Laura Branigan recorded this song in 1982 on her Branigan album. Gloria reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it spent 36 weeks on the chart, it also went to #6 in the UK and it set a new record for a single by a solo female act at the time. This Euro disco song ‘Gloria’ was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female in 1983, but she lost out to Melissa Manchester’s ‘You Should Hear How He Talks About You’. This song was written by Italian composer Gaetano Bigazzi, Italian pop singer Umberto Tozzi, and Canadian songwriter Trevor Stanley Veitch. Umberto Tozzi released this song in 1979 and it was popular in some non-English-speaking countries in Europe.
Los Angeles keyboardist Greg Mathieson replaced Edgar Winter in White Trash, and from 1974-1976 he traveled with Helen Reddy around the world and then from 1976-1978 he traveled with Olivia Newton-John. Greg played on two of the #1 hit singles from the movie sound track of Grease that featured Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, those being ‘You’re the One That I want’ and ‘Hopelessly Devoted to you’. When Laura Branigan started work on her first album, she was teamed with producer Greg Mathieson, who did the keyboards and arrangements on Tozzi’s ‘Gloria’. Greg Mathieson suggested that Branigan should cover the song and they worked out the English lyrics.
In Branigan’s version, she addresses Gloria who she is worried about, because she feels her head is scrambled over a guy. Gloria seems to be on the verge of insanity if she doesn’t slow down. Laura Branigan asks her, “Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria?”. She wonders if Gloria will change after she meets this new man in her life, or if Gloria because of her emotional instability is getting involved with someone that is on a rebound. She thinks that Gloria is going to marry this guy for his money and she will never be satisfied with him, so she will have to find a lover.
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?
(Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria)
(Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria)
The challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for a short story, a piece of flash fiction, or a poem that you can share with the WordPress writing community. There is no need to stick with this song, as if you like to write about another Laura Branigan song, or a song by Melissa Manchester, or Helen Reddy, or John Travolta, then go with that. You might also go with a song that mentions a rebound relationship. Maybe you could write a post about a song that hearing voices in your head. If you would like to write about another song with the name Gloria in it, that would also work. The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate. This challenge is very loose, so pretty much whatever you come up with will be acceptable. I try to throw some ideas out there for you and if they seem right, then go with it. You could write about falling in love and running after somebody, or having a breakdown.
Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie brings you a dose of fetish, good friends and an incomparable muse and Dylan Hughes will be here next Friday on October 23 with her First Line Friday and she will provide the first line for your post and then you get to write whatever comes afterward, with the length, genre, and structure being completely left up to you. I will be back on Friday, October 30 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’. When you are finished writing your post, create a ping back to this post, but you can also place your link in the comments section below if you desire. This Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie MM Music challenge has a special feature called Mr. Linky, which will allow you to instantly link your post after you click the Mr. Linky Button, and permit everyone to read your post sooner that way, and then follow the directions that are given.
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‘Gloria’ was Laura Branigan’s signature song and it was influenced by Donna Summer, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Nicks. Her recording career began in 1972, with folk group Meadow. She toured with Leonard Cohen in 1976, as a backing singer on his first European tour and her first single, ‘All Night With Me’ charted at # 62. Her other hits were ‘Solitaire’, ‘Self Control’, and ‘Power Of Love’. After the release of her seventh album Over My Heart in 1993, she semi-retired from the music industry to care for her husband, Larry Kruteck, who was suffering from cancer and ended up dying in 1996. Branigan died in her sleep from an undiagnosed ventricular brain aneurysm in 2004.
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