Blogocentric Formulations

Gloria's Casual Vacancy

** Image ID #2010042 Unavailable **

SONG: "Gloria"
ARTIST: Laura Branigan
STATUS: Deceased (cerebral aneurysm, 8/26/2004)
ALBUM: Branigan (1982)

Even though Laura Branigan's cover of the song "Gloria" was the most successful version of the song, selling over 2 million singles in the United States alone, the song was originally composed and performed in Italian by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi, which was a hit in Europe and Australia, although not nearly as popular as Branigan's version. The song was also covered other times prior to the Branigan cover: in English by Jonathan King, in Czech, and in Estonian. In an interesting turn of events, original artist Umberto Tozzi also did a cover of King's English version of his own song.

Laura Branigan had her original debut album shelved by Atlantic Records, at which point the label asked her to work with a different producer, who suggested that she cover the popular European song. They gave it an "American kick," rewrote the lyrics, and "Gloria" became a huge hit in the U.S. They originally considered reworking the song to "Mario" so that the subject of the female performer's song would be a man, but they left the titular character as Gloria when they just couldn't get "Mario" lyrics to sound right. Branigan herself has said before that "Gloria" isn't the song she considers her biggest hit, but it's her signature song. She would frequently close her concerts with the song because fans would go crazy waiting for it and then bring down the house when she finally performed it.

She also contributed songs to the soundtracks for Flashdance, Ghostbusters, and Baywatch.

In 2004, Branigan experienced recurring headaches, but didn't see a doctor. Several weeks later, she died in her sleep at the age of 47. The cause of death was later determined to be an undiagnosed cerebral aneurysm.

I had completely forgotten about this song until I heard the original Tozzi & Bigazzi version on the soundtrack to The Wolf of Wall Street. Since then, it's been great remembering Branigan's life and career, big hair, synth-rock and all.

                   

PROMPT: A book I thought I would love but really disappointed me is...


I know that it would have been pretty much impossible to follow up the beloved and sensational Harry Potter series with anything approaching that level of success, but I still had high hopes for - and was really disappointed by - J.K. Rowling's follow-up:

ASIN: 0316228583	The Casual Vacancy Product Type: Book
	Amazon's Price: $ 4.98 Buy Now!

When it was first announced, I was very excited about The Casual Vacancy. I loved the Harry Potter books not just because of the incredible supernatural world that Rowling created, but because of the way she made us care about her characters. They felt real and complex and interesting; everyone from Harry to Draco to Dumbledore to Neville Longbottom all had distinct personalities and attitudes, and the overall story of Harry Potter and his struggle against Voldemort is compelling. So when I heard that Rowling was writing a new novel, this time about adults and more mature subject matter, I was really excited about the possibilities and where she would take things.

As soon as I picked up a copy of The Casual Vacancy, I dove into it and powered through the first half of it before I started to wonder what was going on. The second half of the book was a slog; I didn't feel connected to any of the characters and the setting and plot - for lack of a better word - were just boring. Maybe I didn't do as good a job of managing my expectations as I thought, or maybe novels about small-town politics just aren't my thing, but I felt really let down. Not because I expected something anywhere near the scope of Harry Potter, but because although well-written, I just couldn't emotionally connect to the book in the same way that I did with her previous series.

It's unfortunate, but I was so disappointed in this book that although I really love the premise of her third book, The Cuckoo's Calling (published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith), I haven't read it yet and I'm reluctant to do so because I was so disappointed by this one. I probably will read that one at some point because it's one of those books that I feel like I need to read because it's in the public consciousness and people are always talking about it, but I'm not particularly looking forward to it and often bump it down my list when something else comes along. Who knows, maybe I'll read it in the next few months and might even be able to include it as my "book that pleasantly surprised me" blog entry next year. But for now, because of my disappointment in The Casual Vacancy, I won't be reading any more Rowling for a while.