Laura Branigan – "Gloria" (1982)

 

Gloria, I think they got your number

I think they got the alias

That you’ve been living under

I regularly compete in trivia contests at local breweries.  The hosts of those competitions play music between questions, and a lot of the records they play are definitely blog-worthy.

Recently, one of the hosts played the late Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit single, “Gloria” – which not only went platinum but also managed to stay on the Billboard “Hot 100” singles chart for an astonishing 36 consecutive weeks.

Umberto Tozzi in 1979

“Gloria” was originally recorded in Italian by Umberto Tozzi in 1979, and was a big hit in Italy.  British singer-songwriter and record producer Jonathan King then wrote English lyrics for the song and recorded it later that year.  

Laura Branigan’s 1982 cover of the song featured lyrics that were written by Canadian musician/producer Trevor Veitch, and which took the song in a completely different direction from both the original Italian lyrics and King’s English translation.  Click here to read Veitch’s lyrics, which are kind of a hot mess.

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Those of you who are d’un certain âge – that is to say, those of you who are very, very old – may remember “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon,” which was a top-20 single for Jonathan King in 1965.  

King, who was a 20-year-old Cambridge University undergraduate when “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon” was released, went on to become a very successful record producer.

King discovered and named the band Genesis in 1967, and produced their first album.  He later produced many UK hit singles – including several hits by 10cc and the Bay City Rollers – and was one of the early backers of the original London production of The Rocky Horror Show.

King later hosted or produced a number of radio and television programs, including the BBC’s Top of the Pops and the annual BRIT Awards shows (which were the equivalent of the American Grammy Awards).

In 2001, King was accused of having sex with several 14- and 15-year-old boys in the mid-eighties, and convicted of indecent assault, buggery, and attempted buggery.  Later that year, he was acquitted of 22 additional counts of sexual assault of teenaged boys.  

Jonathan King in 2007

King, who served several years in prison, always insisted that he was innocent.  In 2008, he produced Vile Pervert: The Musical, a 96-minute film that presents his side of the story.  (King plays all 21 of the movie’s roles himself.)  At one point, dressed as Oscar Wilde, King sings that there is “nothing wrong with buggering boys.”  

One reviewed complimented King on his “fantastically berserk, bravado performance” in the movie.

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The same could be said of what appears to be a television performance of the song by Tozzi that I stumbled across on YouTube, which is notable for the background antics of four undershirt-clad louts who pretend to sit at a outdoor café table and guzzle Chianti while Tozzi sings and plays the piano.  Click here to watch that video.

And click here to watch the scene from the 2013 Martin Scorsese-directed movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, that features a snippet of Tozzi’s “Gloria.”

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In January 2019, the St. Louis Blues – who had a losing record at the time – fired their coach and called up a rookie goalie to take the place of their struggling veteran netminder.  In the rookie’s first start, the Blues beat the Philadelphia Flyers in Philly.  

The night before that game, several of the Blues had gone to a sports bar in South Philly to watch the NFL wild card matchup between the Eagles and the Chicago Bears – which the Eagles won by a single point.  The DJ at the bar played “Gloria” during every commercial break, driving the crowd into a frenzy.  

  

After their win over the Flyers the next night, some of the Blues who had been at the bar to watch the Eagles-Bears game played “Gloria” in their locker room.  After that, the team got hot, going 30-10-5 in the remainder of the season.  Professional athletes are notoriously superstitious, so “Gloria” was played in the Blues’ home arena and in their locker room after every victory.

The Blues advanced to the playoffs, and their fans chanted “Play ‘Gloria’!” throughout every home playoff game.  After the team won its first Stanley Cup after a hard-fought seven-game series with the Boston Bruins, a local radio station played “Gloria” continuously for 24 hours.

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Laura Branigan wasn’t around to enjoy the 2019 mania over her recording of “Gloria.”  She had died from a brain aneurysm in 2004, when she was only 52.

(Branigan had been experiencing severe headaches for several weeks before her death, but hadn’t gone to a doctor.  If you ever have severe headaches, or serious chest pains, or anything else out of the ordinary, for God’s sake GO SEE A DOCTOR!)

Laura Branigan in 1982

Click here to watch the official music video for Branigan’s recording of “Gloria.”  

I love that video.  Laura gives it her all, and I’m buying her performance 100% despite the fact that it’s a bit amateurish.  I get the feeling from what I’ve read online that she was a hard-working and down-to-earth person, and it makes me a little sad to watch that video knowing that she died so young.  

I’m glad that “Gloria” was a big hit for her, and I hope she enjoyed the fame and fortune that the success of that record brought her.

Click here to buy “Gloria” from Amazon.