Once Upon a Time... Songwriting Credits by Donna Summer

Once Upon a Time... is the sixth studio album by Donna Summer, released October 31, 1977 on Casablanca Records. It is disco's first full-length concept double LP, retelling the Cinderella story across four vinyl sides framed as four acts, a concept developed by Joyce Bogart and Susan Munao with Summer from an idea by Al Bogatz. Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte wrote and produced the record with Summer, built from a Moroder piano melody that arranger Bob Esty expanded into synthesizer demos before the sessions moved to Musicland Studios in Munich. The Munich Machine rhythm section, drummer Keith Forsey, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra fill out the arrangements behind Summer's vocal across the four-week production, tracing the story from the drudgery of 'Working the Midnight Shift' to the arrival of a lover on 'Dance into My Life' and the storybook close of 'Happily Ever After.' Summer said she wrote the record for her daughter, and Moroder linked its rags-to-riches arc to the hardship she had lived through before fame. The album reached number 26 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Hot Dance/Disco chart, and it was the last Donna Summer album recorded entirely at Musicland Studios.