For some reason I got on a Laura Branigan kick recently. I was having "Gloria" and "Self Control", etc on repeat. Her albums are OOP, so I just downloaded them. She only had seven. Not a bad amount, but far too stunted career for such a great voice.

Laura Branigan - July 3rd 1957 - August 26th 2004

I love Self Control

RIP

A very sad death, very little fanfare was given, mainly because of the way it happend, dieing in her sleep. Im sure if it would have been a much "sexier" death (ex suicide,murder etc) people would have been more appreciative of her, kind of the way it goes. But a total 100% talent great voice, great songs and from the greatest time in music

lastdecember said:

A very sad death, very little fanfare was given, mainly because of the way it happend, dieing in her sleep. Im sure if it would have been a much "sexier" death (ex suicide,murder etc) people would have been more appreciative of her, kind of the way it goes. But a total 100% talent great voice, great songs and from the greatest time in music

Totally agree. The 80's and 80's artists will always be special to me.

I loved Laura's voice and music as well. Her version of "Power Of Love" gives me chills. She did it before Celine Dion by the way.

Nick715 said:

lastdecember said:

A very sad death, very little fanfare was given, mainly because of the way it happend, dieing in her sleep. Im sure if it would have been a much "sexier" death (ex suicide,murder etc) people would have been more appreciative of her, kind of the way it goes. But a total 100% talent great voice, great songs and from the greatest time in music

Totally agree. The 80's and 80's artists will always be special to me.

I loved Laura's voice and music as well. Her version of "Power Of Love" gives me chills. She did it before Celine Dion by the way.

her version and Air Supply's in 1985 are still the best

Nick715 said:

lastdecember said:

A very sad death, very little fanfare was given, mainly because of the way it happend, dieing in her sleep. Im sure if it would have been a much "sexier" death (ex suicide,murder etc) people would have been more appreciative of her, kind of the way it goes. But a total 100% talent great voice, great songs and from the greatest time in music

Totally agree. The 80's and 80's artists will always be special to me.

I loved Laura's voice and music as well. Her version of "Power Of Love" gives me chills. She did it before Celine Dion by the way.

Indeed! Her voice in this version is moving(A far cry from Celine's annoying version)

I have to say I'm only fimiliar with "Self Control".

I can't say I'm a fan but I do have fond memories of "Gloria." I'm not sure how old I was, probably 8 or 9, but at school we were having a talent competition and one of the girls lip synced to "Gloria." As a result of this performance I developed a pretty big crush on this girl that was sadly unrequited. Anyway, that was the first time I ever noticed a girl and whenever I hear "Gloria" it takes me right back to being a giddy, adolescent boy.

I didn't know she first did Power of Love, that makes me very upset with Celine

I remember loving the Solid Gold performance of Self Control as a child and would watch it all the time. How old was she when she died again? I remember she was either the same age as mj or 50 by then, cause I remember when she went, I thought of him and hoped he wasn't next cause of being the same age.

alphastreet said:

I didn't know she first did Power of Love, that makes me very upset with Celine

I remember loving the Solid Gold performance of Self Control as a child and would watch it all the time. How old was she when she died again? I remember she was either the same age as mj or 50 by then, cause I remember when she went, I thought of him and hoped he wasn't next cause of being the same age.

The dates are in the original post.

Laura did a lot of songs first before others, and wrote most of them. Her and Michael Bolton (co-writers on) both recorded "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?" She worked with a plethora of people cowriting with them or writing for them.

alphastreet said:

I didn't know she first did Power of Love, that makes me very upset with Celine

I remember loving the Solid Gold performance of Self Control as a child and would watch it all the time. How old was she when she died again? I remember she was either the same age as mj or 50 by then, cause I remember when she went, I thought of him and hoped he wasn't next cause of being the same age.

I believe she was 47 at the time of her death, she had been doing some new recordings and things like that, but she had alot of personal tragedies around her, very sad how she went in her sleep, complaining days before of headaches.

As for Power Of Love the first was Jennifer Rush but i believe in the states Air Supply just did beat her with the first version here, they of course flipped the words a bit, to You are my lady, i am your man, but they killed that song on vocals, heard Russell do that shit live, good lord he blew the speakers out at radio city i think

That's really sad, she was so young

I love I Found Someone too, which Cher covered later and gave a rock edge.

She was one of my favorite singers. I love all of her CD's.

I never knew she passed away till about 6 years ago.

I was not a fan of hers back in the day but I liked her music.

luv4u said:

I never knew she passed away till about 6 years ago.

I was not a fan of hers back in the day but I liked her music.

Honey she passed away 6 years ago.

Darn i didn't know.

ernestsewell said:

luv4u said:

I never knew she passed away till about 6 years ago.

I was not a fan of hers back in the day but I liked her music.

Honey she passed away 6 years ago.

Well gee

I had to google wiki to find out why after I found out she passed.

luv4u said:

ernestsewell said:

Honey she passed away 6 years ago.

Well gee

I had to google wiki to find out why after I found out she passed.

haha well I put the date in the post, and six years ago was 2004 when she passed. However, if you looked in 2004, you weren't far behind since she died in August.

As a kid I was OBSSESSED with "Self Control".

johnart said:

As a kid I was OBSSESSED with "Self Control".

...but hugely lacked any? lol

i think the main thing that caused Laura's popularity to fade was the fact that i dont think she was comfortable trying to be "sexy" when she did Self Control that video was banned and edited etc..now that would be a corny video today. but i always felt it was a route she didnt feel good with, she could nail a ballad better than anyone but once the 80's started to draw to close and you had the likes of Madonna and Sheena Easton who sexed it up, Laura was caught somewhere outside, and then in the early 90's you had Mariah, Celine, so there was no need for another strong vocalist, she wasnt getting the time that they were so she was resigned to vh1 one hit wonder shows and where are they now shows.

Ernest thank you! for starting this thread

I Have loved Self control since i was a kid and the last year i bought the album after hearing the lucky one & really digging it... although the video was kind of blah lol

Her Self control album is excellent Ti Amo, Her cover Will You Still love Me Tomorrow, Take Me & Heart are all gems

Besides Self control i found Touch used at Amoebas for only 3 bucks so i bought it and i think it is IMO a better album then Self Control it has alot of deep ballads that use her voice in an excellent manor.

Self Control is a good album mixing poppy songs with a few ballads but then Touch really blew my mind!

it kind of reminded me of the reaction i had from listening to Faith by George Michael to listening to Listen Without Prejudice

"Self Control" Love that song! One of the best pop songs of 1984.

ernestsewell said:

alphastreet said:

I didn't know she first did Power of Love, that makes me very upset with Celine

I remember loving the Solid Gold performance of Self Control as a child and would watch it all the time. How old was she when she died again? I remember she was either the same age as mj or 50 by then, cause I remember when she went, I thought of him and hoped he wasn't next cause of being the same age.

The dates are in the original post.

Laura did a lot of songs first before others, and wrote most of them. Her and Michael Bolton (co-writers on) both recorded "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?" She worked with a plethora of people cowriting with them or writing for them.

Hate to be a bitch but she barely co-wrote a single track off any of her albums LOL. Iam a fan (own 3 albums "Self control" "hold me" and "s/t") and from memory she barely co-wrote a single track. That doesn't bother me at all but I had to correct you LOL.

I like her self titled album best.

Paiselypark4life should like this one LOL

I also love the track she did for Cerrone called "heart of me".

Very euro sounding. BIG production. Straight out of a cheesy late 80's movie LOL (her 80's music often was quite euro sounding anyway). Cerrone doing his best Moroder impression here

[Edited 6/22/10 20:25pm]

Some of my favorite Branigan tracks:

"Gloria" from Branigan

"Deep In The Dark" from Branigan 2

"Self Control" from Self Control

"I Found Someone" from Hold Me

"Forever Young" from Hold Me

"Shattered Glass" from Touch

"Cry Wolf" from Touch

"Over Love" from Touch

"Never In A Million Years" from Laura Branigan

"Moonlight On Water" from Laura Branigan

"The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye" from Over My Heart

"How Can I Help You To Say Goodbye" from Over My Heart

I remember at around 10 or 11 years old when "Gloria" came out how much I hated Tony Basil who's cheerleader anthem kept it at #2 on the charts every week. Loved her then, I still play her music now and am thankful to have experienced her in my lifetime.

Brilliant vocalist. "Gloria" was one of the first 45's I bought as a kid.

"The Lucky One" is another favorite.

I liked Imagination from the Flashdance soundtrack

[Edited 6/23/10 18:06pm]