Solitaire (Laura Branigan song)

"Solitaire" is a pop-rock song by Laura Branigan, appearing on her second album Branigan 2 and released as its first single in early 1983. It was her second consecutive Top Ten hit on the U.S., Australian, and Canadian charts.

Branigan's debut album had featured the massive hit "Gloria", which spent six months on the U.S. singles charts, peaking at #1 on the Cashbox and ARC Weekly Top 40 charts and at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rather than follow that hit with another track from the Branigan album, the artist recorded a follow-up, Branigan 2, and released "Solitaire" as its first single.

"Solitaire" entered the Billboard Hot 100 the same week "Gloria" fell off the charts, and became the singer's fastest-rising single, surging to a #7 peak on that chart, and a notch higher on the ARC Weekly Top 40 charts. Branigan's single also charted on the U.S. Adult Contemporary and Dance charts. Though not quite as successful as "Gloria," "Solitaire" was another international hit for Branigan, notably hitting the Pop Top Five in Australia and peaking at number eight on both the Pop and Adult Contemporary charts in Canada.

In addition to being the first proof Laura Branigan would not be a one-hit wonder, "Solitaire" is notable for being the first hit for songwriter Diane Warren.^[1] As with "Gloria" before it and "Ti Amo" the following year, Branigan's "Solitaire" was neither a completely original composition nor was it merely an English translation of a foreign song, as is often erroneously suggested. Despite the fact that each of these songs retain their original titles in their Branigan incarnations, each song inspired a new concept that were thought to better fit Branigan's voice and the American Pop sensibility than did their respective original themes. "Solitaire", originally written and recorded in 1981 by French singer-songwriter Martine Clemenceau, was actually a song about a recluse who shuts himself away from a world moving toward nuclear war. A former Eurovision contest participant, Clemenceau had a modest hit with her version of "Solitaire" in France, where the single peaked at #22 on the French pop charts.^[2]

The verses begin low and restrained, with the melody's theme repeated in ever-higher variations throughout the pre-chorus and chorus, climaxing in three high, sustained belts of "Solitaire". The song's rangy melody and dramatic refrain appealed to Branigan and producers Jack White and Robbie Buchanan, who extended the original arrangement to revolve back to one last refrain, giving Branigan a triumphant, sustained final note in keeping with the new lyrics by Warren, which have Branigan turning the tables on a neglectful lover and getting on with a life she had put on hold for him. The note is a mere two seconds shy of the world record for longest note held by a female singer in a hit Pop song, which is held by Donna Summer in "Dim All The Lights". (Branigan would cover that song twelve years later for her first U.S. hits collection, The Best of Branigan.) A music video for the song mirrors the lyrics (relatively rare for an '80s video), featuring a lonely Branigan recording the song in a studio and somewhat occupied with the trappings of fame and career, but otherwise spending her free time alone and frustrated. When her errant lover finally returns, she is about to give him the cold shoulder, when she turns back and flips a deck of playing cards at the guy, who stoops to gather them up.

Branigan promoted the song with appearances on American Bandstand, Solid Gold, and The Merv Griffin Show, among others. The song's dramatic, theatrical style and range was a vocal showcase, and it was not uncommon for talent show contestants, such as those on Star Search, to tackle "Solitaire". It was a favorite of a very young Celine Dion, who performs the song in a rare televised clip. Dion would go on to release two other Branigan songs ("Unison" and "The Power of Love") in the 1990s, and Branigan would return the honor by recording "If That's What It Takes" in 2000 for what would be her final album.

Though Branigan eluded the nuclear issue in 1983, she would go on to record the anthem "Forever Young" in 1985 essentially as written. A cult hit by German band Alphaville, the song—though open to interpretation—has been taken literally in the context of 1984 Germany to be an anti-war song, a philosophizing of a personal response to the threat of nuclear holocaust.

Following "Solitaire", Branigan would move even further away from the style of "Gloria" to introduce the ballad "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", another track from the Branigan 2 album, before returning to Italodisco in 1984 for her biggest international hit, "Self Control". Warren co-wrote several songs on Branigan's first three albums, including this single's Eurodisco-flavored B-side, "I'm Not The Only One".

An Atlantic 12" featured an extended version of the song that ran 5:16 in length; Hot Tracks, a popular DJ remix service of the time, produced their own extended remix as well, which ran to 7:02 and clocked in at 140 BPM. The song was re-released by Atlantic in the U.S. as an "Oldies Series" single in the mid-1980s, backed with "Gloria". In Europe, the song saw limited release as a 12" single backed with "Gloria". In addition to Branigan 2, which went out of print in 2004, the single version of "Solitaire" appears on 1995's The Best of Branigan (re-released in 2007), 2002's The Essentials: Laura Branigan, and 2006's The Platinum Collection. In iTunes the song has been misspelled as "Solitare".

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Solitaire (Laura Branigan song)

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