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

[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.)