"Self Control" by Laura Branigan

ok I must hear this:

The song has become one of the defining pop songs of the 1980s, with a number of remakes recorded each year. Notable covers include Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin in 1993,

Huh, I can actually see that working out ok.

Some bright horn blasts wouldn't hurt

Well, that's what Ricky Martin finally realized last year.

you're making me forget to play my role

I think about that line
all the time

like, it's sexy...BUT SHOULD IT BE???

I HAVEN'T GOT THE WILL TO STAND AND

fight

I want to do this at karaoke but I know it would be a DISASTER

I want to do a karaoke reenactment of the video

suggested Italian orgy karaoke night

This is one of these songs that I heard maybe once or twice as a little kid and then walked around with it stuck in my head for years after. I only learnt who it was by a couple of years ago, but what a cracker!

just listened to the raf version... wtf there's some eurobros rappin' on this thing!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9cYcRotufU

go to :30

Clipse reinterpreted the song in their 'Counseling':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfo-nz05dM4

Wow, that hockey thing!

SC rules as I see I stated during the last revive.

What was it with LB covering Ialian pop songs? A couple weeks ago I couldn't stop listening to the original Gloria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szWSLwkYa6k&feature=fvsr

Wow his performance posture is really something! It's like ectomorphic joe cocker or something!

I can't even tell you how much I love everything about that dude. His spiffy little outfit, the jewlery, his moves - perfect.

What was it with LB covering Ialian pop songs? A couple weeks ago I couldn't stop listening to the original Gloria:

IIRC the same guy who wrote Gloria also wrote Self Control, which would explain why Branigan recorded it, as she'd already had one hit with the guy's song.

Whoever that guy is, I think I love him.

According to Wikipedia he's called Giancarlo Bigazzi, though he's only a co-writer of both "Gloria" and "Self Control". But I assume he's the reason Branigan chose to record the latter song.

Oh, looks like he died this January... :( RIP, mister songwriter.

Aw, man. RIP.

I want to do this at karaoke but I know it would be a DISASTER

hah this is one of my karaoke standards

Apparently he also wrote Boney M's "Take the Heat Off Me", which is a cool song as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3DURSz_20s

I wish I could've celebrated this guy's life more while he was actually alive.

fucklaura branigan singing the word "self" is like the 8th wonder of the world.

"I!"

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, November 8, 2008 7:13 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

― leave me alone, i was only zinging (rip van wanko), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 2:59 PM (4 hours ago)

Harold Faltermeyer worked on the Branigan version.

i just got clocked by a couple of snare drums from this song, motherfuckers beware

Harold Faltermeyer worked on the Branigan version.

And Celso Valli on the RAF version.

Also the 'Eyes Wide Shut orgy' video was directed by William Friedkin FYIBTW.

i got huge old (loud!) klipsch speakers for the store and i couldn't wait to crank this song on them. massively massive.

I was sure it was this thread where I talked about the fact that Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut has the exact same plot and a lot of the same shots as the Self Control video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miGUnKWcYeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nw-V5eEeAk

let's try that again ^ that isn't the full video, it's a video/live mash up thing.

here's the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av03KxdoO0k

Wearing white as you’re walking down the street of my soul

Wow, that hockey thing!

― aluminum rivets must not be proud of their plastic bosses (Jon Lewis), Monday, April 23, 2012 11:11 AM (seven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Very prescient!

(Just saw the self control video for the first time and wow, love it. Also her version of "Power Of Love" is quite raw.)

This song rules, such a formative part of my childhood radio listening years.

BTW:

Harold Faltermeyer worked on the Branigan version

My pal and I were joking the other day about this period in pop music when you know certain cats (talented/genius or not!) were getting a lot of work because they were literally the only ones that could program, let alone that owned, whatever brand new synth was in vogue. Like, Harold Faltermeyer, Jan Hammer, Herbie Hancock, Thomas Dolby ...

that greg guy that covered "behind the mask"

love this song like family

xpost Oh shit! Yeah, Gregory Phillinganes.

One of the best songs of all time. Half of the lyrics have been quoted here already, but damn: “I must believe in something / so I'll make myself believe it / this night will never go”. Cue Röyksopp & Robyn’s “Do It Again”.

As mentioned upthread, the extended version of the Raf original features what must have been one of the earliest examples of Euro rap: “keep shaking, money making / to the beat that’s so heartbreaking”. Indeed.

(and don’t get me started on Jack White (né Horst Nußbaum). What a career trajectory! From playing professional football/soccer (for PSV Eindhoven!) in the 60s to giving German Schlager a much needed kick up its butt in the early 70s, injecting it with some glam, pop and pure joy (for people like Tony Marshall and my beloved Jürgen Marcus), to producing these Laura Branigan hits as well as “As The Rain Begins To Fall” in the 80s, to (according to German Wikipedia at least) being instrumental in making Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” the first international reggaeton hit fifteen years ago.

Through the years I have found more and more that I prefer the Raf oruginal.

For some reason I've heard this song 3 times on the radio in the past month and I love it again. Also, it has the most extraordinary 80's video I've ever seen.

Am amazed how nobody on this thread has mentioned that Pulp ripped this song off wholesale for the equally awesome Disco 2000.

My pal and I were joking the other day about this period in pop music when you know certain cats (talented/genius or not!) were getting a lot of work because they were literally the only ones that could program, let alone that owned, whatever brand new synth was in vogue. Like, Harold Faltermeyer, Jan Hammer, Herbie Hancock, Thomas Dolby ...

Wally Badarou too.

Love this hard banging 80's sound (up there with Kim Wilde's 'Keep me hanging on')

xp Ned mentioned it in the RIP thread

Classic song obv.

Pulp certainly did rip off a Laura Branigan song for "Disco 2000" - but it was "Gloria", not "Self Control".