Happy 35th: Laura Branigan, BRANIGAN 2

35 years ago this month, Laura Branigan released her sophomore album, an LP which proved that the success of her debut album was no fluke.

Produced by Jack White and Robbie Buchanan in sessions which took place at two different locations in Hollywood – Rusk Sound Studios and Allen Zentz Recording Studios – BRANIGAN 2 built on the chart success Branigan found with her single “Gloria” by following a similar format: while that song was an English adaptation of an Italian song, “Solitaire” was an adaptation of a German song. The plan worked, too, with “Solitaire” climbing to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The album also scored a major hit with Branigan’s take on “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” a song which would later turn into a signature song for Michael Bolton, but it’s been written many times over the years that Branigan put far more emotion into her version. 

You may also recognize a few other songs on the album: Branigan turns in a version of The Who’s “Squeeze Box,” and she also delivered a track called “Deep in the Dark,” which – as you can tell after listening to only a few seconds of the song – is Falco’s “Der Kommissar” with different lyrics. Yes, this was the same year that After the Fire recorded their own English version of the song, but Branigan’s version is nothing to sneeze at. 

BRANIGAN 2 proved to be more successful than its predecessor, cracking the top 30 of the Billboard 200, but darned if Branigan didn’t build on that success, too: when she released her next album, SELF CONTROL, a few years later, it climbed half a dozen spots higher on the chart.