Donna Loren (real name: Donna Zukor, born March 7, 1947) is an American singer and actress. A very prolific performer in the 1960s, starting while still attending Venice High School in western Los Angeles, she was the Dr Pepper spokesperson from 1963 to 1968, frequent vocalist on ABC-TV's Shindig, and a cast member of the American International Pictures Beach Party movie series. Loren regularly performed live, and appeared on numerous variety and musical shows. She guest starred on episodic television series including Dr. Kildare, Batman, and The Monkees. In 1968 she retired to marry and raise a family. She recorded again in the 1980s and ran her own fashion business ADASA Hawaii throughout the 1990-2000s. In 2009 Loren returned to performing, and her most recent releases include the album Love It Away (2010), the EP Donna Does Elvis in Hawaii (2010), and the compilation These Are the Good Times: The Complete Capitol Recordings (2014).
Links To Peel[]
Peel showing Donna in 1966 how the radio controls work at KMEN
Peel first met Donna Loren in 1966 when she visited the National Orange Show, which involved her visiting the KMEN radio station, where Peel (at that time calling himself John Ravencroft) was working. A picture from the Kmentertainer, KMEN's radio newsletter shows Peel showing Donna how the controls of the radio studio work. Peel may have played Donna Loren's records on KMEN, when she was at her prime in the mid 60's. After coming back to the UK, Peel rarely played her records, probably because she stopped recording around 1967 - and with so many other things happening in the music scene of the time, he may well have lost interest in, or forgotten about, her music.
In 1991, Romulan Records released a compilation of various female artists from the 60's performing garage rock from that decade, which Peel enthusiastically plugged on his show. One of the tracks from that album came from Donna Loren, whose song 'So, Do The Zonk' was originally a b-side to her 1965 single 'New Love'. Peel is on record as playing the track three times in 1991, according to currently available playlists.
Donna Loren's daughter, Anna Waronker later became the singer of That Dog, a band that did a session for Peel's show in 1993 and also had their song, One Summer Night, in the 1994 Festive Fifty.
Shows Played[]
Donna Loren - So, Do the Zonk
- 1991
- 22 June 1991: So, Do The Zonk (v/a album - Girls In The Garage Vol.6) Romulan
- 01 July 1991 (Ö3): So, Do The Zonk (v/a album - Girls In The Garage Vol.6) Romulan
- 18 August 1991: So, Do The Zonk (v/a album - Girls In The Garage Volume 6) Romulan