How Am I Supposed to Live Without You

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"How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" is a song originally recorded by Laura Branigan in 1983.

The second single from Branigan's second solo album Branigan 2, it spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts. It was a Top 10 hit on the ARC Weekly Top 40 chart and peaked at #12 on the Hot 100. Branigan's single also hit the #1 spot on the Adult Contemporary charts in Canada. This success came without benefit of a music video. Branigan performed the song on the syndicated music countdown show Solid Gold in the autumn of 1983 and on the popular holiday special Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

Michael Bolton co-wrote the song, and Branigan's record was his first major hit as a songwriter. Bolton, whose own recording career would not take off until 1987, went on to co-write the rock ballad "I Found Someone" for Branigan's Hold Me album in 1985, and she also recorded his song "It's Been Hard Enough Getting Over You" in 1993 for Over My Heart. Though Branigan 2 went out of print in 2004, Branigan's original version appears on the albums The Best of Branigan (1995), The Essentials: Laura Branigan (2002) and Laura Branigan: The Platinum Collection (2006).

The single's B-side was a newly-written song over the music to the Italian song "Mama", by Giancarlo Bigazzi and Umberto Tozzi. Branigan's first major hit had been with "Gloria", another English song written to an Italian hit by the duo. She would go on to have hits with "Self Control", co-written by Bigazzi, and "Ti Amo", an English song written by Diane Warren over an Italian song by Bigazzi and Tozzi.

Since Branigan introduced "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You", the ballad has been recorded by dozens of artists around the world, in English and Spanish, becoming something of a modern pop standard. Instrumental versions of the song have been recorded featuring variously the piano, guitar, saxophone, pan flute, steel drum, and music box. A salsa version appears on Miguel Martin's 1995 Sony International album Salsa with the Oldies.

In 1989, Bolton recorded his own version of the song and it became his biggest hit, reaching #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts in 1990. This marked the second time the song had topped the U.S. AC chart. The song appears on his album Soul Provider and on Michael Bolton: Greatest Hits (1985-1995). Other male singers to record ballad versions of the song include Charlie Roots, Wayne Denton, and Korean star Se7en.

British singer Newton has recorded a dance version of the track. In 2004, J Costa did a dance version of "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" with Mr Mig and DJ Holland doing successful club remixes. Other dance versions include a 2008 version by In Bliss.

A Spanish language translation of the song, "Como He de Vivir Sin Tu Cariño", has been recorded by numerous artists. Latin Pop singer Danny Rivera recorded the translation for his 1990 album Canto a La Humanidad. Other Spanish artists to record the song include Paloma San Basilio, who featured the song on her Sony International album Escorpio in 2001^[1] and Rosa López, who featured the song on her Gold 2008 Universal Music album Promesas. Italian singer Filippa Giordano recorded the Spanish version for her album Prima Donna in 2005.

The ballad was one of several '60s, '70s and '80s hits covered in the Finnish language, as "Kerro Kuinka Rakkaudesta Toipuu", by Virve Rosti on her Edel Records album Vicky Rock Vol. 1.

Filipina superstar Sharon Cuneta featured the song on her Platinum album When I Love in 1999.^[2] Asian singer Julie Su recorded the song on a 1989 album of '60s, '70s and '80s covers released by Warner Music Taiwan. Other female artists to perform the song include American singer Vicki Carr, and German singers Stephanie de Kowa, who recorded the song with the Filmorchester Babelsberg for her album Two Faces, and Joana Zimmer, on her 2008 Universal Music album Showtime. The song appears on actress/singer Ingrid Saxon's 2004 CD of pop and Broadway standards, A Lot of Livin' To Do. That year, Dutch jazz-pop singer Laura Fygi included the song on her album Song Book: 20 Jazz Greatest Hits.^[3]

Lisa Hartman performed the song in character as a rising pop singer on the nighttime soap Knots Landing in an early 1980s episode. Characters played by Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez duetted to the song on an early '90s episode of the teen sitcom Saved by the Bell during a costume party as the characters played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen ended their relationship.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?pid=29378&aid=480446
2. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=472712&aid=511382
3. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?pid=31567&aid=849877