Gloria (Umberto Tozzi song)

"Gloria"
Single by Umberto Tozzi
B-side	"Aria di lei"
Released	1979
Format	7", 45rpm
Recorded	1979
Genre	Pop, dance, eurodisco, Italo disco
Length	5:04
Label	CBS Records
Writer(s)	Umberto Tozzi, Giancarlo Bigazzi
Producer	Umberto Tozzi

"Gloria" is a pop song originally written and composed in Italian by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi, which — with English lyrics written by Trevor Veitch — became an international hit for Laura Branigan in 1982-83, selling more than two million singles in the US alone.

Origins

Umberto Tozzi himself made the first recording of "Gloria" in 1979.

That summer Tozzi's recording entered the Italian Top Ten for a stay of sixteen weeks, six of them at #2. It spent four weeks at #1 in both Switzerland and - in a translated version - Spain. That same year saw Tozzi's "Gloria" achieve hit status in Austria (#4), Belgium (#3 on the French chart), the Netherlands (#21), France (#3) and Germany, where the track reached #13 [3] despite a cover version by Gerd Christian.

The original version of "Gloria" was a love song as was the first attempt at an English version, which was cut by Jonathan King (#65 UK 11/1979).

Tozzi's hit "Gloria" is one of the most internationally known Italian modern songs, along with Domenico Modugno's Volare.

Charts

Chart (1979)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	46
Austrian Singles Chart	4
Belgian Singles Chart	3
Dutch Top 40	21
French Singles Chart	12
German Singles Chart	8
Italian Singles Chart	2
Swiss Singles Chart	1

Year-End Chart

Chart (1979)	Peak position
Swiss Singles Chart	4
Italian Singles Chart	14
Austrian Top 40	17
Belgian Singles Chart	39
German Media Control Charts	50

Sales

Chart (1979)	Peak position
France	367,000

Laura Branigan's success

"Gloria"
Single by Laura Branigan
from the album Branigan
B-side	"Living A Lie"
Released	Summer 1982 (US) January 2, 1983 (UK)
Format	7", 45rpm (Single) and 12", 33rpm ("Disco" Version).
Recorded	Los Angeles, California
Genre	Pop, Synthpop, Hi-NRG, eurodisco
Length	4:50 (LP version) / 4:12 (LP/Single Version)
Label	Atlantic ATL 11759
Writer(s)	Umberto Tozzi, Giancarlo Bigazzi, Trevor Veitch
Producer	Jack White, Greg Mathieson
Laura Branigan singles chronology
"All Night With Me" (1982) "Gloria" (1982) "Solitaire" (1983)
Music sample "Gloria"

"Gloria 2004"
Single by Laura Branigan
Released	April 26, 2004
Format	CD, 12"
Recorded	2003
Genre	Dance, hi-NRG
Label	Dance Street
Writer(s)	Umberto Tozzi, Giancarlo Bigazzi, Trevor Veitch
Laura Branigan singles chronology
"Self Control 2004" (2004) "Gloria 2004" (2004) –

The song "Gloria" would attain its highest profile via a re-working featured on Branigan, the first released album by Laura Branigan.

The 1982 release was on Atlantic Records, produced by Jack White and Greg Mathieson. It was White - a native of Germany - who suggested Branigan cut Tozzi's song; Branigan would recall her reaction: "I went hmmm, because it was so soft and so European sounding. But we gave it the American kick and rewrote the lyrics and off she went."

It has been noted that the riff on which White and Mathieson based the arrangement for Branigan's version of "Gloria" resembles the chorus of the Olivia Newton-John hit "Physical"; eventually Branigan made her last Hot 100 appearance with "Moonlight on Water", written and composed by "Physical" composer Steve Kipner. Branigan would tell People Weekly Magazine that she and her producers at first attempted an English version of Tozzi's "Gloria" in the romantic mode of the original, changing the title to "Mario," but this seemed ineffective. Ultimately Branigan would record "Gloria" with English lyrics written by Trevor Veitch, lyrics which completely re-invented the song as a character study addressing a woman living in the fast lane and effectively urging her to slow down the pace of her life.

Although another selection, "All Night With Me," was chosen as Branigan's lead-off single, Branigan also performed "Gloria" during her promotional TV appearances at the time of the album's release in early 1982 and that track was released as a single in the summer, first becoming a disco favorite and gradually accruing radio support to debut on the pop charts. The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 84 on July 10, 1982. After a slow climb, the single peaked at number two on November 27, 1982. Cash Box would rank the track as #1. "Gloria" remained in the Top 40 for 22 weeks: its total Hot 100 residency of 36 weeks established a new record for a single by a solo female act. Certified platinum for sales of two million in the US alone, Branigan's "Gloria" was also an international success, most notably in Australia where it held the #1 position for seven weeks from 7 February to 21 March 1983. "Gloria" also took Branigan to the Top Ten charts in the UK (#6), Ireland (#4), New Zealand (#6) and South Africa (#9). In Italy Branigan's "Gloria" reached #36.

"Gloria" earned Branigan a nomination for the Best Pop Vocal Performance Female Grammy Award for the year 1982. Though she did not herself win, the track which did, "You Should Hear How She Talks About You," performed by Melissa Manchester, showed the influence of the Eurodisco sound which Branigan had popularized in the US with "Gloria." This influence was even more strongly evident the following year as evinced by no less than three of Grammy's Pop Performance Female nominees: "Flashdance... What a Feeling" by Irene Cara, "Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)" by Sheena Easton (written by Greg Mathieson and Trevor Veitch) and "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer. Branigan herself was not nominated in this category for the year 1983 - as a contributor to the Album of the Year contender Flashdance she received a second Grammy nomination. Although Branigan was represented on Flashdance by the track "Imagination," in the film itself "Gloria" is more prominently featured - being the music to which the character played by Sunny Johnson performs her ice-skating routine.

A re-recording of "Gloria" in a Hi-NRG style was made by Branigan a few months before her death in August 2004: the track was released as "Gloria 2004." The previous year, Branigan had characterized "Gloria" as "really [not] my biggest hit, but it certainly is my signature song. And I always get the same reaction wherever I go and whenever I perform it....I have to end every show with that song and people just go crazy. 'Gloria' was just a great girl!"

Charts

Chart (1982/1983)	Peak position
Australia Singles Chart	1
Canadian Singles Chart	1
Ireland Singles Chart	4
South African Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart	6
U.S. Cash Box Top Singles	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2

Other versions

Umberto Tozzi himself subsequently re-recorded "Gloria" with Veitch's English-language lyrics; this version appears on his 2002 release, The Best of Umberto Tozzi.

Prior to Laura Branigan's version repeating its US success in the UK British singer Elkie Brooks covered "Gloria" but Brooks' version was unreleased prior to inclusion on the 1986 compilation The Very Best of Elkie Brooks.

In 1982 Sheila recorded the song with French lyrics written by Claude Carrère and Jean Schmitt which, rather than being about a woman named Gloria, used the word in its Latin sense of "praise" to laud the French armed forces. Titled "Glori Gloria" - adding the French glori to the Latin gloria - the track was a Top Ten hit in France being the #7 biggest hit for the month of December 1982.

Also in 1982 Sylvie Vartan recorded "Gloria" with the same lyrics as the Branigan hit while Lena Valaitis had a single release of "Gloria" with a new German lyric written by Michael Kunze; as with Branigan's version, the Valaitis version was produced by Jack White.

In 1983 Carola recorded a 1982 Swedish rendering of "Gloria" - lyrics by Ingela Forsman - for her Främling album; also Mona Carita recorded a Finnish rendering of "Gloria" for her album Mikä Fiilis!

A version of "Gloria", amended into an advertising jingle with lyrics to suit the product, and complete with a soundalike vocalist to Branigan, was used in an Australian television commercial for the 1984 Mitsubishi Cordia.

Gloria Trevi, the top Mexican female vocalist of the 1990s, performed "Gloria" as an opening number in concert and recorded a studio version of the Spanish lyrics to be released in February of 2012.

Australia's Young Divas included "Gloria" on their self titled album (2006).

Debbie Reynolds sings a snippet of "Gloria" in the Lows in the Mid-Eighties" episode of the NBC sitcom Will & Grace episode "Lows in the Mid-Eighties" which was broadcast November 23 2000: Reynolds performs the song as the character "Bobbi Adler" in a sequence set in 1985.

"Gloria" was incorporated into the score of the stage musical Flashdance the Musical being sung by the characters Jazmin and Keisha in a scene in which a character named Gloria - formed by combining two characters: Jeanie and Tina Tech, from the original 1982 Flashdance - performs a pole dance routine. The character Gloria was introduced by Ruthie Stephens in the 2008-09 national tour of Flashdance the Musical in which Jazmin and Keisha were played by respectively Djalenja Scott and Carryl Thomas; Charlotte Harwood assumed the role of Gloria for the play's 2010-11 West End run in which Jazmin and Keisha were played by respectively Twinnie Lee Moore and Hannah Levane.

In 2010 South Korean actress Bae Doona headlined a television series named "Gloria" which was named by the Laura Branigan song; in the series, Bae portrays an aspiring singer who gets her start and ascends to fame by singing a Korean language cover the song "Gloria".

• In a nod to her hit, Branigan's rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" performed on the Solid Gold Christmas special featured the background vocalists singing the phrase: "Gloria" evoking both Branigan's signature song and the Latin refrain of the Christmas carol "Angels We Have Heard on High."

Preceded by "The Look of Love" by ABC	Canadian RPM 100 number-one singles (Laura Branigan version) November 20, 1982	Succeeded by "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes
Preceded by "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes	Cash Box Top 100 Singles number-one single (Laura Branigan version) November 27, 1982	Succeeded by "Truly" by Lionel Richie
Preceded by "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" by Culture Club	Australian Kent Music Report number-one single (Laura Branigan version) February 7, 1983 - March 21, 1983	Succeeded by "Up Where We Belong" by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

See also

• Umberto Tozzi
• Laura Branigan
• Music of Italy