While America had the smooth jazz of Henry Mancini, Italy the lush atmospherics of Ennio Morricone, England the bold brass of John Barry, and France the moog experimentation of Jean Jacques Perry, Germany had all these rolled into one - Peter Thomas!”

In this clip circa 1969 from German TV series 11 Uhr 20, Donna Summer sings “Black Power” written and arranged by Peter Thomas. This is Summer’s first recording and it wasn’t released commercially until it appeared on a 1998 compilation of Thomas’s compositions called Moonflowers And Mini-Skirts.

Although Peter Thomas scored countless internationally released films and German television series, it wasn’t until bands like Pulp, Stereolab and Air started sampling his work that he became a hip commodity. 

Powered by an incredible, high-wired rhythm section consisting of Germany´s best studio and jazz musicians (including Siggi Schwab of Vampyros Lesbos fame on guitar and Lothar Meid of Amon Düül II on bass!) Thomas created ‘sonic explosions with enough force to put a man (with his woman) on the moon’. John Bender

Donna was 21 years old in this clip.