1952–2004 · American singer, Mount Kisco, New York
Laura Branigan took “Gloria” to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 and kept it on that chart for 36 weeks, a run no solo woman had managed at that point, and it earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She had a real gift for finding European records and making them sound as though they had been built for American radio: “Gloria” and “Ti Amo” came from Tozzi, “Self Control” from Raf, “Solitaire” from Martine Clemenceau. That she neither wrote nor first recorded “Gloria” takes nothing away from the performance — it is the only reason most listeners outside Europe know the song at all.