I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to Laura Branigan in the 80s, probably because when her cover of “Gloria” came out in 1982, my mother (whose name was Gloria) played it over and over again. It later became her mini trampoline workout song of choice, along with 1983’s “Jump” by the Pointer Sisters, another great tune that I will forever associate with my four-foot-ten-and-a-half-inch mother’s exercise routine. Funny how certain songs trigger hyper-specific memories, isn’t it? More on familial music tastes in future installments, but if anyone’s curious, a few of Gloria’s other favorite 80s tunes:

“Sweet Child O’Mine” by Guns N’ Roses
“Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake
“With or Without You” by U2

Oh, and being “Gloria”, she was a big fan of that song title as recorded by U2 and Them, and “Angels We Have Heard on High” was obviously in heavy holiday rotation every year.

I have digressed. Back to Laura Branigan: “Self Control” was the first single from her third album of the same name. It was written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Steve Piccolo, and singer Raf, who recorded and released it in Italy in February of 1984, where it reached number one on the charts. Branigan’s version, arranged by Harold Faltermeyer, came out just two months later and hit number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The accompanying music video was deemed a little too spicy for MTV, and so “just a few seconds here and there” were cut to ensure it would get airplay.

Sadly, Branigan died in 2004 of an undiagnosed aneurysm, but her music lives on, with “Gloria” re-entering the charts in 2019 after it was adopted by the St. Louis Blues NHL team as their victory anthem.

It’s the crunchy electric guitar in the intro. That sneaky little riff comes in at bar five, rocks the fuck out for four bars, then disappears and doesn’t come back until 3:41, slightly buried in the mix.

The guitar tone! Also, and this is a recurring theme in my evaluation of great musical moments: propulsion. That intro part pulls us into the first verse, moving the song forward. The original recording by Raf has a similar riff played on a keyboard, but the Raf riff just doesn’t hit the same way. Even the riffraff would agree.