Taking Sides: Laura Branigan versus Ricky Martin versus Raf versus Infernal

[koganbot]

Laura Branigan

Watch on YouTube

Raf

Watch on YouTube

Ricky Martin

Watch on YouTube

Infernal

Watch on YouTube

Also, if you insist, here are Royal Gigolos (shitty rip), Soraya, Paffendorf, Dim Chris & Thomas Gold, Paralyzed Age, and Caramelle.

(Laura's is the one that touches me most: she's a klutzy stomper who overenunciates lyrics, but with a song this good it makes her charming, an everywoman in the vortex of the night. Raf (the original version, came out several months before the Branigan) is good bread-and-butter Italodisco, Ricky's version's got the most flair and flexibility but he's a bit too easy with it, Infernal are forceful though far too cold.)

Comments

[koganbot]

Also, I was inspired to post these tracks by a convo on one of my friend's lj that unfortunately is on a friends-only thread. Friend asked, in regard to "Gloria" and "Self Control": "'Gloria' and 'Self Control' are such great songs, piling catchy hook upon catchy hook but with somewhat troubling lyrics - Gloria is on the verge of a breakdown and Laura Branigan hectors her for trying to pretend that she's OK, but in 'Self Control' she seems to have given up on everything herself and only lives to go out and get wasted while looking tragically beautiful. Spotify informs me that nothing else Laura Branigan did was particularly good, so I wonder where these two amazing nihilistic synth-pop songs came from."

The immediate answer from one of her commenters was, "Italy. Both are covers of Umberto Tozzi numbers." Actually, only "Gloria" is an Umberto Tozzi number, "Self Control" being sung and co-written by Raf. But a co-writer on both "Gloria" and "Self Control" is Giancarlo Bigazzi, at least according to Wiki.

[sm-woods.livejournal.com]

I have to say, for me, "Gloria" is a much superior record, one I never tire of, though I've never (unfortunately) given a second's thought to the lyrics (well, maybe a few seconds; I've always been fairly certain it isn't about some deity or other, like U2's... I think I might've heard somewhere that it had a lesbian sub-context, but I've no idea if this is even remotely true). I remember trying hard to hate it while I was in high school -- I'd hear it at weddings and such -- but finally relented several years later (early '90s) when I heard it in this really grungy bar in Rochester NY, mixed in among a whole pile of '70s and '80s songs -- mostly rock stuff -- which all sounded good but just kind of pleasant. When "Gloria" came on the room lit up; some people were semi-mocking it, but everyone was moving in some way to it.

[koganbot]

I prefer "Self Control" because it's flimsier.

[koganbot]

By the way Scott, you should add poptimists, not to mention me, to your lj user "friends list."

[koganbot]

Ah, you have added me. That was lightning fast!

[sm-woods.livejournal.com]

Just like my hands on the wheels of steel. (Um, sort of.)

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Okay, I see that Frank did mention that Italopop connection for "Gloria" (and, I'd forgotten, "Self Control") too. Those were *not* the only good things Branigan ever did, though. I mention "Heart" in the passage from my second book I quoted above, and others are mentioned elsewhere in the book I believe (including "Imagination," from the *Flashdance* soundtrack itself, in the immediately subsequent paragraph.)

Plus, her masturbation-as-abyss song "Solitaire" (#7 pop in 1983) is obviously great, too. Also really like "Spanish Eddie"; in fact, anybody who doesn't already own her 1995 Atlantic set *The Best Of Branigan* is really missing the boat.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Just heard this 45 tonight, and posted this on that 45s from Metal Mike thread on ILM:

Roby & Brina "OK Disco Italia"/"Canta Anche Voi OK Disco Italia (Instrumental)" (Baby Germany, 1986) OK, this is more like it. This duo looks cuter, for one thing. He's pretty nerdy looking in his glasses and all, but with an ironic Confederate flag truckers' hat (?) a couple decades early almost, and she's got a short bob haircut and an oversized T-shirt that says "BOY" on it in really big letters like in one of those old Wham! videos. And they have Italian flag colors behind them, and the music is Italo disco. But not what would be called Italo disco now, probably. It's a medley of hits, in Italian -- starts with a short snippet of "Gloria" which Laura Branigan had covered, followed by a snippet of "Ti Amo" which Laura Branigan had also covered, but they don't boom the song out like Laura would have, and then there are other songs I never heard before, one of which goes "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma Maria" or something, and in between there's a chorus about it all being "OK! Disco Italia!", just like the title says. And the B-side is the same thing, except with no words beyond the chorus, though it does keep the tune parts to "Gloria", et. al.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

more:

So, just noticed (not sure how I missed this before) that that Roby & Brina 45 breaks down the elements of its medley on the back: "OK Disco Italia/Gloria/ Ti Amo/La Bombola/L'Italiano/Felecita/OK Disco Italia/Mamma Maria/Sara Perche Ti Amo/OK Disco Italia." The eat keeps pumping ("Stars on 45"/"Hooked On Classics" style sort of) and Brina keeps things happy and chirpy throughout, but gets especially joyous on the OK!" parts, as she should. My favorite part otherwise is probably "Mamma Maria"; need to track down the original someday.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

The eat keeps pumping

Not eat. The beat. The beat. The beat.