Are you keeping track of this week's songs? Tomorrow we'll ask you to call in to name the 5 songs and their common theme to win a $25 Jersey Mike’s gift card!
A smash single from 1982, today’s song was first released in 1979 by the Italian pop singer Umberto Tozzi (Anyone?) His version was a hit in his home country and popular in other non-English-speaking countries in Europe.
When today’s singer, who was a backup singer for Leonard Cohen, started work on her first album, her producer suggested she cover this song, but she was skeptical. When they worked it up with English lyrics, she came around, and the song became a huge hit, this time in many English-speaking territories.
In the original Italian version, the singer is longing for the person named in the song, but in today’s version, she is singing TO the song’s namesake, whose head is scrambled over a guy. She seems to be on the verge of insanity. "Are the voices in your head calling..." today’s singer asks.
Today’s singer debuted with a song called "All Night With Me," (CLIP) but it stalled at #69 in the US, but her next single, today’s song was a winner peaking at number 2 on the US Charts.
She had an impressive run of hits over the next few years, including "Self Control," which went to #4. (CLIP) That one was ALSO a cover of an Italian song!
Today’s song earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, but She lost to Melissa Manchester.
In 1996 today’s singer retired from the music industry to spend more time with her husband after he was diagnosed with colon cancer, he died later the same year. She struggled to come to terms with his death and it took five years until she felt ready to make a return.
Her comeback was cut short after she broke both legs when she fell off a ladder at home whilst she was hanging Wisteria out of her window. She eventually recovered and landed the role portraying Janis Joplin in an off-Broadway musical, Love, Janis.
Sadly, In August 2004 she passed away in her sleep at home in New York. She had been suffering severe headaches but failed to get medical attention and her cause of death was reported as a brain aneurysm. She was just 52.
Laura Brannigan...Gloria...I Know That Song!