Gloria by Laura Branigan

I never got it. Who was Gloria? Why was another woman singing about her?

It’s about a figure skater who falls on her ass and then becomes a stripper. Didn’t you see Flashdance?

Gloria was a phone operator That's why Brannigan knew her number. It was 4-1-1. For emergencies.

Sadly, Laura Branigan left us at a young age.

Laura died in her home in 2004 from a cerebral aneurysm. She was 52. Rest in peace to a singing angel.

R5 My first experience of coming out has a background of Careless Whisper and Laura's Self Control back in 84. Wonderful song and artist.

Laura has been so quiet lately. She should get out more.

She had a killer voice and was a sultry CLASSY lady. Terrific songs to sing to as a young gayer like me. Very sad when I'd heard she had passed. What a foxy fox!

"Gloria" as featured in ACS: Versace.

But why was a woman singing about Gloria?

"Was it something that they said?"

Was Gloria triggered?

"Gloria" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and originally recorded by Morrison's band Them in 1964 and released as the B-side of "Baby, Please Don't Go". The song became a garage rock staple and a part of many rock bands' repertoires. Gloria (Them song) - Wikipedia

Also FYI, I don’t know for sure but a bunch of doctors told me that suicides are always called aneurysms when the deaths are announced. I found a friend who had killed himself and the official cause in the NYT was aneurysm.

R10 She's clearly giving trying to make things clearer for Gloria. Gloria ain't no dyke.

The original, by the way, is a piece of fluff by Italian pop star Umberto Tozzi who is sort of like their Michael Bolton. The Italian lyrics are very bland.

"Gloria" (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɡlɔːrja]) is a 1979 love song that became an international hit. The song was originally written and composed in Italian by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi, and afterwards translated to English by Jonathan King. A 1982 cover version by Laura Branigan sold over one million singles in the United States alone.

I was wrong. Van Morrison wrote the Gloria from Patti Smiths' Horses album.

Here's another cheesy Umberto Tozzi performance of Gloria.

Gloria is about a woman with a heart of gold.

Thanks R17- That was great. I wish someone would translate it. I got confused by the laundry boys.

Something about being on the MAIN line?

Why can’t a woman sing about another woman?

R19, it was an odd choice having characters in the background pulling focus away from the main act.

I don’t know who Gloria is. Good song. But many good (and better) songs written recently that DL people ignore. I don’t get it.

The Italian and English versions are not about the same thing. Trust me.

[quote]many good (and better) songs written recently that DL people ignore

Name one.

r10 Why not? She wasn't singing that she was in love with Gloria, it was like a cautionary, slow down type of song. Like Edie Brickell "Little Miss S" or "Glamorous Life" from Sheila E. Like slow down, bitch. You're not as young as you used to be, you're less desired now, etc. And r24 is right, that wiki thing about the Italian song, besides being totally corny, can't be the song Branigan sings.

Umberto's Gloria is someone constantly in his head no matter what he does that he misses and is waiting for. I can't begin to explain just how cheesy the lyrics are. Think 'Everything I Do' by Bryan Adams, 'Every Breath I Take' by The Police or 'Hello' by Lionel Richie. Laura's Gloria is a much more interesting woman as she's in some sort of existential crisis.

The Tozzi version of 'Gloria' in English, with lyrics translated by Jonathan King.

I'm mostly an indie and international films guy. One of the best I've seen this past decade is a 2013 film from Chile called 'Gloria' that is actually based on the Umberto Tozzi song: the lead character, "Gloria" actually plays the song (and other similarly cheesy 80s love songs) throughout the movie illustrating the mundaneness of life she wishes to escape. But also, in a deliberate move by the writer-director, the character "Gloria" is herself inspired by the Gloria in the Laura Branigan song: an angsty, restless, disillusioned woman that's desperately looking for something to fill the void in her life.

Here's the trailer.

And here's the poster which I feel beautifully encapsulates the movie.

Durr OP, it’s about a woman impregnated by an alien while hiding on an aircraft carrier. It’s so OBVIOUS.

U2 had a song called Gloria that was their first exposure on MTV. I’ve always thought that one was about the Glory of God or something rather than a woman.

Is she singing about this Gloria?

"Are the voices in your head calling Gloria?" Gloria is a mental patient who hears voices and believes people are coming after her and harassing her on the phone, when really no one is there at all. The singer is someone who works at the mental institution and is trying to calm Gloria down after one of her bad episodes.

That's a literal meaning, r35.

R35, "I think they got your number. I think they got the alias you've been living under." This nurse or whoever has a mean streak and likes to occasionally mock Gloria by convincing her it's all true and they really ARE coming after her. Then she feels guilty about it so then she tries to comfort her.

Yes, R23, especially the recent protest song performance by that brilliant chanteuse Miley Cyrus.

The song is about ME you fools.....

They use Laura Branigan's "Gloria" to great effect in I, Tonya.

I thought I heard long ago that it was about Gloria Steinem. Sort of a women's lib. song.

Or perhaps she was a fan of Gloria Bunker-Stivic.

Self Control is still may favorite Branigan song. The opening chords are so cool.

Laura's husband had died 8 years before she died. He was 16 years her senior in age.

The nurse-mental patient interpretation is so off.

The narrator tells Gloria that Gloria is the one obsessed, not the person Gloria thinks is obsessed about her.

Exactly r 47, "if everybody wants you, why isn't anybody calling?"

Gloria Laura Branigan Gloria, you're always on the run now Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow I think you've got to slow down before you start to blow it I think you're headed for a breakdown, so be careful not to show it You really don't remember, was it something that he said? Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria? Gloria, don't you think you're fallin'? If everybody wants you, why isn't anybody callin'? You don't have to answer Leave them hangin' on the line, oh-oh-oh, calling Gloria Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria) I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you've been living under (Gloria) But you really don't remember, was it something that they said? Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria? A-ha-ha, a-ha-ha, Gloria, how's it gonna go down? Will you meet him on the main line, or will you catch him on the rebound? Will you marry for the money, take a lover in the afternoon? Feel your innocence slipping away, don't believe it's comin' back soon And you really don't remember, was it something that he said? Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria? Gloria, don't you think you're fallin'? If everybody wants you, why isn't anybody callin'? You don't have to answer Leave them hangin' on the line, oh-oh-oh, calling Gloria Gloria (Gloria), I think they got your number (Gloria) I think they got the alias (Gloria) that you've been living under (Gloria) But you really don't remember, was it something that they said? Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria?

I loved Laura Branigan when I was a teen. I think I bought every cassette she put out. I'll never forget on All My Children how Laura's How am I Supposed to Live Without You played in the background as Amanda decided to tell Greg about the letter she had from Jenny knowing it would end their relationship.

Self Control was banned from MTV and I never could figure out why. This is a great song. Could be released today without being dated.

Laura Branigan was one of Leonard Cohen's background singers in the mid-Seventies.

Very good.

Laura Branigan also performed in Sun City in the Eighties, during apartheid.

Not so very good.

I am her "Gloria." And unlike her, I survived, baby.

Loved Spanish Eddie too. It was so fucking fame gay.

Other than that album, did Branigan have any other hits?

Gloria was she, and she was Gloria. We're all Gloria.

R54 Solitaire; How am I Suppose to Live Without You; Self Control; Lucky One

The Power of Love was Top 20.

Iris Chacón becomes possessed singing Gloria en español.

In this version the Gloria she sings about is an esoteric, much socially needed, euphoric concept - , closer to the glory of God, more than anything.

She recorded it shortly after she converted to a fanatically religious sect that brainwashed her and her husband - and proceeded to siphon her millions to the church.

When she woke up from it all, she was bankrupt and overweight. The comeback took a long time, and, the favorite of Latin queen’s all over the globe was never the same.

Well the Vivaldi Gloria was becoming dated so we needed something new for the Christmas season.

Gloria. Awful song I never want to hear again. Absolutely grating.

[quote] 'Every Breath I Take' by The Police.

R27 really thinks this song is cheesy, and romantic? It’s a very sinister, serious & restrained ballad about stalking.

"Gloria' is used well in "I, Tonya".

It's about my mother and her designer denim label.

It’s about, hell, only the thirteenth sitcom by 1982 about a divorced woman moving away to a new town and struggling to make it.

“But you know what Joey? We’ll be OK!”

LOL, I was a Universal tour guide when "Gloria" was shooting on the backlot and we had to talk about to the tourists as if we were all excited about it -- and none of us were. It didn't take much to realize it was going to be a dog. It was.

That might have been the same summer that a few girl tour guides made their way to Jon Erik Hexum's trailer and got the hell fucked out of them. As trams of tourists went by and the trailer would be pointed out (I like to think it had to be rocking at some point). He was shooting the sci fi show, "Voyagers" and was hot as a whip. And dead within a couple of years.

It's funny how one song can spawn so many stories.

Gloria is in one of my workout playlist. Love it.

"Self Control" was actually written by anther Italian singer, Raf, who released it around the same time as Laura (May/June 1984.) I was living in Europe at the time and both versions were played on the radio which was a bit strange.

Always thought it was cool that the “Self Control” music video was directed by William Friedkin.

Laura clearly thought she was onto something covering Italian songs after the success of 'Gloria'. He she is covering another Umberto Tozzi hit, 'Ti Amo' but in this case, I think the original was better. With 'Gloria', they were smart to change the lyrics from love/torch song to something more interesting. With 'Ti Amo', the English lyrics are more or less faithful to the original Italian.

R58 She could no longer whore and turned to singing? Send the bitch back to the barrio. Fucking atrocious.

R78, she’d been singing and shaking her booty since she was 19

For the person wondering about suicide vs aneurysm, Branigan did die aneurysm. IIRC she had a close family member who died the same way. For the poster upthread who said it's ok for Branigan to sign to another woman because "it's not a love song": what would be so wrong if she DID sing a love song to another woman?

I always thought Gloria was her slutty alter-ego

Stream of consciousness of a woman sliding into schizophrenia

It was the hit of the summer on Top 40 radio when I "came of age," as they used to say. So I associate it with those great, good, bad, funny, sad, happy and thrilling early experiences that I remember from that year.

I actually always preferred R70s theme song to the song Gloria, it's quite the earworm...

As a wee gayling in the mid-80s I remember my older teenage female cousin saying she hated Laura Brannigan. When I asked why she said, 'Because she sings songs about playing with yourself'. That's when I learned Self Control was about M-Bating.

Branigan could belt with the best of 'em.

She was a huge chunk of the 80s for me.

I covet all of her music.

Glora is a woman who's lived in the fast lane for years, but she's getting older and all the hard living is starting to catch up with her. The narrator is a friend of Gloria's who's telling her she "needs to slow down or she's headed for a breakdown." "Life In the Fast Lane" is a similar narrative to "Gloria," although that song is about a couple, not a single woman. They've lived a high-flying, hard-partying lifestyle for some time, but they're both getting older and things are starting to crash around them.

R87 Don't covet. Go buy it.

It’s the song that somehow managed to rhyme “number” with “under.”

R57 They used Hefty large lawn and leaf bags to great effect in that video.

[quote]Self Control was banned from MTV and I never could figure out why.

I know the video but I can’t imagine where I would have seen it if not MTV. Did they eventually un-ban it?

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3TmqOorZ6csm%2BvzqZmraCimq6le5Fpb29xYG59brPLqKmimV2Xxm64wK6pmmWSp66vtcaapWY%3D