December 13, 2019 • 43 mins
The St. Louis Blues hockey team had the worst record in the NHL in January 2019, before deciding to adopt the 1982 hit song Gloria as their anthem. They ended up winning the Stanley Cup. But many of their fans didn't even know that the woman who sang that song had died back in 2004. Mo talks to Laura Branigan's brother, her high school best friend, songwriter Diane Warren (who wrote her first hit song for Branigan) and attends a reunion of fans to tell the poignant story of an undersung pop star whose voice lives on.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
In January two thousand nineteen, the St. Louis Blues hockey
team was in last place, dead last. All the wheels
seemed to have fallen off the wagon. There's a lot
of concern around the St. Louis Blues. There's no jump,
there's no grip, there's no excitement. The NHL season had
started in October. This is unbelievable. A couple of months later,
(00:25):
their own fans booed them during and after a game.
By January there are chances of winning the Stanley Cup
were point six percent, not six percent, which would be
bad enough. Point six The team trudged into Philly to
play the Philadelphia Flyers. We have a friend of ours
(00:46):
from Philly. He invited us to this bar. That's St.
Louis Blues player Robert Bortuzzo. He and four other players
went out for some beers and cheese steaks the night
before their game. I mean, why not, you know what?
This place is papped characters. And then there's one guy
who just kept wanting them to play Gloria, playing Gloria,
play Gloria. So they kept playing it Gloria, you know
(01:10):
hit song from Laura Brann again. So the DJ kept
playing Gloria over and over, and the places going nuts.
The guys wind up having a pretty good time. They
go home, sleep off the booze. They go out the
(01:32):
next day and they win three nothing, a shutout. Alexander Stein,
another player, says they went back to the locker room
that night and celebrated by playing Gloria. Throughout the course
of the season, as a group, you try and find
things that connect you more. They officially adopted Gloria as
(01:54):
their wind song, and then the Boy you Love It.
They won their next ten games playing Gloria. After everyone,
it wasn't long before the song moved out of the
locker room and into the arena, to the delight of
thousands of screaming fans. We're no longer booing. A local
(02:23):
radio station played Gloria for twenty four hours straight. Gloria
continues down. I hope you're not tired of again, because
we're not. Let's go Blues baby. Lifelong fan Jim Patton
got to play Gloria Tattoo with the Blues and with Laura,
and then naturally fans started asking for Laura Brannigan to
(02:45):
come sing Gloria in person. I thought all that would
be cool. They brought her in for one of the games.
But there was one problem. So you say she died, Yeah,
Laura Brannigan died in her sleep in two thousand four.
But in two thousand nineteen, her chart topping hit took
the Blues all the weight at the top the way
(03:08):
it is over and the St. Louis Blues are the
Stanley Cup tippets for the first time in franchise mystery.
That's right. In five months they went from number thirty
one to number one, worst to first go to my
grave singing glorious? So who was Laura Branding in anyway?
(03:32):
Even her neighbors didn't know who. She was really underrated
singer ever since he was a little kid. She could sing.
There was like a little mischievous secret to that smile.
And while I'm at it, who's Gloria? She's a little cuckoo.
I'm not positive, but I think it's about a mentally
disturbed woman. Was she a prostitute? Gloria from CDAs Sunday
(03:55):
Morning and Simon and Schuster, I'm Morocca and this see
mobituaries This mobid Laura Brandigan August two thousand four, death
of a singer life of a Song. Well, I wasn't
(04:22):
a big Laura Brannigan fan back then, but I certainly
am now, I certainly am. What did we listen to
before Laura brand Again? Was there before Laura Brandon? This
(04:43):
is my best friend, Mario. We grew up together listening
to mostly show tunes. We both loved Cats. We had
the record, and you pointed out that the LP was
better because especially if We're is a double LP, because
you could look at all the pictures of all the cats.
(05:03):
Broadway cast albums were an important part of our lives
and our friendship. Don't cry for Men't for Avida. You
didn't have the broadway cast album you had. I had
the original pelopone original Broadway cast album. I thought you
had Elaine Page. I had pre Elaine Page. Julie Couvington
was the concert version. But while she wasn't a Broadway person,
(05:25):
Laura Brannigan captivated us. Whisper in her voice is great. Oh,
it's an amazing voice. And in fact, that's how I
learned what four octave means. She came along and I've
read some article about her four octave range. I mean,
she's obviously an attractive, pretty woman, but they never sort
of marketed her effectively that way. Be factly, all she
(05:47):
was selling really was the boys. But also she was
as talented as she was and with her voice being
so amazing, she was like a really average seeming person,
(06:08):
like an accessible seeming right, but you could image and
sort of being friends with this woman. I could have
imagined her going to Pile Junior High seriously totally, and
even though she didn't go to junior high with us,
it turns out our feelings on Laura or Laurie as
she was known growing up, we're pretty right on. Yeah,
she would sign anybody's autograph. She's just the same sweet
(06:31):
kid we knew with fame. Mark brand Again is Laura's
older brother. He hasn't spoken publicly about his sister since
she died in two thousand four. So was she known
around the neighborhood as a kid with the pipes? Yeah? Yeah,
Oh my god? Could she sing? As a family, we
used to sing in church together sometimes, is that right? Yeah? Christmas,
(06:53):
we'd we'd go around and sing Christmas carols in front
of our neighbor's house, the whole family. Yeah. Yeah, And
if you couldn't sing in the Brannigan House, which I
can't really you were the off key one. Laura was
(07:13):
born in nine, the fourth of five kids to Jimmy
and Kathleen Brannigan, and this musical Irish Catholic family lived
in the small town of Armand, New York. When she
was little, did she say I want to be a
big recording star. No, she was very shy. It was
never she never tried to get attention to herself. She
(07:35):
just liked to sing, and oh, okay, great, And then
I heard her sing seriously. I just was like, you know,
and were your parents supportive of her aspiration? Yes, they
really were, especially my mother. No surprise there, Mark says.
Their mom performed on a radio talent show as a
(07:56):
kid and always sang around the house. All the neighbor
kids used to come around outside the window where my
mother would wash the dishes, and they'd sit there. She
wouldn't know we were out there, and she would sing
and all the little kids would clap. What would she
sing when she was washing dishes? Contemporary music from her background,
(08:18):
and I don't remember exactly, And yeah, she sang that
all the time. She put all the kids to bed,
and we make her sing to us. It was great.
There she here, she is? She looks at Ali Ryerson
was one of Laura's best friends at Byram Hills High.
(08:39):
We're looking at their high school year both that's me,
look at you there. Ali is a professional floutist, so
I couldn't resist making a request. That's great to remember
(09:03):
it that. What was our Monk like as a place
to grow up? It was great? You know, I guess
what they call a New York bedroom community? Do they
have a nice house? They were middle class where they lived.
It was not like the ritzy part of our Monk.
What was her style in high school? Like? When she
(09:25):
walked down the hall, was it like, there's Laurie. She
had long, dark, flowing hair. It was always the perfect
messy look. And I don't think on purpose at all.
It was that was the way that Laurie looked. She
was very striking, but in a very natural way. Laura
starred in the high school musical senior year. I think
(09:46):
it was Pajama Game. So she played babe. Yes, that's
I mean, that's a big belt role. You don't have
a big voice to that. The kind of voice she had.
One of the things I remember about her was her ability,
her natural ability to harmonize, which is hard. It's really hard.
It's really hard. She just had a great ear. Now,
(10:06):
Ali doesn't remember Mrs brand Again as exactly happy, go lucky.
She was stern. That's what I remember, as Ali recalls,
Laura's mom was working in a dress shop and one
time the two teenage girls were gathering in the ladies
room and I don't remember sitting on it, but for
some reason, the sink came out of the wall. Oh
(10:28):
my gosh, you sat on the sink in the ladies
root and it came out. We denied that we sat
on it, but we might have hit it. And her
mother was like kind of furious, Well, okay, you did
rip the sink out of the wall. Well okay, I'm
kind of on Mrs Brannigan's side on this one. And
(10:52):
when I think that to it, I think you might
be right. Laura wasn't the only brand Again trying to
pull one over on her mother. My kid brother, Billy Billy,
he put marijuana plants on the roof. You had a
rooftop marijuana garden. My mother fertilized. Your mother didn't realize
(11:14):
along with her roses and she's sit probably watering there
going it's a great day for the Irish. I've heard
about your your sister pulling pranks. The best thing she did.
She had a friend named Ethan who was going over
to prep school and taking the s s France. Laura
(11:39):
and Ali and their friend Lisa went to see this
friend off on a cruise ship. One thing led to another.
We're giggling and a little tipsy, and I said, why
don't we just stay on the ship. So we did. Yep.
The three girls stowed away and once they were found own,
(12:00):
it was too late to turn back. We're on our own.
It's a five day crossing. Their parents are cold, but
the punishment will have to wait. The girls are giving
cabins and waila. They're on vacation. We have five French
waiters for the three of us. I know they gave
us a bottle of wine. I'm pretty sure I've seen
(12:22):
these movies starring Marilyn Monroe, Ravel or something like you.
Was there any romance on the ship. Well, one of
our waiters, Mario, I knew it was going to be
a waiter, and you mentioned the five waiters. I had
a little flirtation with him. I don't know about Lori,
but Ali does have a distinct memory from that trip
(12:45):
of Laura doing what she loved most a few times.
I don't know if it's like a ballroom or a
lounge or something like that, an empty room with a
grand piano. I would find Lori in there at the piano,
playing and singing. That's a wonderful memory. I remember the
(13:05):
time that you gave me the votes. Now they prest
in the pages of Vault. And after high school, Laura
moved to New York City to study drama. She joined
the folk rock band Meadow. I'm getting a strong Godspell
(13:41):
vibe here. I mean, this was the early seventies after all,
And a few years later she hit the road as
a backup singer for Leonard Cohen. Then she landed a
(14:02):
big time manager, Sid Bernstein, the man who brought the
Beatles to America. He called Laura the next Judy Garland.
Soon she booked a TV commercial for three m It
was the first time a lot of people saw and
heard her and said got her in her room with
(14:28):
legendary Atlantic Records head A'm it aired again. I got
up and I said, Laura you're going to be an
Atlantic artist, and I think you're going to be a star.
But for a couple of years it was a touch
and go. They knew Laura was great, but they couldn't
figure out exactly what to do with her. She recorded
(14:50):
a bunch of materials, but her first Album's got shelved
until finally something clicked. It has an amazing beginning because
(15:11):
instead of yeah, instead of like sort of like slowly
building up, it just like a now and says it's coming.
The song it was like jumper cables. It is a
song with velocity, right velocity. It has its own velocity
and you are not going to get in a way.
(15:32):
It is gonna pummel you down. It's what I Have.
The Tiger tried to do right. I Have The Tiger
was a perfectly fine pop song in its day, but
it was like saying, boom, boom boom, we are doing this,
and Gloria doesn't try to do that. It just doesn't.
Gloria was Laura Brannigan's breakout hit, a certified platinum single
(15:57):
that earned her a Grammy nomination and a spot on
the TV police drama A Chip Audition for You, With
the kind of like foxes, um, why don't you listen
to our tape? Here? While it hovered a number two
on the charts and never quite made it to the
tippy top, Gloria stayed on the Billboard Hot one hundred
for thirty six weeks. If you don't like doing the math,
(16:17):
that's eight and a half months. If I were doing
a soundtrack for my day, I wouldn't know where to
put it. Because it works well getting out of bed,
the alarm goes off, walking to work. It works for
like striding down the hallway and delivering some paper that's
that the boss is going to rave about. Isn't it
(16:39):
odd there have not been covers. I can't think of
any mainstream hit that has either successfully sampled or covered.
Gloria and Laura kept it up five a new album
every year, with more top ten hits. One of the
things that really kind of gets my cross is and
(16:59):
people think she's a one hit wonder. She's not a
one hit wonder. Oh oh, arm Alright, let's talk about
these other songs a little bit. Self control is a
whole topic. It's entire podcast. It's a great song, it's
(17:21):
sort of a complex song. The night I remember the
video being so weird like she was. She was kind
of like in this House of Horror type thing. Everyone
had these creepy masks. It was a little sort of
eyes wide shot. The director of the Self Control video
(17:45):
music video is William friedkin oh right, Yes, in The Exorcist,
the French Connection, the Boys in the Band, and Self
Control the video. Yes, but she had three really big
hits she had Gloria self Control Solitaire. I mean I
throw in there, how am I supposed to live without?
That was a big hid that's right. Laura was the
(18:12):
first to sing this song, written by a then unknown
Michael Bolton. She gave his career a huge boost. Another
songwriter who hit it big with Laura Diane Warren. Even
if you don't know her name, you definitely know her songs.
(18:33):
Diane's work includes songs for Share, Aerosmith, Selene Dion, Lady Gaga,
and a lot more. But before all of them, there
was Laura Brandagan. Was that a breakthrough for you when
she sang Solitaire? I mean it was the first time
anything with my name on it went top ken, So
(18:54):
it was pretty cool. Diane was just starting out when
she wrote new English lyrics to a French song on
called Solitaire. Laura sang it and the song went to
number seven. How would you describe her voice? It was ballsy,
and it had power, and it had passion. It's just
(19:16):
one of those just larger than life voices. I mean,
I love those kind of voices. And when Diane Warren
says a voice has power, I mean, you're the authority
on that. To me, she's one of the best singers
I ever worked with. Like Solitaire, several of Laura's early
hits were English language covers of European songs. It might
(19:38):
surprise you that Gloria was originally an Italian love song
by the singer Umbert Totosi. Okay, they changed the lyrics and,
as Laura put it, gave it an American cap and
(19:59):
with that kick, it's sore. It's been featured every place,
from Flashdance to South Park, Grand Theft Auto to the
assassination of Gianni Versacci. Let's face it, the St. Louis
Blues needed Gloria, not the other way around. What is
it about a song like Gloria that it just keeps
(20:21):
coming back? I mean, it's a great melody A and
then what that lyric is singing about this character like
this happy music, edulent melody with this kind of tragic character.
The lyrics certainly don't describe a happy character. I think
you've got to slow down before you start to blow it.
I think you're headed for a breakdown, so be careful
(20:44):
not to show it what happens. I think there's so
many people they get in the fast name and they
lose the essence of themselves and they're so concerned with
keeping up. That's Laura herself weighing in on the meaning
of the song. And so what I'm doing in the
song glory is telling it glory. But I slow down.
That was and just a few years later, Laura's career
(21:09):
did slow down, much sooner than she probably wanted. She
had her last top twenty hit, the Lucky One. What happened.
Laura's relatable, she's beautiful, and she's got that voice. Um.
(21:32):
You know, when I first got into this business, I
knew nothing about it, and um I got involved with
the wrong people. They could have gone the next step
and really developed her as an artist. This is Diane
Warren again. She should have had a long career. Turns
out the cracks were starting to show early. She fired
her manager, Sid Bernstein, just as Gloria was climbing the charts.
(21:56):
Her relationship with her next manager ended up in a
legal dispute. Then someone new took the helm. I know
you're married to your manager. That's right. He's in a
supporting role. You can trust him. Yes, Laura had married
attorney Larry crew Tech nine months after meeting him in
crew Tech was closely involved with her career from the
(22:18):
very beginning. I wasn't able to gather much insight into him.
Wore their relationship though. Diane Warren only remembers one thing
about him. Remember we're in really tight leather pants, that's remember.
And I don't sense a lot of love lost between
Laura's brother Mark and his brother in law. We didn't
fight with him, but there was no simpatico between us.
(22:43):
Give him a holiday card, you know, Happy Thanksgiving, and
you know, and Laura's high school friend Ali never even
met him. You know, Laurie kind of drifted off. And
how did you feel about that? Sad and a little
bit disappointed. In those days, you would print postcards and
(23:05):
mail them out. Laurie was on my mailing list, and
I would always write a note to her. Did you
see each other or speak at all during the nineteen
seventies that whole decade? I don't think we did. You
never got any response, nothing, nothing. Laura also fell out
of touch with her former bandmates from Meadow. One explanation
(23:28):
maybe that she basically needed to erase five years from
her life. You see, fans thought Laura was born in
The truth is she was born in ninety two. The
record company made her do it, and the only way
we even found out about it was because many years
after her death, the AP issued a correction. I remember
(23:51):
reading on my computer and being kind of stunned. Mario's right.
The Associated Press issued a correction to her obituary almost
thirteen years after Laura died. But how did the APE
even find out? It all started in spring two thousand
and fourteen. This is Swedish Laura Brannigan, superman steeg Akia
(24:15):
person many people just call Misstigue. A retiree living in
a Swedish seaside village. Steve spent hundreds of hours on
his computer doing research. I love it. People are collecting
stamps or whatever. I am collecting all stuff I can
found of Laura Brannigan. One thing. This Swedish sleuth uncovered
(24:39):
a great photo of the Brannigan family in their kitchen
together in nineteen fifty four. There's a baby Laura right
in the middle. It was a gold mine. I think
the real significance in this news coming to light when
Laura finally broke out with Gloria. She was thirty years old,
not old in normal people terms, but certainly not young
(25:03):
in the pop music world. When you first heard the
age she was putting out there, did you kind of
roll your eyes and go, come on? It didn't bother
me as far as Laurie was concerned. I knew that
that wasn't her choice. She would follow her team, and
I think she was right too. It's hard, yeah, navigating
(25:26):
the music business, pop stardom, trying to stay on top
while doing what's right for you for your career. It's
a lot. Heading into the nine nineties, she was still
putting out albums, but there were fewer and farther in between.
So why such a long time. There are lots of
obsessive Laura Brannigan fans out there that are wondering, where
(25:47):
have you been? Everybody says that that's TV and radio
host Ernie Manoose talking to Laura about her album Over
My Heart. Does your management ever say to you, Laura,
don't do this again. Do not take three years. We
need you out there. No, no, I have a new manager,
frank Le, so take care of the old one. Yep.
(26:09):
She'd taken on yet another manager, but the hits had
dried up. How frustrating it must have been to be
Laura in the nineties when she knew she could still
sing the hell out of a song, but the songs
weren't going to her. Laura believed that this one would
(26:35):
have put her back on top Celine Dion's hit from Titanic,
My Heart Will Go On. I know perfect. You can
hear the frustration in her voice on this phone call.
I can hear you, and I can hear her singing it.
(26:55):
Why is it you have that magic? When Laura started out,
her motivation seemed so pure. After Gloria hit, she went
on American Bandstand and Dick Clark asked her about her future.
What do you hope for the next ten years. I
just always want to sing. I just always want to sing. Now.
Contrast that with Madonna, who was on just over a
(27:19):
year later, What are your dreams? What's like to rule
the world, Ladies and gentlemen, this is Madonna. I don't
think Laura wanted to rule the world, but I don't
think she wanted to fade away either. In any case,
Over My Heart turned out to be Laura's last album.
(27:42):
Not long after its release, her husband was diagnosed with
colon cancer. Laura put her career on hold to take
care of him. He died two years later, around the
same time her older brother Jimmy died. Then a few
years later, she fell from a ladder and broke both
(28:04):
her legs. The grueling recovery meant more time away from
her music. Here's her brother Mark again. That was a
lot too for her to deal at that time, really
really tough. The rehab of that monsters monsters, and you know,
the public they want to hear you. And if they
(28:27):
don't hear you and see you, it's not that they
forget about you. It's just that you're not on their mind.
But for a group of die hard fans, Laura was
and still is on their mind. Tell me where the
Spirit of love event is? Remember that woman on the
phone with Laura High There that's Kathy golic A mo Yes.
(28:51):
I met her at a Hilton Garden Inn on Long Island,
New York, where she was holding this year's Spirit of
Love memorial gathering, in annual meeting of Laura Brannigan fans.
When we come back to the hotel, it's like saying
family there. Kathy started as a fan, became a friend,
and now keeps Laura alive online. If you follow Laura
(29:12):
brand Again on Twitter, you're reading Kathy's posts. She was
even in St. Louis when the Blues won the Stanley
Gloria's played and they would play a three or four times,
so we were one of the last ones to leave
the arena. Tell me the trip. Did you know anything
about pro ice hockey before this? Casually? Casually she's filled
one of the hotel conference rooms with memorabilia. I spotted
(29:36):
a German movie poster and again and Ruth Gordon, Okay,
that's Laura dubbed into German in the movie Muggsy's Girls.
It's sort of like a female animal house. In case
you haven't seen Muggsy's Girls, it's about a sorority that
enters a mud wrestling competition in Las Vegas in order
(29:58):
to save their house. It's not Shakespeare, but hey, Ruth
Gordon was on board. Legend a great actress. Even years
after they had made this movie together, she used to
get together with Laura the Russian tabroom. Laura had a
grander ambitions as an actress. I think she did. I
think she did. Yeah. Cathy plans activities for the whole weekend,
(30:22):
no matter what the turnout, and this year the turnout
was modest, with just four fans. One of those die
hards is Colin Strong. This is my fourth year, fourth
year in a row. I'm a merchant mariner, so I
go different places around the world South Korea, Japan, Dubai,
(30:43):
and Long Island. This past year, Colin brought something special
to the event, a trophy that Laura won in Tokyo
and this is the grand prize. Happy. I'm not thinking
that this thing is a big Colin found it on
eBay asked was it expensive A little bit? I'll take
(31:04):
that as a yes. Supervan. Scott Thomas came up from Virginia.
Last night at the beach. Were just sitting around having
a little reflection. You know, everybody got two roses and
we tossed him in the ocean for do you feel
a bond with the other fans? Definitely. Scott met Laura
after seven show in Virginia Beach, where he says she
(31:25):
invited him to take a ride in her limo, but
nothing happened. So I mean Huggan's kissing and stuff like that,
as Betty it now, Scott was already dating the woman
he's now married to. And how does she feel about
his trip to New York this weekend? Didn't like it.
I don't like it one bit. And finally, I'm a
light housekeeper with the Canadian Coast card Stanley West table
(31:47):
and you're holding a candle as it were for Laura.
Stanley came by himself. He didn't know anyone here. He
traveled three thousand miles from British Columbia, Canada because of
Laura Brannigan. I could possibly say I'm here today because
of her. In a more literal sense, I had a
very bad personal break up in and it was her
(32:08):
voice that called me back from the edge, Stanley sense
is something deeply empathetic in Laura's voice. It's almost as
though she's speaking to you in a way saying I've
been there even now. This heartrending sound isn't something that
(32:42):
just superbands here. It's something people noticed about Laura from
the beginnings. And you have a soulful quality in your
in your voice, almost a sadness. That's Johnny Carson interviewing
Laura back Edith Off at all. That's interesting. I was
thinking of Edith Poff when I was listening to you sing.
(33:04):
Edith Poff was the iconic French shantouse known for her
torch songs and a life beset by tragedy. Oh that
was her favorite singer of all the time. She turned
me onto you off. I mean, she just loved it.
Mark Brannigan also hears the pain in his sister's voice.
She could break your heart with a song, you know,
(33:26):
and you'd see she was crying so and songwriter Diane
Warren says, you can't teach that kind of passion. You
either have soul and feeling or you know. And she
did this extra layer, this depth to Laura's voice. She
alluded to its roots during a conversation with Joan Rivers,
(33:47):
you do a lot of sad song. Now what are
you drawing is your life? And say it or I
had not well, it has been you know, I had
had a rough time growing up, and um, I think
I don't do a lot of that, okay, and it's okay.
I can't know for sure what Laura is referring to there,
(34:08):
but one person we haven't talked about is Laura's father.
My father was to say he had been very successful
on Wall Street, very successful after World War Two. I
don't know by the time we all got to be
(34:28):
in the teens he was. He was not not in
good shape. Her childhood was not Oh Roses. This is
her high school friend Ali Ryerson. Again, her father, who
was a wonderful man, would be gone for a few
days and then come back. He would have been better
(34:49):
off had he never had a drink in his life.
Let's just put it that way, you know. In the
liner notes to Self Control and al Them, which came
out the year after Laura's father died, Laura writes, for Dad,
now I know you're listening, let me read you something.
(35:10):
Her unhappy personal life in unadorned though dramatic style underlined
her expressive voice, and she was able to move audiences
with her passionate renditions of songs that were often about
love and Loss. That's not about Laura Brown again. It's
from an Encyclopedia entry on Edith Poff. I'm going to
(35:45):
see Laura Brannagan tomorrow night of Madison Square Garden, and
I have some advice for her. Open and clothes with Gloria,
do it a couple of times in between. That's David
Spade from an old Saturday Night Live. It's a funny bit.
While there's so much more to Laura Brandigan, she will
always be remembered for Gloria, and I don't think that's
(36:05):
a bad thing. In one interview, she said, look, I
end every concert with Gloria and people just go crazy.
And I bet I'd like to think that she never
resented that. I think she was grateful to sing that
song because that's the song that really made our star.
This is Tommy Biokos. At the end of our set list,
(36:27):
we would do self Control set Gloria. In the early
two thousands, Laura, after recovering from her injuries, was attempting
to come back twenty years after the release of Gloria.
Tommy was in her band while on tour together, he
and Laura started dating. She also started recording a new
(36:51):
album and writing a cookbook. The idea towards the end
was to have her cookbook, the new CD and a
world tour and hit the world that once was she
a great cook exceptional. At the time, Laura was living
on Long Island with her mother, who had developed Alzheimer's.
(37:12):
She would take her into the recording sessions my mother,
but my sister took her everywhere, took her everywhere, and
in her world it was Laura and everybody was happy,
and it's so sweet. She she was a sweet person. Yeah.
(37:33):
In the summer of two thousand four, Laura started getting
headaches and then on the morning of August, Mark got
a call from the caretaker at the house nine in
the morning. I thought, she said, my mother died, and
I said, okay, well let me speak to Mary, and
(37:54):
she goes, no, Mori's dead. Laura died of a brain
aneurism after going to sleep the night before. She was
fifty two. I was driving on and I heard the
(38:22):
news that Laura Brannigan had had died. I pulled off
and I called my brother John and we cried together.
You called me that morning when you heard the news.
He said, you know, I'm genuinely sad about this. She
was the big star, but she was also hours. It
(38:43):
was a personal thing, that's exactly right, And it was
a lesson in mortality and maybe like the end of
our youth in some respect, because I know you. But
it was the most beautiful voice. It was the most
beautiful voice. And I remember her brother Mark was so angry.
(39:07):
He was so angry to have lost her. There was
a private funeral service for Laura, but her mother wasn't there.
You know, I never told my mother she died. I um.
I told her she was in Europe. She was doing
(39:29):
a tour in California, and we would send our friends
envelopes that they would put from different parts of the
world to my mother from Mauri. Why what I was
going to tell her that her daughter died after losing
my older brother. I mean, that was the compassionate thing
to do. Oh sure, And she never knew. You know,
(39:56):
some people think it was a new Goaldie that brought
the St. Louis Blue to victory, but I think it
was Laura. When I heard that that hockey team was
doing it, I don't follow hobby. I said to myself,
they're they're going to have a run because that song,
it's got a lot of kara behind it, you know.
(40:19):
So did they end up winning anything? Mark? They won
the whole thing. They won the Stanley Cup. That's amazing.
And they were in the last place, they were down
in the dumps. They heard that song and they said
that's going to be the anthem and it went right.
(40:39):
That's unbot You've done good for me. She wasn't a
one hit wonder. She hasn't been forgotten. There was something
compelling behind that big sound. She's saying with power and substance,
sadness and warmth and that voice. It's still here. Next
(41:16):
time on Mobituaries, the Orphan Train and the largest mass
migration of children in American history. Well a quarter million
children were moved to west from fifty four A quarter
million people. That's like the population of Cleveland. That's a
lot of people. I certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.
(41:44):
Ask you to please rate and review our podcast. You
can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you
can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. You can subscribe
to Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of
Mobituaries was produced and edited by Alison Byrne. Our team
(42:05):
of producers also includes Megan Marcus, Harry Wood and me Morocca.
It was engineered by Bart Warshaw. Special thanks to Chris
Van Cleeve at Sumy Foreman, Amanda Creek, Thomas, Alberto Robina,
Nathan Miller, Matt Sello, Joe Causey, Kathy Golick, Triumph Brewing
Company of New Hope, and the Stanley Cup winning St.
(42:27):
Louis Blues. Indispensable support from Genius Staneski, Richard Rohr and
everyone at CBS News Radio. Our theme music is written
by Daniel Hart and as always, undying thanks to Rand
Morrison and John carp without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi,
(42:57):
It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituary the podcast, may I
invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's chock
full of stories not in the podcast. Celebrities who put
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the towel for good, forgotten fashions, defunct diagnoses, presidential candidacies
(43:18):
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until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the
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Tour information and lots more at mobituaries dot com
In January two thousand nineteen, the St. Louis Blues hockey
team was in last place, dead last. All the wheels
seemed to have fallen off the wagon. There's a lot
of concern around the St. Louis Blues. There's no jump,
there's no grip, there's no excitement. The NHL season had
started in October. This is unbelievable. A couple of months later,
(00:25):
their own fans booed them during and after a game.
By January there are chances of winning the Stanley Cup
were point six percent, not six percent, which would be
bad enough. Point six The team trudged into Philly to
play the Philadelphia Flyers. We have a friend of ours
(00:46):
from Philly. He invited us to this bar. That's St.
Louis Blues player Robert Bortuzzo. He and four other players
went out for some beers and cheese steaks the night
before their game. I mean, why not, you know what?
This place is papped characters. And then there's one guy
who just kept wanting them to play Gloria, playing Gloria,
play Gloria. So they kept playing it Gloria, you know
(01:10):
hit song from Laura Brann again. So the DJ kept
playing Gloria over and over, and the places going nuts.
The guys wind up having a pretty good time. They
go home, sleep off the booze. They go out the
(01:32):
next day and they win three nothing, a shutout. Alexander Stein,
another player, says they went back to the locker room
that night and celebrated by playing Gloria. Throughout the course
of the season, as a group, you try and find
things that connect you more. They officially adopted Gloria as
(01:54):
their wind song, and then the Boy you Love It.
They won their next ten games playing Gloria. After everyone,
it wasn't long before the song moved out of the
locker room and into the arena, to the delight of
thousands of screaming fans. We're no longer booing. A local
(02:23):
radio station played Gloria for twenty four hours straight. Gloria
continues down. I hope you're not tired of again, because
we're not. Let's go Blues baby. Lifelong fan Jim Patton
got to play Gloria Tattoo with the Blues and with Laura,
and then naturally fans started asking for Laura Brannigan to
(02:45):
come sing Gloria in person. I thought all that would
be cool. They brought her in for one of the games.
But there was one problem. So you say she died, Yeah,
Laura Brannigan died in her sleep in two thousand four.
But in two thousand nineteen, her chart topping hit took
the Blues all the weight at the top the way
(03:08):
it is over and the St. Louis Blues are the
Stanley Cup tippets for the first time in franchise mystery.
That's right. In five months they went from number thirty
one to number one, worst to first go to my
grave singing glorious? So who was Laura Branding in anyway?
(03:32):
Even her neighbors didn't know who. She was really underrated
singer ever since he was a little kid. She could sing.
There was like a little mischievous secret to that smile.
And while I'm at it, who's Gloria? She's a little cuckoo.
I'm not positive, but I think it's about a mentally
disturbed woman. Was she a prostitute? Gloria from CDAs Sunday
(03:55):
Morning and Simon and Schuster, I'm Morocca and this see
mobituaries This mobid Laura Brandigan August two thousand four, death
of a singer life of a Song. Well, I wasn't
(04:22):
a big Laura Brannigan fan back then, but I certainly
am now, I certainly am. What did we listen to
before Laura brand Again? Was there before Laura Brandon? This
(04:43):
is my best friend, Mario. We grew up together listening
to mostly show tunes. We both loved Cats. We had
the record, and you pointed out that the LP was
better because especially if We're is a double LP, because
you could look at all the pictures of all the cats.
(05:03):
Broadway cast albums were an important part of our lives
and our friendship. Don't cry for Men't for Avida. You
didn't have the broadway cast album you had. I had
the original pelopone original Broadway cast album. I thought you
had Elaine Page. I had pre Elaine Page. Julie Couvington
was the concert version. But while she wasn't a Broadway person,
(05:25):
Laura Brannigan captivated us. Whisper in her voice is great. Oh,
it's an amazing voice. And in fact, that's how I
learned what four octave means. She came along and I've
read some article about her four octave range. I mean,
she's obviously an attractive, pretty woman, but they never sort
of marketed her effectively that way. Be factly, all she
(05:47):
was selling really was the boys. But also she was
as talented as she was and with her voice being
so amazing, she was like a really average seeming person,
(06:08):
like an accessible seeming right, but you could image and
sort of being friends with this woman. I could have
imagined her going to Pile Junior High seriously totally, and
even though she didn't go to junior high with us,
it turns out our feelings on Laura or Laurie as
she was known growing up, we're pretty right on. Yeah,
she would sign anybody's autograph. She's just the same sweet
(06:31):
kid we knew with fame. Mark brand Again is Laura's
older brother. He hasn't spoken publicly about his sister since
she died in two thousand four. So was she known
around the neighborhood as a kid with the pipes? Yeah? Yeah,
Oh my god? Could she sing? As a family, we
used to sing in church together sometimes, is that right? Yeah? Christmas,
(06:53):
we'd we'd go around and sing Christmas carols in front
of our neighbor's house, the whole family. Yeah. Yeah, And
if you couldn't sing in the Brannigan House, which I
can't really you were the off key one. Laura was
(07:13):
born in nine, the fourth of five kids to Jimmy
and Kathleen Brannigan, and this musical Irish Catholic family lived
in the small town of Armand, New York. When she
was little, did she say I want to be a
big recording star. No, she was very shy. It was
never she never tried to get attention to herself. She
(07:35):
just liked to sing, and oh, okay, great, And then
I heard her sing seriously. I just was like, you know,
and were your parents supportive of her aspiration? Yes, they
really were, especially my mother. No surprise there, Mark says.
Their mom performed on a radio talent show as a
(07:56):
kid and always sang around the house. All the neighbor
kids used to come around outside the window where my
mother would wash the dishes, and they'd sit there. She
wouldn't know we were out there, and she would sing
and all the little kids would clap. What would she
sing when she was washing dishes? Contemporary music from her background,
(08:18):
and I don't remember exactly, And yeah, she sang that
all the time. She put all the kids to bed,
and we make her sing to us. It was great.
There she here, she is? She looks at Ali Ryerson
was one of Laura's best friends at Byram Hills High.
(08:39):
We're looking at their high school year both that's me,
look at you there. Ali is a professional floutist, so
I couldn't resist making a request. That's great to remember
(09:03):
it that. What was our Monk like as a place
to grow up? It was great? You know, I guess
what they call a New York bedroom community? Do they
have a nice house? They were middle class where they lived.
It was not like the ritzy part of our Monk.
What was her style in high school? Like? When she
(09:25):
walked down the hall, was it like, there's Laurie. She
had long, dark, flowing hair. It was always the perfect
messy look. And I don't think on purpose at all.
It was that was the way that Laurie looked. She
was very striking, but in a very natural way. Laura
starred in the high school musical senior year. I think
(09:46):
it was Pajama Game. So she played babe. Yes, that's
I mean, that's a big belt role. You don't have
a big voice to that. The kind of voice she had.
One of the things I remember about her was her ability,
her natural ability to harmonize, which is hard. It's really hard.
It's really hard. She just had a great ear. Now,
(10:06):
Ali doesn't remember Mrs brand Again as exactly happy, go lucky.
She was stern. That's what I remember, as Ali recalls,
Laura's mom was working in a dress shop and one
time the two teenage girls were gathering in the ladies
room and I don't remember sitting on it, but for
some reason, the sink came out of the wall. Oh
(10:28):
my gosh, you sat on the sink in the ladies
root and it came out. We denied that we sat
on it, but we might have hit it. And her
mother was like kind of furious, Well, okay, you did
rip the sink out of the wall. Well okay, I'm
kind of on Mrs Brannigan's side on this one. And
(10:52):
when I think that to it, I think you might
be right. Laura wasn't the only brand Again trying to
pull one over on her mother. My kid brother, Billy Billy,
he put marijuana plants on the roof. You had a
rooftop marijuana garden. My mother fertilized. Your mother didn't realize
(11:14):
along with her roses and she's sit probably watering there
going it's a great day for the Irish. I've heard
about your your sister pulling pranks. The best thing she did.
She had a friend named Ethan who was going over
to prep school and taking the s s France. Laura
(11:39):
and Ali and their friend Lisa went to see this
friend off on a cruise ship. One thing led to another.
We're giggling and a little tipsy, and I said, why
don't we just stay on the ship. So we did. Yep.
The three girls stowed away and once they were found own,
(12:00):
it was too late to turn back. We're on our own.
It's a five day crossing. Their parents are cold, but
the punishment will have to wait. The girls are giving
cabins and waila. They're on vacation. We have five French
waiters for the three of us. I know they gave
us a bottle of wine. I'm pretty sure I've seen
(12:22):
these movies starring Marilyn Monroe, Ravel or something like you.
Was there any romance on the ship. Well, one of
our waiters, Mario, I knew it was going to be
a waiter, and you mentioned the five waiters. I had
a little flirtation with him. I don't know about Lori,
but Ali does have a distinct memory from that trip
(12:45):
of Laura doing what she loved most a few times.
I don't know if it's like a ballroom or a
lounge or something like that, an empty room with a
grand piano. I would find Lori in there at the piano,
playing and singing. That's a wonderful memory. I remember the
(13:05):
time that you gave me the votes. Now they prest
in the pages of Vault. And after high school, Laura
moved to New York City to study drama. She joined
the folk rock band Meadow. I'm getting a strong Godspell
(13:41):
vibe here. I mean, this was the early seventies after all,
And a few years later she hit the road as
a backup singer for Leonard Cohen. Then she landed a
(14:02):
big time manager, Sid Bernstein, the man who brought the
Beatles to America. He called Laura the next Judy Garland.
Soon she booked a TV commercial for three m It
was the first time a lot of people saw and
heard her and said got her in her room with
(14:28):
legendary Atlantic Records head A'm it aired again. I got
up and I said, Laura you're going to be an
Atlantic artist, and I think you're going to be a star.
But for a couple of years it was a touch
and go. They knew Laura was great, but they couldn't
figure out exactly what to do with her. She recorded
(14:50):
a bunch of materials, but her first Album's got shelved
until finally something clicked. It has an amazing beginning because
(15:11):
instead of yeah, instead of like sort of like slowly
building up, it just like a now and says it's coming.
The song it was like jumper cables. It is a
song with velocity, right velocity. It has its own velocity
and you are not going to get in a way.
(15:32):
It is gonna pummel you down. It's what I Have.
The Tiger tried to do right. I Have The Tiger
was a perfectly fine pop song in its day, but
it was like saying, boom, boom boom, we are doing this,
and Gloria doesn't try to do that. It just doesn't.
Gloria was Laura Brannigan's breakout hit, a certified platinum single
(15:57):
that earned her a Grammy nomination and a spot on
the TV police drama A Chip Audition for You, With
the kind of like foxes, um, why don't you listen
to our tape? Here? While it hovered a number two
on the charts and never quite made it to the
tippy top, Gloria stayed on the Billboard Hot one hundred
for thirty six weeks. If you don't like doing the math,
(16:17):
that's eight and a half months. If I were doing
a soundtrack for my day, I wouldn't know where to
put it. Because it works well getting out of bed,
the alarm goes off, walking to work. It works for
like striding down the hallway and delivering some paper that's
that the boss is going to rave about. Isn't it
(16:39):
odd there have not been covers. I can't think of
any mainstream hit that has either successfully sampled or covered.
Gloria and Laura kept it up five a new album
every year, with more top ten hits. One of the
things that really kind of gets my cross is and
(16:59):
people think she's a one hit wonder. She's not a
one hit wonder. Oh oh, arm Alright, let's talk about
these other songs a little bit. Self control is a
whole topic. It's entire podcast. It's a great song, it's
(17:21):
sort of a complex song. The night I remember the
video being so weird like she was. She was kind
of like in this House of Horror type thing. Everyone
had these creepy masks. It was a little sort of
eyes wide shot. The director of the Self Control video
(17:45):
music video is William friedkin oh right, Yes, in The Exorcist,
the French Connection, the Boys in the Band, and Self
Control the video. Yes, but she had three really big
hits she had Gloria self Control Solitaire. I mean I
throw in there, how am I supposed to live without?
That was a big hid that's right. Laura was the
(18:12):
first to sing this song, written by a then unknown
Michael Bolton. She gave his career a huge boost. Another
songwriter who hit it big with Laura Diane Warren. Even
if you don't know her name, you definitely know her songs.
(18:33):
Diane's work includes songs for Share, Aerosmith, Selene Dion, Lady Gaga,
and a lot more. But before all of them, there
was Laura Brandagan. Was that a breakthrough for you when
she sang Solitaire? I mean it was the first time
anything with my name on it went top ken, So
(18:54):
it was pretty cool. Diane was just starting out when
she wrote new English lyrics to a French song on
called Solitaire. Laura sang it and the song went to
number seven. How would you describe her voice? It was ballsy,
and it had power, and it had passion. It's just
(19:16):
one of those just larger than life voices. I mean,
I love those kind of voices. And when Diane Warren
says a voice has power, I mean, you're the authority
on that. To me, she's one of the best singers
I ever worked with. Like Solitaire, several of Laura's early
hits were English language covers of European songs. It might
(19:38):
surprise you that Gloria was originally an Italian love song
by the singer Umbert Totosi. Okay, they changed the lyrics and,
as Laura put it, gave it an American cap and
(19:59):
with that kick, it's sore. It's been featured every place,
from Flashdance to South Park, Grand Theft Auto to the
assassination of Gianni Versacci. Let's face it, the St. Louis
Blues needed Gloria, not the other way around. What is
it about a song like Gloria that it just keeps
(20:21):
coming back? I mean, it's a great melody A and
then what that lyric is singing about this character like
this happy music, edulent melody with this kind of tragic character.
The lyrics certainly don't describe a happy character. I think
you've got to slow down before you start to blow it.
I think you're headed for a breakdown, so be careful
(20:44):
not to show it what happens. I think there's so
many people they get in the fast name and they
lose the essence of themselves and they're so concerned with
keeping up. That's Laura herself weighing in on the meaning
of the song. And so what I'm doing in the
song glory is telling it glory. But I slow down.
That was and just a few years later, Laura's career
(21:09):
did slow down, much sooner than she probably wanted. She
had her last top twenty hit, the Lucky One. What happened.
Laura's relatable, she's beautiful, and she's got that voice. Um.
(21:32):
You know, when I first got into this business, I
knew nothing about it, and um I got involved with
the wrong people. They could have gone the next step
and really developed her as an artist. This is Diane
Warren again. She should have had a long career. Turns
out the cracks were starting to show early. She fired
her manager, Sid Bernstein, just as Gloria was climbing the charts.
(21:56):
Her relationship with her next manager ended up in a
legal dispute. Then someone new took the helm. I know
you're married to your manager. That's right. He's in a
supporting role. You can trust him. Yes, Laura had married
attorney Larry crew Tech nine months after meeting him in
crew Tech was closely involved with her career from the
(22:18):
very beginning. I wasn't able to gather much insight into him.
Wore their relationship though. Diane Warren only remembers one thing
about him. Remember we're in really tight leather pants, that's remember.
And I don't sense a lot of love lost between
Laura's brother Mark and his brother in law. We didn't
fight with him, but there was no simpatico between us.
(22:43):
Give him a holiday card, you know, Happy Thanksgiving, and
you know, and Laura's high school friend Ali never even
met him. You know, Laurie kind of drifted off. And
how did you feel about that? Sad and a little
bit disappointed. In those days, you would print postcards and
(23:05):
mail them out. Laurie was on my mailing list, and
I would always write a note to her. Did you
see each other or speak at all during the nineteen
seventies that whole decade? I don't think we did. You
never got any response, nothing, nothing. Laura also fell out
of touch with her former bandmates from Meadow. One explanation
(23:28):
maybe that she basically needed to erase five years from
her life. You see, fans thought Laura was born in
The truth is she was born in ninety two. The
record company made her do it, and the only way
we even found out about it was because many years
after her death, the AP issued a correction. I remember
(23:51):
reading on my computer and being kind of stunned. Mario's right.
The Associated Press issued a correction to her obituary almost
thirteen years after Laura died. But how did the APE
even find out? It all started in spring two thousand
and fourteen. This is Swedish Laura Brannigan, superman steeg Akia
(24:15):
person many people just call Misstigue. A retiree living in
a Swedish seaside village. Steve spent hundreds of hours on
his computer doing research. I love it. People are collecting
stamps or whatever. I am collecting all stuff I can
found of Laura Brannigan. One thing. This Swedish sleuth uncovered
(24:39):
a great photo of the Brannigan family in their kitchen
together in nineteen fifty four. There's a baby Laura right
in the middle. It was a gold mine. I think
the real significance in this news coming to light when
Laura finally broke out with Gloria. She was thirty years old,
not old in normal people terms, but certainly not young
(25:03):
in the pop music world. When you first heard the
age she was putting out there, did you kind of
roll your eyes and go, come on? It didn't bother
me as far as Laurie was concerned. I knew that
that wasn't her choice. She would follow her team, and
I think she was right too. It's hard, yeah, navigating
(25:26):
the music business, pop stardom, trying to stay on top
while doing what's right for you for your career. It's
a lot. Heading into the nine nineties, she was still
putting out albums, but there were fewer and farther in between.
So why such a long time. There are lots of
obsessive Laura Brannigan fans out there that are wondering, where
(25:47):
have you been? Everybody says that that's TV and radio
host Ernie Manoose talking to Laura about her album Over
My Heart. Does your management ever say to you, Laura,
don't do this again. Do not take three years. We
need you out there. No, no, I have a new manager,
frank Le, so take care of the old one. Yep.
(26:09):
She'd taken on yet another manager, but the hits had
dried up. How frustrating it must have been to be
Laura in the nineties when she knew she could still
sing the hell out of a song, but the songs
weren't going to her. Laura believed that this one would
(26:35):
have put her back on top Celine Dion's hit from Titanic,
My Heart Will Go On. I know perfect. You can
hear the frustration in her voice on this phone call.
I can hear you, and I can hear her singing it.
(26:55):
Why is it you have that magic? When Laura started out,
her motivation seemed so pure. After Gloria hit, she went
on American Bandstand and Dick Clark asked her about her future.
What do you hope for the next ten years. I
just always want to sing. I just always want to sing. Now.
Contrast that with Madonna, who was on just over a
(27:19):
year later, What are your dreams? What's like to rule
the world, Ladies and gentlemen, this is Madonna. I don't
think Laura wanted to rule the world, but I don't
think she wanted to fade away either. In any case,
Over My Heart turned out to be Laura's last album.
(27:42):
Not long after its release, her husband was diagnosed with
colon cancer. Laura put her career on hold to take
care of him. He died two years later, around the
same time her older brother Jimmy died. Then a few
years later, she fell from a ladder and broke both
(28:04):
her legs. The grueling recovery meant more time away from
her music. Here's her brother Mark again. That was a
lot too for her to deal at that time, really
really tough. The rehab of that monsters monsters, and you know,
the public they want to hear you. And if they
(28:27):
don't hear you and see you, it's not that they
forget about you. It's just that you're not on their mind.
But for a group of die hard fans, Laura was
and still is on their mind. Tell me where the
Spirit of love event is? Remember that woman on the
phone with Laura High There that's Kathy golic A mo Yes.
(28:51):
I met her at a Hilton Garden Inn on Long Island,
New York, where she was holding this year's Spirit of
Love memorial gathering, in annual meeting of Laura Brannigan fans.
When we come back to the hotel, it's like saying
family there. Kathy started as a fan, became a friend,
and now keeps Laura alive online. If you follow Laura
(29:12):
brand Again on Twitter, you're reading Kathy's posts. She was
even in St. Louis when the Blues won the Stanley
Gloria's played and they would play a three or four times,
so we were one of the last ones to leave
the arena. Tell me the trip. Did you know anything
about pro ice hockey before this? Casually? Casually she's filled
one of the hotel conference rooms with memorabilia. I spotted
(29:36):
a German movie poster and again and Ruth Gordon, Okay,
that's Laura dubbed into German in the movie Muggsy's Girls.
It's sort of like a female animal house. In case
you haven't seen Muggsy's Girls, it's about a sorority that
enters a mud wrestling competition in Las Vegas in order
(29:58):
to save their house. It's not Shakespeare, but hey, Ruth
Gordon was on board. Legend a great actress. Even years
after they had made this movie together, she used to
get together with Laura the Russian tabroom. Laura had a
grander ambitions as an actress. I think she did. I
think she did. Yeah. Cathy plans activities for the whole weekend,
(30:22):
no matter what the turnout, and this year the turnout
was modest, with just four fans. One of those die
hards is Colin Strong. This is my fourth year, fourth
year in a row. I'm a merchant mariner, so I
go different places around the world South Korea, Japan, Dubai,
(30:43):
and Long Island. This past year, Colin brought something special
to the event, a trophy that Laura won in Tokyo
and this is the grand prize. Happy. I'm not thinking
that this thing is a big Colin found it on
eBay asked was it expensive A little bit? I'll take
(31:04):
that as a yes. Supervan. Scott Thomas came up from Virginia.
Last night at the beach. Were just sitting around having
a little reflection. You know, everybody got two roses and
we tossed him in the ocean for do you feel
a bond with the other fans? Definitely. Scott met Laura
after seven show in Virginia Beach, where he says she
(31:25):
invited him to take a ride in her limo, but
nothing happened. So I mean Huggan's kissing and stuff like that,
as Betty it now, Scott was already dating the woman
he's now married to. And how does she feel about
his trip to New York this weekend? Didn't like it.
I don't like it one bit. And finally, I'm a
light housekeeper with the Canadian Coast card Stanley West table
(31:47):
and you're holding a candle as it were for Laura.
Stanley came by himself. He didn't know anyone here. He
traveled three thousand miles from British Columbia, Canada because of
Laura Brannigan. I could possibly say I'm here today because
of her. In a more literal sense, I had a
very bad personal break up in and it was her
(32:08):
voice that called me back from the edge, Stanley sense
is something deeply empathetic in Laura's voice. It's almost as
though she's speaking to you in a way saying I've
been there even now. This heartrending sound isn't something that
(32:42):
just superbands here. It's something people noticed about Laura from
the beginnings. And you have a soulful quality in your
in your voice, almost a sadness. That's Johnny Carson interviewing
Laura back Edith Off at all. That's interesting. I was
thinking of Edith Poff when I was listening to you sing.
(33:04):
Edith Poff was the iconic French shantouse known for her
torch songs and a life beset by tragedy. Oh that
was her favorite singer of all the time. She turned
me onto you off. I mean, she just loved it.
Mark Brannigan also hears the pain in his sister's voice.
She could break your heart with a song, you know,
(33:26):
and you'd see she was crying so and songwriter Diane
Warren says, you can't teach that kind of passion. You
either have soul and feeling or you know. And she
did this extra layer, this depth to Laura's voice. She
alluded to its roots during a conversation with Joan Rivers,
(33:47):
you do a lot of sad song. Now what are
you drawing is your life? And say it or I
had not well, it has been you know, I had
had a rough time growing up, and um, I think
I don't do a lot of that, okay, and it's okay.
I can't know for sure what Laura is referring to there,
(34:08):
but one person we haven't talked about is Laura's father.
My father was to say he had been very successful
on Wall Street, very successful after World War Two. I
don't know by the time we all got to be
(34:28):
in the teens he was. He was not not in
good shape. Her childhood was not Oh Roses. This is
her high school friend Ali Ryerson. Again, her father, who
was a wonderful man, would be gone for a few
days and then come back. He would have been better
(34:49):
off had he never had a drink in his life.
Let's just put it that way, you know. In the
liner notes to Self Control and al Them, which came
out the year after Laura's father died, Laura writes, for Dad,
now I know you're listening, let me read you something.
(35:10):
Her unhappy personal life in unadorned though dramatic style underlined
her expressive voice, and she was able to move audiences
with her passionate renditions of songs that were often about
love and Loss. That's not about Laura Brown again. It's
from an Encyclopedia entry on Edith Poff. I'm going to
(35:45):
see Laura Brannagan tomorrow night of Madison Square Garden, and
I have some advice for her. Open and clothes with Gloria,
do it a couple of times in between. That's David
Spade from an old Saturday Night Live. It's a funny bit.
While there's so much more to Laura Brandigan, she will
always be remembered for Gloria, and I don't think that's
(36:05):
a bad thing. In one interview, she said, look, I
end every concert with Gloria and people just go crazy.
And I bet I'd like to think that she never
resented that. I think she was grateful to sing that
song because that's the song that really made our star.
This is Tommy Biokos. At the end of our set list,
(36:27):
we would do self Control set Gloria. In the early
two thousands, Laura, after recovering from her injuries, was attempting
to come back twenty years after the release of Gloria.
Tommy was in her band while on tour together, he
and Laura started dating. She also started recording a new
(36:51):
album and writing a cookbook. The idea towards the end
was to have her cookbook, the new CD and a
world tour and hit the world that once was she
a great cook exceptional. At the time, Laura was living
on Long Island with her mother, who had developed Alzheimer's.
(37:12):
She would take her into the recording sessions my mother,
but my sister took her everywhere, took her everywhere, and
in her world it was Laura and everybody was happy,
and it's so sweet. She she was a sweet person. Yeah.
(37:33):
In the summer of two thousand four, Laura started getting
headaches and then on the morning of August, Mark got
a call from the caretaker at the house nine in
the morning. I thought, she said, my mother died, and
I said, okay, well let me speak to Mary, and
(37:54):
she goes, no, Mori's dead. Laura died of a brain
aneurism after going to sleep the night before. She was
fifty two. I was driving on and I heard the
(38:22):
news that Laura Brannigan had had died. I pulled off
and I called my brother John and we cried together.
You called me that morning when you heard the news.
He said, you know, I'm genuinely sad about this. She
was the big star, but she was also hours. It
(38:43):
was a personal thing, that's exactly right, And it was
a lesson in mortality and maybe like the end of
our youth in some respect, because I know you. But
it was the most beautiful voice. It was the most
beautiful voice. And I remember her brother Mark was so angry.
(39:07):
He was so angry to have lost her. There was
a private funeral service for Laura, but her mother wasn't there.
You know, I never told my mother she died. I um.
I told her she was in Europe. She was doing
(39:29):
a tour in California, and we would send our friends
envelopes that they would put from different parts of the
world to my mother from Mauri. Why what I was
going to tell her that her daughter died after losing
my older brother. I mean, that was the compassionate thing
to do. Oh sure, And she never knew. You know,
(39:56):
some people think it was a new Goaldie that brought
the St. Louis Blue to victory, but I think it
was Laura. When I heard that that hockey team was
doing it, I don't follow hobby. I said to myself,
they're they're going to have a run because that song,
it's got a lot of kara behind it, you know.
(40:19):
So did they end up winning anything? Mark? They won
the whole thing. They won the Stanley Cup. That's amazing.
And they were in the last place, they were down
in the dumps. They heard that song and they said
that's going to be the anthem and it went right.
(40:39):
That's unbot You've done good for me. She wasn't a
one hit wonder. She hasn't been forgotten. There was something
compelling behind that big sound. She's saying with power and substance,
sadness and warmth and that voice. It's still here. Next
(41:16):
time on Mobituaries, the Orphan Train and the largest mass
migration of children in American history. Well a quarter million
children were moved to west from fifty four A quarter
million people. That's like the population of Cleveland. That's a
lot of people. I certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.
(41:44):
Ask you to please rate and review our podcast. You
can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you
can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. You can subscribe
to Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of
Mobituaries was produced and edited by Alison Byrne. Our team
(42:05):
of producers also includes Megan Marcus, Harry Wood and me Morocca.
It was engineered by Bart Warshaw. Special thanks to Chris
Van Cleeve at Sumy Foreman, Amanda Creek, Thomas, Alberto Robina,
Nathan Miller, Matt Sello, Joe Causey, Kathy Golick, Triumph Brewing
Company of New Hope, and the Stanley Cup winning St.
(42:27):
Louis Blues. Indispensable support from Genius Staneski, Richard Rohr and
everyone at CBS News Radio. Our theme music is written
by Daniel Hart and as always, undying thanks to Rand
Morrison and John carp without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi,
(42:57):
It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituary the podcast, may I
invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's chock
full of stories not in the podcast. Celebrities who put
their butts on the line, sports teams that threw in
the towel for good, forgotten fashions, defunct diagnoses, presidential candidacies
(43:18):
that cratered whole countries that went to put and dragons, Yes, dragons,
you see, people used to believe that dragons will real
until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the
book from any online bookseller, or stop by your local
bookstore and look for me when I come to your city.
Tour information and lots more at mobituaries dot com
Host
Mo Rocca
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