Ivar Morten Normark

Laura Branigan

Laura Branigan (July 3, 1957 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer and actress of Irish ancestry. She was best known for her 1982 platinum-selling single "Gloria" (cover of an Italian song by Umberto Tozzi), a hit throughout the world which spent a record-setting 36 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100. Branigan's vocal performance of the song earned her a Grammy Award nomination in early 1983.

Following the success of "Gloria", Branigan introduced the ballad "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", which spent three weeks at #1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. The same year, she had another Top 10 Pop hit with "Solitaire". Branigan's "Self Control" album (1984) was certified Platinum and was her all-time biggest seller with the title track becoming an international smash.

Biography

Rise to celebrity

In the early 1970s, she was a member of a band called Meadow, who released one album in 1973 album entitled The Friend Ship. The record was not a hit and has never been re-released. Branigan, for whatever reason, preferred not to discuss her involvement with Meadow publicly. During the years after Meadow broke up, she worked a wide variety of jobs, including a stint as one of Leonard Cohen's backup singers. She toured with Cohen throughout Europe. (It is not known if she toured any other continents with Cohen.)

In 1979 she was signed by Ahmet Ertegün to Atlantic Records. The strength of her dramatic alto voice, with its four-octave range, ironically impeded her career for a couple of years while the label went through the process of categorizing her. She was finally categorized as a pop singer and a single called "Looking Out For Number One" hit the U.S. Dance charts. Her first solo album Branigan was released in 1982: the first single from this album was "All Night With Me", which hit #69 on the Billboard charts in early 1982. Her first reviews were most enthusiastic, with her voice being compared to both Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand, both of whom had enjoyed iconic Disco hits over the previous few years.

Branigan, the 9-song debut album, alternated four hyper-energetic up-tempo songs with five ballads, including one of the few songs written solely by Branigan, "I Wish We Could Be Alone". "Gloria", originally an Italian love song recorded by Umberto Tozzi in 1979 (and not widely successful outside Tozzi's native Italy), was released as the album's second single. Branigan's version was reworked with Tozzi's own arranger, Greg Mathieson, who sharpened the ballad's hooks and updated its production with fellow producer Jack White to give it what Branigan called "an American kick" to match aggressive new English lyrics. American radio was not initially receptive to "Gloria"; the song's combination of American and European sound predated the imminent second "British Invasion" of popular music by several months. Embraced by dance clubs, especially gay clubs, it eventually won over American radio stations and propelled the song to become one of the biggest hits of the 1980s. The album went gold, and the single was eventually certified platinum for sales of over 2 million US copies. Her vocal performance of "Gloria" was nominated for a Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female Grammy award (alongside Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Juice Newton, and that year's winner Melissa Manchester), her first of four nominations.

In the spring of 1983, Branigan released her second album, Branigan 2. By this time, the dramatic European synth-pop sound was on the rise, and Branigan's surging, sustained vocals drove her English version of the French song "Solitaire" to the upper reaches of the charts. In addition to cementing a place in pop history and ensuring she was not a one-hit wonder, her second album's two big hits began the careers for two then-unknowns, who themselves became industry legends. The English translation of "Solitaire" was the first major hit for lyric writer Diane Warren, while the album's second hit single, the ballad "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", was the first major hit for its cowriter, Michael Bolton. Branigan's debut recording of "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" made the Top Ten on the ARC Weekly Top 40 Pop charts and spent three weeks at Number One on the Billboard Adult Contemporary airplay charts.

The 1983 film Flashdance contained two Laura Branigan songs, "Gloria" and a new song, "Imagination". The latter song was included on the Grammy Award winning Flashdance soundtrack that hit #1 and sold over six million copies in the U.S. alone.

Height of her career

The year 1984 was the height of the European synth-pop era, but the striking production and sensuous, half-whispered vocals of "Self Control", the title track of Branigan's third album, took the world by storm. The song became her biggest international hit, topping the charts in several countries and was an anthem on radio and dancefloors across the world, most notably West Germany, where it spent 7 weeks at number one. Another version of "Self Control", recorded few months earlier in 1984 by the song's co-writer Raffaele Riefoli (under the name Raf), held the West German number two spot during this time period; outside of Raf's native Italy, Branigan's version enjoyed more success.

Other pop, dancefloor and adult contemporary hits from Branigan's Self Control album include the melodic electro-pop of "The Lucky One" (which won her a Tokyo Music Festival prize), the continental ballad "Ti Amo" (another Umberto Tozzi's Italian hit, and a #2 smash in Australia) and the club hit "Satisfaction." The album also featured an uncharacteristically understated version of Carole King's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"; as a counterpoint to all the disco production, this was a stripped-back piano version. In concerts and television appearances throughout her career, Branigan accompanied herself on the piano for the song. That year, her live show was recorded twice: once for a syndicated radio concert series, and a second time for a concert video. Laura was also nominated for an award at the American Music Awards of 1985 for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Video Artist (Cyndi Lauper won the award).

By the time of Branigan's fourth album, 1985's Hold Me, "Self Control" had swept the world, and territories that had not previously embraced her began to release her earlier material, from South America to the Middle East to the Pacific Islands. Lead single "Spanish Eddie" was her sixth U.S. top 40 hit in two and a half years, but failed to enter the U.S. top 20. The story was different around the world, however, as her newest hit followed its predecessors up the charts in Europe, South Africa, and South America. Subsequent release "Hold Me" was a U.S. top 40 dance hit and her introduction of the rock ballad "I Found Someone" (cowritten by Michael Bolton) scored even higher on the Adult Contemporary chart, but neither song was supported by a music video and stalled in the lower reaches of the pop charts.

Touch, which was released in 1987, marked a change in Branigan's career. Under new management and using different producers, Branigan took a more active role in her work and in the studio. Touch saw her return to dancefloors with the Stock/Aitken/Waterman-produced "Shattered Glass", one of her best Hi-NRG performances. The album also included a return to the Billboard top 40 with her cover of Jennifer Rush's "The Power of Love", which closed out the year as one of the top 20 bestselling singles of the Christmas season for Branigan. Branigan's high-impact version of the now widely-covered ballad featured an extraordinary key change in the final chorus (lifting the pitch and power of Branigan's voice even though she was already, seemingly, at the top of both). Her performance is emotionally charged, but might be viewed by some as altering the focus of the song (lyrically it is a positive love song, but Branigan's vocal hints at heartache). The album's third single, "Cry Wolf", was the album's most organic production (featuring an orchestra, real drums, and emotive vocals) and while it did not capture attention at pop radio, it was a top 30 Adult Contemporary hit. The ballad was recorded two years later by Stevie Nicks, and more recently by writer Jude Johnstone. Another achievement on this album was her rendition of Shirley Ellis's "The Name Game" which added layers of atmospheric synthesizers and Branigan's vocal stylizing. This version of the song culminates with several key changes and the sound of a chorus of children singing with Branigan.

During the height of her career, Branigan also made acting appearances, first in 1981 in An American Girl in Berlin for German television, and then after the success of "Gloria", guest appearances on American television series such as CHiPs, Automan and Knight Rider. She would later do independent films such as Mugsy's Girls (aka Delta Pi, 1985) with the venerable Ruth Gordon, and the Australian film Backstage. She sang on major national television and radio campaigns for products including Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola and Chrysler, which sponsored her 1985-1986 "Hold Me" tour.

An artist maturing

Branigan's 1990 self-titled album brought the singer back to the tops of the Hi-NRG charts and gay clubs with "Moonlight On Water" and scored another Top 30 Adult Contemporary hit with "Never in a Million Years." Continuing her more active role in studio production, Branigan added production to her list of credits with her cover of Vicki Sue Robinson's disco-era "Turn the Beat Around" and the atmospheric "Let Me In". It also included "Unison", which was the title track for Celine Dion's English debut CD in the same year. The album's closing track, a wistful and subdued cover of Bryan Adams' "The Best Was Yet To Come", was both produced and arranged by Branigan herself. The singer's 1990-1991 concert tour was filmed for a syndicated U.S. television show, SRO in Concert, which was also released on videocassette and laserdisc (though not on DVD.)

Branigan's seventh album, 1993's Over My Heart, was her most personal and eclectic album, seeing the singer again try her hand at producing, alongside Phil Ramone, as well as writing and arranging. The album, which included a cover of Roxette's song "The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye", featured mature personal themes of transcendence over the loss of a loved one, the nature of commitment and coming to terms with life after a significant relationship was a sadly ironic presaging of the turn of events her own life would take. Not long after the album's release, Branigan left the music industry in 1994 to spend more time with her husband, Larry Kruteck, following his diagnosis with colon cancer.

During these years, Branigan's chart success cooled stateside, though she was still in demand around the world and went on several global tours. She remained especially popular in Australia, South Africa and Chile, where she began the first of several invitational performances in the late-evening slot of the Viña Del Mar music festival, televised live before an audience of thousands from an open-air arena in the coastal resort city. Branigan had several official hits collections released in South America, Japan, Germany and South Africa (where, in that country alone, she had warranted three separate volumes of hits collections by 1999); her native United States was the last territory to get its own greatest hits collection. This collection was released in 1995, the 13-track The Best of Branigan. This collection included two new covers, the shimmering "Show Me Heaven" written by Maria McKee and a cover of the Donna Summer hit "Dim All the Lights", which was also released in several remixes.

Receiving rave reviews for her live performances, Branigan's voice (her vocal coach, Carlo Menotti, also coached such legendary vocalists as Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, and Diana Ross) was surrounded on her albums by sharp, tight performances from some of the best studio musicians in the business. The likes of guitarists Steve Lukather (Toto), Dann Huff (Giant) and Michael Landau; keyboardists Greg Mathieson, Harold Faltermeyer, Michael Boddicker and Robbie Buchanan; bassists Nathan East and Dennis Belfield (Rufus); drummer Carlos Vega; percussionists Paulinho Da Costa and Lenny Castro; and guest vocalists including Joe "Bean" Esposito and background vocalist including The Waters Sisters (Maxine & Julia), James Ingram, and Richard Page & Stephen George (Mr. Mister) were all repeat guests. Early producers included Jack White, Mathieson, Buchanan and Faltermeyer. As her stature grew, she attracted Grammy-winning producers including Phil Ramone, Richard Perry and David Kershenbaum. Successful foreign artists sought to work with her, and she performed duets with Australian megastar John Farnham on the heels of his releasing the most successful Australian album to date, as well as Latin pop phenomenon Luis Miguel. She was also a favorite guest performer on several of the most popular talk and music shows of the day, with ultimately as much as a dozen appearances each on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, Dick Clark's American Bandstand and Solid Gold.

Three of Branigan's hit singles later became even bigger hits for other famous singers: "I Found Someone" for Cher in 1987; "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?" for Michael Bolton in 1989 (Bolton, as noted above, was the original writer of the song); and "The Power of Love", a power ballad co-written and originally recorded by Jennifer Rush in 1985, which Celine Dion took to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994.

In 2001, about to release remixes of her updated take on the 1980 ABBA hit, "The Winner Takes It All", as well as working on material for a new album, Branigan's bid to return to the stage was postponed when she broke both of her femurs in a fall from a ladder outside her Westchester County home. In 2002, she made only two performances as the "singing" Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway musical Love, Janis, before dropping out of the show. "I left Janis because the producers didn't file with Equity properly", she told the Sunday News in Lancaster, Pa. "I was sort of relieved. My voice isn't anything like Janis Joplin's, and there were 19 of her songs in the show."

Also in 2002, her second official stateside hits collection, The Essentials: Laura Branigan was for some a boon, with the inclusion of the long out-of-print "I Found Someone." The singer continued compiling material for a new album, and began to see the value in new media and the internet. In 2004, after she was shockingly made aware of an ongoing debate in fan circles concerning Branigan's surmised affiliation with the unauthorized website laurabranigan.com, she publicly named her sole, one and only official website as laurabraniganonline.com, and wrote letters to the public and her fans on her sole, one and only official website to emphatically clarify her unequivocal position that she had never at any time had any affiliation or relationship of any sort whatsoever with laurabranigan.com and/or its owner, thus definitively ending the so-called "website debate". With her public statements clearing the air and demystifying the issues, she embarked on a new direction, taking production control of her new material outside of traditional recording companies, and forged a partnership that aligned management, production, and public relations/Internet presence under one roof, named Other Half Entertainment, the name significant to the singer's long-standing comments that her fans were her "other half".

Death

Branigan died at her home on Long Island, New York, on August 26, 2004. Her death was attributed to a previously undiagnosed brain aneurysm. It was reported in the media that she had been experiencing headaches for a few weeks before her death but did not seek medical attention. Branigan was cremated and her ashes were distributed over Long Island Sound.

Legacy

In 2005, her management company organized a memorial for her friends and fans held on the anniversary of her death near the Long Island home in which she was caring for her mother at the time of her death. Following its initial success, the "Spirit of Love Memorial Gathering" remains an annual event in celebration of her life and the legacy of her passionate vocal performances and the heartfelt connection she made with her fans, whom she consistently referred as "my other half."

Beginning in 2006, after a concerted effort among Branigan's management/production company and her fan base (which to this day remains a very active and vocal part of her legacy), two new greatest hits compilations were completed with Rhino/WEA. The Platinum Collection was an 18 song compilation designed primarily for the UK market and included all the major hits as well as tracks such as "Silent Partners", "Satisfaction", "All Night With Me" and "If You Loved Me", that were relatively new additions to Branigan hits compilations. In 2007, the 1995 "The Best Of Branigan" was re-released as part of Rhino's 2007 "Greatest Hits" series of CDs. In 2008, Rhino/WEA authorized the re-release of three out-of-print Branigan albums, "Touch", "Laura Branigan" and "Over My Heart."

Controversy

In 1984, MTV initially refused to air the music video for Branigan's "Self Control", which was directed by William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist (one of the first music videos to have been directed by a major motion picture director). MTV cited that the reason for the ban was because the original version was too sexually suggestive and risqué for public airing. After the record label provided an edited version, the network added this revised video to its rotation.

Discography

Main article: Laura Branigan discography

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Song	Result
1982	Grammy Awards	Best Pop Vocal Performance - Female	"Gloria"	Nomination
1983	Grammy Awards	Album of the Year	"Imagination" (Flashdance soundtrack)	Nomination
1983	Grammy Awards	Best Soundtrack	"Imagination" (Flashdance soundtrack)	Won 1
1984	Grammy Awards	Best Soundtrack	"Hot Night" (Ghostbusters soundtrack)	Nomination
1984	American Music Awards	Favorite Pop/Rock Female Video Artist	"Self Control"	Nomination
1984	Tokyo Music Festival	Grand Prix Award for Best Vocal Performance	"The Lucky One"	Won

¹ Award was presented to the film's composers and producers and therefore was not technically awarded to Laura Branigan

Gold and Platinum records

Country	Format	Title	Award	Certification date
Canada	Single	"Gloria"	Gold	December 1, 1982
Canada	Album	Branigan	Gold	January 1, 1983
Canada	Single	"Gloria"	Platinum	January 1, 1983
U.S	Single	"Gloria"	Gold	January 7, 1983
U.S	Album	Flashdance soundtrack	Gold	June 17 1983
U.S	Album	Flashdance soundtrack	Platinum	June 17, 1983
U.S	Album	Branigan	Gold	August 2, 1984
U.S	Album	Self Control	Gold	August 6, 1984
U.S	Album	Ghostbusters soundtrack	Gold	August 15, 1984
U.S	Album	Ghostbusters soundtrack	Platinum	August 23, 1984
U.K	Album	Self Control	Silver	September 1, 1984
U.K	Single	"Self Control"	Silver	September 26, 1984
U.S	Album	Flashdance soundtrack	Multi-Platinum (5 million)	October 12, 1984
Canada	Album	Self Control	Gold	November 11, 1984
Canada	Album	Self Control	Platinum	November 11, 1984
Germany	Single	"Self Control'"	Gold	1984
France	Single	"Self Control'"	Gold	1984
U.S	Album	Branigan 2	Gold	September 18, 1985
Germany	Album	Self Control	Gold	1993
U.S	Album	Self Control	Platinum	May 3, 1995
U.S	Single	"Gloria"	Platinum	May 3, 1995
U.S	Album	Flashdance soundtrack	Multi-Platinum (6 million)	June 21, 1996

Filmography

Movies

Title	Credit	Year Released
Flashdance	Soundtrack, songs, "Imagination", "Gloria"	1983
Touched	Song, "Find Me"	1983
Ghostbusters	Soundtrack, song, "Hot Night"	1984
Body Rock	Soundtrack, song, "Sharpshooter"	1984
Mugsy's Girls	Actress, Monica	1985
Violets Are Blue	Song, "One Day"	1986
Backstage	Actress, Kate Lawrence	1988
Coming to America	Soundtrack, songs, "Come Into My Life" Duet with Joe Esposito, "Believe In Me"	1988
Salsa	Soundtrack, song, "Your Love"	1988

U.S. television

Title	Credit	Year
CHiPs (NBC)	Series, song, "A Love Until The End Of Time"	1982
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Network)	Special, float performer, "Gloria"	1982
Saturday Night Live (NBC)	Series, musical guest, songs "Gloria", "Living A Lie"	1982
In Love With An Older Woman (Network)	Movie, theme song, "Don't Show Your Love"	1982
CHiPs (NBC)	Series, actress, Sarah; songs, "Gloria", "Down Like A Rock"	1983
Love Is Forever (NBC)	Movie, title song, "Love Is Forever"	1983
An Uncommon Love (Network)	Movie, theme song, "The Lucky One"	1983
A Solid Gold Christmas (Syndicated)	Special, performer, "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas"/"Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"	1983
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (ABC)	Special, performer, "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You"	1983
Automan (ABC)	Series, actress, Jessie Cole; songs, "Gloria", "Hot Night", "Satisfaction"	1984
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC)	Series, songs, "Self Control", "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (performed live w/Doc Severinsen & The NBC Orchestra)	1984
Rock Rolls On (Syndicated)	Special, co-host and performer, "Self Control", "The Lucky One"	1984
Miami Vice	Series, Song, "Self Control"	1984
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC)	Series, songs, "Spanish Eddie"", "Forever Young"	1985
Cover Story (USA Cable)	Celebrity bio series, 1 episode devoted to Laura interview, behind the scenes footage, videos	1985
Night of 100 Stars II (Network)	Special, production number	1985
Hollywood Wives (ABC)	Miniseries, title song, "Hollywood Wives"	1985
Disney's Living Seas (ABC)	Special, on-camera performer/composer, song, "If I Were A River"	1986
Record Guide '88 (Syndicated)	Music series, 1 episode devoted to Laura interview, videos	1988
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC)	Series, songs, "Reverse Psychology"", "Never in a Million Years"	1990
SRO: In Concert (Syndicated)	Hour-long concert series, 1 episode devoted to Laura live in Atlantic City	1990
Monsters (Syndicated)	Anthology series, actress, Amanda	1991
Baywatch (Syndicated)	Series, soundtrack; end credits song, "I Believe"	1994
The RuPaul Show (Cable)	Series, performer, "Gloria"	1998

Other notable work

Theater

Title	Credit	Year
Love, Janis (Off-Broadway, NYC)	Singer, Janis Joplin	2002

Video games

Title	Credit	Year Released
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	Soundtrack, songs, "Self Control"	2002
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories	Soundtrack, songs, "Gloria"	2006

External links

• Laura Branigan at IMDb
• Laura Branigan at AllMovie
• Official Website
• Billboard news story: Singer Laura Branigan Dies At 47

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