"Self Control" by Laura Branigan

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".

I love "Gloria" and "Self Control". What other songs get this vibe? "You Keep Me Hanging On" is a great one. I'd add Donna Summer's "Protection" and Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero" from a few years later. Other suggestions?

Tell It To My Heart?

"Gloria," there seem to be a lot of aerobic '80s songs that fit that vibe. "Self Control" is darker and more mysterious. So vibe-wise, along with the usual Italo disco suspects, there's stuff like, I dunno, "Send Me an Angel," by Real Life, maybe?

I don’t know the usual Italo suspects!

Stuff like this, I guess:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcwYp0musC8

Also, this one (not Italo) is very "Self Control:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMPR6Ujop4k

You can also look for stuff by Scotch and Kano, I guess, among other Italian disco suspects. Other people here know that stuff better than I do.

I think 'Don't Pretend to Know' by Tapps kind of fits?

hmm, I dont really agree with most of these suggestions. What I dig about Self Control is the hard rock/quasi-goth sound spruced up by 80s electro. There's a relentlessness to it that makes it super badass. I dont think Visage or Taylor Dayne have that hard sinister vibe.

Hazel O'Connor, Eighth Day?

(a bit less rock, a bit more goth - see also Drowning in Berlin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGVZOLV9SPo

Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Sunglasses at Night - Corey Hart

Sandra - In The Heat Of The Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4kHR5SNB5Q

How about Matia Bazar’s *Ti-Sento*?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4JwenFloWk

Sandra is a good suggestion (although clearly not as great as Self Control).

How about Caroline Loeb "C'est la ouate"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oyrsite2Ck

...and perhaps Gina X "No GDM"...

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

...Off "Electrica Salsa"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK6wglhklKg

...Propaganda "P.Machinery"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=660ZCEhvbnw

...and Eighth Wonder "I'm Not Scared":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-PYqUHfTMA

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

Oh christ, I'm going senile. Yes, you're right.

Ginny - “Can’t Be Serious”, maybe?

What a track that is

What other songs get this vibe?

Sheryl Lee Ralph - In The Evening

That drop into the chorus...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfoKoF4o6tU

There's a video but it's too jolly and belies the vibe.

FWIW, the break in "In The Evening" synchs very effectively with the rap intro to Chaka's "I Feel For You".

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

Oh christ, I'm going senile. Yes, you're right.

It's an Umberto Tozzi song, originally.

the Insane Clown Posse cover is worth checking out too

The Cheryl Lee Ralph video is so insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bgv54jROII

can't believe nobody has mentioned that one group from Detroit yet.

wanna say they wore makeup and had stage names and a devoted group of fans.

and they did this song?

Intersting takes - and two absolute favourites. I took the question to mean musically, but I like this interpretation of lyrically sharing the subject of the culture of the club.

they play a prominent role in the video as well!

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf17bkp5EL0

the 1996 remix of "In The Evening" is the sound of every bottle of poppers ever being opened

I must have heard “In The Evening” every time I went to a gay club for at least a year (roughly late 84 to late 85), and it got to the point where I thought I never wanted to hear it again. But then Horse Meat Disco started reviving it in the mid 00s, and it sort of unexpectedly renewed itself; if I heard it out now, I’d be thrilled. (A similar thing happened with “Finally”, although it’s usually me who’s playing it out.)

I'd love to hear it out now too, it's taken on a real urgency over lockdown

I'm surprised Valerie Dore didn't get a look in in this thread!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80ssUKt76-c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrsv0NVa6k

Marianne Faithfull - Broken English

at the darker cruising through the city at night end of the vibe

good one

TIL Laura Branigan covered Falco's "Der Kommissar" with different lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=823aeo0WU_k

"I...I live among the creatures of the night!"