Laura Branigan
Shine On: The Ultimate Collection
****
A true diva with a voice to match
I remember being in Durban's Village Green tent for a Laura Branigan concert and whirling like a particularly demented dervish, to Branigan's glorious Gloria. Those were the days...
I loved that song and boy did she have some voice - officially described as "a dramatic alto, with a four-octave range".
Somewhere I have a "best of". This is another "best of", but it includes a DVD of her in action.
An American singer/ songwriter, Branigan died in 2004 of a brain aneurysm in her late 40s. If you are already a fan, you may have caught a Branigan seminal moment, a truly beautiful, piano-driven, pared down version of Carole King's pop classic Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.
Sadly the track does not feature here. What does feature is 10 DVD and 18 CD tracks (Gloria has three shots on the album, on first release the song stayed on the US Billboard charts for 36 weeks!)
Solitaire, Spanish Eddie, Ti Amo, How Am I Supposed to Live Without You? (which she co-wrote with Michael Bolton), The Lucky One, The Power of Love - all the hits are there.
She wrote songs for Ghostbusters, Flashdance and had songs featured in that computer game, Grand Theft Auto. And here's something you probably didn't know: she duetted with The Hoff on Believe for the Baywatch soundtrack. Can't say if that was a high or low point in her life... - Sally Scott