The Donnas were an American rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1993. The band consisted of Brett Anderson (lead vocals), Allison Robertson (guitar, backing vocals), Maya Ford (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Torry Castellano (drums, percussion, backing vocals). Attending the same school, They all became friends by eighth grade and formed as a band in May 1993 to play for their school’s “Day on the Green.” They called themselves “Ragady Anne” in their early days and shortly thereafter changed their name to “The Electrocutes”. Towards the end of their high school days, they decided to create another band (with the same members) that would play softer tunes without distorting their metal queen image. To help their fans distinguish between the two bands, they all took matching “Donna” monikers, where all of their names were Donna and their last names were the first initial of their last name (Brett Anderson became Donna A, etc.), which they used only when performing as “The Donnas.”
They worked with producer Darin Raffaelli for their first two albums, the first of which, simply called The Donnas, was released on Raffaelli’s Super*teem record label. As the band grew, they were urged to sign with a major label company. In December 2001, they signed with Atlantic Records. In 2002, The Donnas released Spend the Night as their Atlantic debut. The album represented their first attempt at mainstream success. With their single “Take it Off” they were booked for appearances on SNL, The Tonight Show, and the Late Show. In the summer of 2003, they played the main stage at Lollapalooza. In 2004, they released their sixth album Gold Medal.
Atlantic repeatedly placed the Donnas’ music in video game soundtracks. “You’ve Got a Crush On Me” can be heard in the Playstation 2 game Splashdown. “Who Invited You” can be found on the soundtrack for True Crime: Streets of LA. “I Don’t Want to Know” is in the Gran Turismo 4 soundtrack “I Don’t Want to Know” was also used as the theme song for the first season of The-N’s hit series, “South of Nowhere”. A cover of “Take it Off” is featured in Guitar Hero.
In May 2006, The Donnas announced on their public message board that they had “parted ways with Atlantic Records,” claiming “the decision was entirely mutual and completely amicable and will not impact the band, nor will it impact upon the writing, recording or touring for the next Donnas album.” In March 2007, the Donnas released a single, “Don’t Wait Up For Me,” and had a new band logo designed. The Donnas independently released their seventh studio album titled Bitchin’ in September 2007 Purple Feather Records label. Bitchin’ was produced by Jay Ruston and The Donnas and contained the single “Don’t Wait Up For Me”.
In July 2009, the band released a retrospective collection titled Greatest Hits Vol. 16 to celebrate the band’s 16th year together. The album contains new songs, re-recorded older songs as well as some unreleased material. The band toured that summer with Pat Benatar and Blondie on the two’s joint Call Me Invincible Tour. Drummer Torry Castellano was unable to play on any of these tour dates as she was suffering from tendonitis of the shoulder, which was accredited to the fact that as a self-taught drummer she had held the drumsticks incorrectly (even though it felt right to her) and sustained long term damage over time. Long-time friend Amy Cesari of the band The Demonics has been chosen to fill in for Castellano.
In August 2012, the band was reported to be recording their eighth studio album and also premiered a new song called “Tramp” at a private show. In November 2016 Cheery Red Records re-released the band’s fifth album, Spend the Night, to include six bonus tracks which consist of B-sides and songs from previous albums. In an interview from 2017, the band’s lead vocalist, Brett Anderson, discussed “the end of the band” and turning down offers to “reunite,” implicitly confirming the band is no more. In April 2023, for Record Store Day the band released a compilation of earlier material entitled The Donnas – Early Singles 1995-1999.
