Singer Laura Branigan Dead at 47

[SamAdams76]

Singer Laura Branigan passed away in her sleep on the evening of Thursday, August 26, 2004. Her death was apparently caused by a brain aneurysm.

Laura was only 47 years old, having been born on July 3, 1957 in Brewster, New York.

Laura had 13 charted hits in the Billboard Top 100 spanning the years 1982 to 1990, including five consecutive Top 20 smashes during the mid-1980s.

Those hits were as follows:

Gloria - #2 in July 1982
Solitaire - #7 in March 1983
How Am I Supposed To Live With You - #12 in July 1983 (#1 for three weeks on the Adult Contemporary charts)
Self Control - #4 in April 1984
The Lucky One - #20 in August 1984

Gloria was also backing vocalist with recording artist Leonard Cohen. As well, she guest-starred on the TV show CHiPs and appeared in the 1984 movie Mugsy's Girl.

Laura recently was cast as Janis Joplin in some Broadway play, earning rave reviews. Ironically, Janis Joplin herself died prematurely, but in Janis' case, it was self-inflicted by booze and heroin.

[SamAdams76]

Another death in the musical community. When will the madness end? Just in the last few months alone we have lost Syreeta Wright, Rick James, Ray Charles, half of McFadden and Whitehead (can't remember which one but I think it was McFadden) as well as some others I can't remember off the top of my head, but they died too.

It's really strange how many deaths we have had in the music business recently.

[oceanview]

terrible. Her rendition of Power of Love, blows Celine Dion's away.

[djf]

Sad. My wife died from an aneurysm at 41.

Laura's husband had died a few years back, and she was still pretty torn up about it, or so it goes.

"Self Control" - still one of my favorite tunes of all time. Plus, she was flat out beautiful...

[LS]

Self-Control, one of my all time favorites.

[TheBigB]

Aw, MAN!! :( Laura was my FAVORITE female singer. "Gloria" is one of my top five all-time favorite rock songs. This sucks.

[bd476]

Thanks for posting this, Sam.

Rest in peace, Laura.

[killjoy]

Aw, MAN!! :( Laura was my FAVORITE female singer. "Gloria" is one of my top five all-time favorite rock songs. This sucks.

"Gloria" also had one of the best videos ever put on TV. Everything about it was way ahead of it's time. I can't believe the director had such vision when MTV was still in its early stages. Simply amazing.

[Ciexyz]

Sad. My wife died from an aneurysm at 41.

Please accept my condolences.

[SamAdams76]

Ironically I had recently added "Self Control" to my 80s mix playlist. I've been organizing my music collection on my computer lately in expectation of putting it all on an iPod in the near future. I was just listening to it barely two weeks ago.

[Junior]

Man! I loved Solitaire!

[vikingchick]

This is weird: I've been listening to "Gloria" all week because I checked out a greatest 80s CD from the library.

What a great voice she had. Rest in peace.

[Shooter 2.5]

I'm so sorry to hear this. Rest in Peace, beautiful lady.

[SamAdams76]

As well, sorry to hear about your wife. I can't imagine going through something like that personally. Life is so uncertain. Thankfully I've learned to appreciate each day I have and not let the little stuff get to me.

[zarf]

Horrible. Just horrible. I got to work with Laura in New York in recording situations. A very nice lady. This is terrible news.

[vetvetdoug]

I have just had a "Twilight Zone" minute. Thursday morning I woke up with Gloria going over and over in my mind. I mowed with the tractor all day Thursday and I couldn't change the radio station no matter how hard I concentrated. This is just a coincidence but a weird one at that. I feel for the family of Laura and its a shame someone has to leave us that has so much talent and future potential.

[RightWhale]

It's really strange how many deaths we have had in the music business

It's a fairly large population. Besides, even the Stones are 60. Seems like yesterday.. Hey, you! Get offa my cloud.

[Walkin Man]

Thats sad, I always loved her voice. RIP...

[mdittmar]

Damn,brings back memories.

Too young to go.

[mountn man]

It's really strange how many deaths we have had in the music business recently.

Yah. Imagine, musicians die just like the rest of us.

I think its all Bushes fault.

I think he ought to spend the entire GDP until the cause for death is found. And continue spending until a cure is found.

[SamAdams76]

I was thinking about the Stones just this morning. Mick Jagger recently turned 62. That's a little scary. Now I realize that 62 isn't really "old" anymore in today's world (I'm 42 and yet I feel like I could be 30), but still, it's a little unsettling to know that the rock stars you listened to as a kid are now getting old enough to collect Social Security.