed and very focused on the evolution and me evolving and improving and refining what I do as a solo artist.
And it’s been an ongoing discovery. Did you surprise yourself? I was surprised in that I would continue to be this inspired. Basically, I don’t know how many albums it is now.
Maybe six. I don’t know. Eight.
No, I don’t know. But I’m just surprised that I’ve been so on fire. Even now, when you have those moments where you’re not sure where you are or who you are, it’s like when I go there, it’s like I can sigh and go like, Okay, this is who I am.
Regardless of whatever’s going on, you know? My favorite track on the album? Well, one of my favourite tracks is a song called Two Bleeding Hearts because I got to do a duet with Valerie Simpson. Valerie Simpson, for me, is an iconic songwriter. Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson wrote the songs of my youth.
Ain’t no mountain high enough. Ain’t nothing like the real thing. I’m every woman.
These are iconic songs, and Motown was a big part of my upbringing. Listen, baby. Ain’t no mountain you call me.
No matter where you are. No matter where you are. For me to be able to do a duet with Valerie Simpson on a song that I wrote is a great honour and a treat for me.
So just on that alone, that’s one of my favorite songs. And talking ugly truth telling pretty lies, it’s interesting. I’ve never been really good at picking out which songs people are going to like the most.
I do my best in writing every song, and if I put it on a record, I really feel like I wrote the song. I said what I wanted to say. I wasn’t being cliche about it.
I was finding new ways to say it. But people are really responding very strongly to talking ugly truth telling pretty lies. I guess I could say that’s one of my favorites because people are really liking that one.
But they’re all your babies. Yeah, that’s exactly right. And a very unfair question to ask you to choose between them, I know.
After the storm. There’s an eerie silence. There’s an eerie silence.
The damage that’s been done. From things that were said. In the heat of the battle.
In the heat of a battle. Of a war nobody won. Who’ll be the first to say I’m sorry? What I did that hurt and made you mad.
How much more time will be wasted? Living troubled in the wake of the aftermath. Two bleeding hearts in a wounded love. Two bleeding hearts in a wounded love.
It’s too late now. You know we should have seen it coming. But it happened so fast.
We spun out of control. And once it gets started. You know it’s really hard to stop it.
Like a runaway train on a downhill road. A runaway train on a downhill road. It feels like you’ve returned to your roots with this album.
Bruce Sudano, I’m so happy that you’ve found peace again in your life. After going through what you had to losing Donna. I’m encouraged that you are now remarried and happy again.
And I’m just so grateful that you’ve found your happy place. And are coming out with these beautiful songs. Because this is a fabulous album.
Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. It was a pleasure to speak with you.
And I hope I get to meet you in person someday. Really lovely chatting with you Bruce. Thank you.
Same here. Thank you Sandy. See you again I hope.
As we all know Donna Summer succumbed in 2012 to cancer. At the age of 62. As Bruce has already explained.
Out of that deep hurt. A new era of storytelling emerged. Although this album as I’m sure you’ll agree is wonderful.
Bruce says his best work still lies ahead. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about Bruce Sudano.
As always if you have someone you’d like to hear from. Just send me a message through the website. abreathoffreshair.com.au And I’ll do my best to get that person onto the show for you.