Laura Branigan--Gloria (1982)

     Laura Branigan had been singing professionally since the early 70's. First with a group called, "Meadow" which went nowhere, then several other jobs including a stint as a backup singer for one of Leonard Cohen's European tours.
     She was signed to a solo contract in 1979, and it took a couple of years to figure out how to promote her. Her alto voice had a four octave range, and in the grand tradition of record executives, tried her out in several different areas before settling on pop.  
      Her first album consisted of dance pop with a European flair and it's first single, "All Night With Me" was chartworthy, but really didn't sell many records. The second single, "Gloria" was meeting the same fate but dance clubs were beginning to play it all of the time which it kept it around long enough for it to catch fire on the radio. It peaked at #2 which was her highest charting song (although she did have five others in the top 40), and she was nominated for a Grammy as well. It was on the charts for 36 weeks (which at the time was a record for a female performer) , due to it's inclusion on the "Flashdance" soundtrack.