Tag: dance music

Laura Branigan – Self Control

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week5 Comments

So I have a song from this year I want to talk about but it’s a damn headache. Even typing out the title is an exercise in supreme frustration. I’m gonna save it for next week and for today I’ll go back to 1984 and discuss a beloved song from then.

In all reality there are two versions of this song to talk about. This was originally released by Raf in ’84. Raf co-wrote the song along with Giancarlo Bigazzi and Steve Piccolo. The song was a European hit, scoring number ones in Italy and Switzerland and charting in the top ten elsewhere on the continent.

Long story short, the song also needed to be a hit in the US and everyone took a familiar turn to get there – Bigazzi had already been working with US artist Laura Branigan, a partnership that had marked the smash hit Gloria in ’82. So Bigazzi and Branigan turned their attention to Self Control, and yet another hit was made.

Branigan had previously offered up some very revised versions of songs – Gloria is not only done in a different language than the original, but the lyrics were also re-written to tell a completely different story. The music was also changed up as a 1980’s “update” of sorts. But on Self Control, Laura’s cover is honestly not far removed at all from Raf’s original. The songs are distinguishable, but not by a huge degree. I’ll post Raf’s original at the bottom of this post so everyone can compare.

Laura’s version of Self Control would be a huge hit – it reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album of the same name would go platinum. It also did some huge business in Europe – it charted at number one in several countries, including Switzerland – where it actually bumped Raf’s original version out of the top spot. The two versions flipped places a few times again, making for some really interesting music trivia. Both versions were charting all over the continent as they were not released too far apart.

As for the song, it is what is described as “dance rock” or even disco-driven. It has the ’80’s zazz to it but is certainly a dance-able track. The lyrical theme of being taken by the night is actually a fair bit darker than what you might think you’d get with a song of this genre.

This would come into play with the music video. The clip was a huge hit in Europe, but US MTV required the video to be edited, due to the risque nature of the masked personification of The Night entering Laura’s room and, well, you can figure it out in the video. Anything sex oriented was a huge no-no in the year before the PMRC came riding high horses into the nation’s capitol.

Laura would continue charting both mainstream and dance songs as the ’80’s wore on, but like many her career was largely claimed by the shifting tides of the 1990’s. In 2002, Self Control would get another big boost. Stop me if you’ve read me say this about a song before, but Self Control was featured in the soundtrack to the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which introduced the song to a lot of younger people who didn’t experience it firsthand in ’84. Laura was preparing to relaunch her career around the same time, a prospect that was tragically cut short when she passed away in 2004.

Self Control has lived on as Branigan’s signature song, reigning as her top-streamed track to this day. This would be adjusted a bit in 2019, when Gloria came out of nowhere to return to the public eye as the result of an unexpected run in sports. But that is another story for another time and is tied to one of the best sports memories of my life, so I will save it for down the line.

At the end of the day, everyone involved with both versions of Self Control scored big hits around the world. The song is totally tied to the fabric of 1984, one of the best and most unique years in music history.

Hall and Oates – Out Of Touch

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week15 Comments

It’s time to continue the 40th anniversary celebration for 1984. And today I’ll have a look at one of the big pop and dance hits of the year. If there’s anything my site is known for, pop and dance are not it, but there is no denying the song-crafting genius of Hall and Oates.

Out Of Touch hails from the duo’s twelfth album Big Bam Boom, which arrived in October of 1994. The album would hit Billboard top 5 and go double platinum and was carried mainly on the success of today’s single. Out Of Touch would be the duo’s sixth and final number 1 single. It was also their 14th consecutive Top 40 single, they would go on to have 29 total Top 40 placements.

With this song Hall and Oates were exploring new wave and dance territory. The group had worked with many different music styles over their long tenure, and by 1984 they were riding a wave of huge pop hits and were working with the sounds of the day. It was a synthesizer where the track was born, and John Oates came up with the chorus on the synth while not really knowing how to use the instrument and while also enjoying herbal supplements. He intended the song to go to Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics but a producer told him to keep it for Hall and Oates, which he did. Oates and Daryl Hall finished the track and yet another number one hit was born. Oates tells this story in pretty funny fashion during a performance for Ditty TV, I have embedded that video below.

Today’s song is not overly loud or obtrusive by any means but it is still a banger. It does the dreamy synth thing pretty well through the chorus while the verses are honestly standard pop rock. It is, just like the duo’s other hits, insanely catchy and this one hooks in right off the bat. Hall and Oates were able to maintain their precision songwriting while using a host of new music tech. It was exactly the kind of ear-pleasing pop that would turn heads in 1984 and the song has been one of a handful from the group to still hook in listeners many years later.

If the standard version of Out Of Touch is a bit pedestrian for you, well, you’re in luck. There is an extended club mix of the song too, which the music video uses a few parts of. If you like your songs harder and probably also your drugs harder, then the Out Of Touch club mix is just up your alley. I’ll toss that one down below, it’s totally worth a listen.

And speaking of the music video – it’s another total ’80’s offering. The beginning is a funny sequence that sees Hall and Oates trapped in a drum, then steamrolled and pinned on a wall. The video then goes into a more conventional performance bit after that, but the giant drum set does get some more screen time.

Not much more to say about this one – Out Of Touch is a quintessential ’80’s hit and another jewel in the Hall and Oates crown. I doubt anyone made it through the early ’80’s without hearing Hall and Oates and if they did they are much poorer for it.

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