Songoftheday 8/2/12 - You really don't remember was it something that he said, all the voices in your head...

Laura Branigan - "Gloria"

from the album Branigan (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (three weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 22

Today's Song of the Day is by the upstate New York-born Laura Branigan. Branigan was signed in 1979 by the president of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun. Two years later, she released her first single, the Donna Summer-tinged "Looking Out For Number One", which scraped the dance club chart that year.

In 1982, Laura released her first full-length album, Branigan. The first single, "All Night With Me", was a minor hit, but missed the US pop top-40. The second single chosen from the album was a remake of an Italian hit by singer Umberto Tozzi in 1979. "Gloria" made the top-10 for him in five different countries, including hitting #1 in Switzerland...

Branigan's producer, Jack White, lived in one of those countries (Germany), and suggested that Branigan cover it with redone English lyrics by Canadian musician Trevor Veitch (who would go on to produce Toni Basil's "Mickey"). The song went from an Italian love song to a diva-like wail against a loose woman...

"Gloria" blew up in the clubs (especially the gay ones) and then on pop radio, staying in the top-40 for 22 weeks, tying John Cougar's "Hurts So Good" for the longest stay in the top-40 by a song debuting in 1982. It also peaked at #4 on the dance chart, and graced the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) top-40 at #28. It also topped the chart in Canada and Australia, and made the top-10 in Britain.

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French singer Sheila redid the song in French with lyrics unlike Tozzi's or Branigan's version, but more of a Christian slant, and it became a top-10 hit there...

Meanwhile, another French singer, Sylvie Vartan, covered Branigan's version...

And to muddle it up further, Germany's Lena Valaitis recorded "Gloria" with new German lyrics but with the same producer (Jack White) as Branigan's...