Laura Branigan
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
The album spawned one of the years top pop hits, the Donna Summer-like Gloria, a remake of an Italian pop song from the 70s that peaked at number six in the U.K. and number two in the U.S. (the song also earned Branigan her first of four subsequent Grammy nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance Female). The songs popularity reached massive proportions in other parts of the world, especially Germany, where the Branigan version of Gloria sat at the number one position while the original Italian version held the number two spot. 1983s Branigan 2 spawned another two sizeable U.S. hit singles with Solitaire and How Am I Supposed to Live Without You (the latter of which was co-written by a then-unknown Michael Bolton), while she also appeared on the hit soundtrack to Flashdance that same year with the track Imagination.
Further albums were issued during the remainder of the 80s, 1984s Self Control, 1985s Hold Me, and 1987s Touch, all of which spawned hit singles: the title track from Self Control, The Lucky One, Ti Amo, Spanish Eddie, I Found Someone, the title track from Hold Me, Shattered Glass, and The Power of Love. But, by the dawn of the 90s, the hits had dried up for Branigan, as such albums as 1990s self-titled release and 1993s Over My Heart went completely unnoticed. In 1994, Branigan dueted with David Hasselhoff on the track I Believe for the Baywatch soundtrack, and a year later, the singers first hits compilation, the 13-track The Best of Branigan, was issued. In addition to issuing albums, Branigan kept her acting career going all along, as evidenced by guest spots on the TV show CHiPS, the movies Mugsys Girl (1984) and Backstage (1988), plus the German television movie An American Girl In Berlin (1981). Branigan returned to the public eye in 2002, earning rave reviews with her portrayal of Janis Joplin in the hit New York City musical Love, Janis. On August 26, 2004 Laura Branigan suffered a brain aneurysm and died in her sleep.
