Toot toot, hey, beep beep

It's New Year's Eve, and our party beckons...

...and we find that the (somewhat tainted) gay icon Donna Summer would have been seventy years old today!

This being a Tacky Music (New Year) Monday, let us first pay tribute with some - ahem - interesting covers of the great lady's hits...

...courtesy of the unlikely combo of Andy Bell of Erasure and - err - k.d. lang?

KD Lang and Andy Bell - No More Tears (Enough is Enough)

...that tacky music icon Iris Chacon:

Iris Chacon - Bad Girls

...and the fantabulosa Blue Man Group:

Blue Man Group feat Venus Hum - I Feel Love

However, there was ever only one Donna Summer - so here is the lady herself (unfortunately duetting with a rather creepy-looking "porn star"):

Donna Summer - Heaven Knows

What a way to close a year!

Donna Summer (born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, 31st December 1948 – 17th May 2012)

Double celebration

In such esteemed company as P D James, John Landis, Terry Wogan, Martin Sheen, Steven Berkoff and Martha Stewart, it's my sister's birthday today.

It's also the 85th birthday of one Anthony Dominick Benedetto, better known as Tony Bennett.



The last of the great swingers, Mr Bennett shows no sign of stopping yet, with a second collection of duets with other (lesser) vocalists out now. This particular partnership, however, remains the standard by which all others are set...

Mr Bennett and Ms Lang - Moonglow:

Tony Bennett, k.d. lang - Moonglow

Happy birthday Hils! And happy birthday Tony Bennett!

http://tonybennett.com/

As long as I know how to love I know I'll stay alive

Gloria Gaynor, whose 60th birthday it is today, was a bonafide soul singer when she began her long showbiz career in the late 60s. However it was the Disco era that brought fame and fortune to this particular diva, "topping and tailing" it as she did - with Never Can Say Goodbye in the mid 70s, and of course her classic I Will Survive at the end of the decade, keeping the flame alive into the 80s with her upbeat version of I Am What I Am.

Unfortunately coinciding with this later success, Miss Gaynor well-and-truly blotted her copybook with her number one buying audience, the gays, when she became a bible-thumper and allegedly said a few disparaging remarks that immediately lost her that treasured "gay icon" status.

So, in this 30th anniversary year of the song - and in honour of my tacky music tradition on a Monday - I thought it best to focus on the (now well-and-truly clichéd) anthem for which she remains famous, in its many incarnations (but not that awful Sugababes song)...

Diana Ross - I Will Survive

Las Seventies - I Will Survive

Puppini Sisters - I Will Survive

k.d. lang - I Will Survive

Cake - I Will Survive

And, finally, the original...

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

Happy birthday, Glo! Even if you're a silly bitch who thinks we all "should be led to your God", we continue to ignore your misguided comments as we lip-synch along to your songs...