Disco Icon Donna Summer Loses Cancer Fight

Donna Summer, a soulful lady synonymous with growing up in the 1970s amid disco, has died.

TMZ reports that Summer succumbed to cancer this morning in Florida at the age of 63. A source told the site that she'd played her illness' severity close to the vest. As recently as several weeks ago, she reportedly didn't seem in especially severe condition, even as she worked toward completing a new album.

She had two daughters with her husband, Brookylyn Dreams singer Bruce Sudano.

Her influences growing up in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood ran a range from Mahalia Jackson's gospel stylings, to the girl-group sounds of the Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas that she imitated singing as a girl.

The '70s and disco's meteoric sound-of-the-moment rise brought Summer her greatest fame. On the backs of songs like "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls" and "Last Dance," she collected five career Grammy Awards. Almost any Donna Summer song produced by eventual "Scarface" score composer Giorgio Moroder could be seen as embodying everything that defined the disco sound - heavy on the organ, with ample bass, horns and "wah-wah" guitar.

She became the first artist to have three consecutive double albums top the U.S. Billboard chart.