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DailyBoom Your Old School Music Authority

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Laura Branigan - 'Self Control'


Oh, the night is my world
City light painted girl
In the day nothing matters
It's the night time that flatters
In the night, no control
Through the wall something's breaking
Wearing white as you're walkin'
Down the street of my soul

Laura Branigan's career skyrocketed back in 1984, at the height of the synth era. While songs like "Gloria" and "Solitaire" were pretty straight forward, safe musical selections, Branigan drew gasps with the release of "Self Control".  By 1984 artists were beginning to really play with their videos while trying to find ways to push boundaries a bit. "Self Control" was one of the first songs to find MTV unwilling to air its' video.

The clip depicts Branigan venturing out into a seedy underground nightlife and then finding herself in what seems to be an orgy. MTV insisted on edits to the clip before they would air it and eventually she caved in so that it would get the play is deserved. "Self Control" shot to number one in six different countries and it was in heavy rotation on radio stations across the world.

Branigan spent the decade of excess cranking out music and then by the 90's her popularity had waned. She died in 2004 of an aneurism at the age of 47.