Donna
by 10cc

Album: 10cc (1972)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • This was the first single for 10cc, which was already a very accomplished quartet. Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were in a band called Hotlegs, which had a hit in 1970 with "Neanderthal Man." Graham Gouldman had written "Bus Stop" for The Hollies and "For Your Love" for the Yardbirds.

    Stewart and Gouldman owned Strawberry Studios in Manchester, England, where the four of them backed other artists and also handled production and engineering. After working with Neil Sedaka on his 1972 album Solitaire, they decided to record their own single, a song Gouldman and Stewart wrote called "Waterfall." Godley and Creme wrote a B-side for it: a teenage love song called "Donna."

    "Donna" came out better than expected, so they made it the A-side. Stewart pitched it to the industry heavyweight Jonathan King, who loved it. He signed the band, assigned them the name 10cc (which came to him in a dream) and released "Donna" as their first single.
  • Lol Creme did the falsetto vocal on this song, which many listeners assumed was a girl. According to Gouldman, when they played German TV show, they had a girls' dressing room set up for what they thought was their female singer.

    Drummer Kevin Godley handled the traditional vocals.
  • This song is a parody of teenage love songs from the '50s, specifically "Donna" by Ritchie Valens. It has some suitably inane vocals:

    Oh Donna
    You made me stand up
    You made me sit down, Donna
  • 10cc's later output was far more artistic. Their hits include "I'm Not In Love" and "I'm Mandy Fly Me."
  • 10cc followed this up with another teenage-targeted song called "Johnny Don't Do It," which was beaten to the charts by a UK re-release of "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las, a familiar song with a similar theme. The next 10cc single, "Rubber Bullets," went to #1 in the UK.

Comments: 2

  • Frits From Netherlands from NetherlandsThis song sounds a lot like "O darling" from the Abbey Road album by the Beatles.
  • Eric from Wisconsinwould have made a good song for that 70's show
see more comments

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