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

[koganbot]

Laura Branigan

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Raf

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Ricky Martin

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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

[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.