Opal Studios shared a building with Studio 54, sitting immediately next door. The large space featured 12-foot ceilings that made for rather unique acoustics.
Opal was also where Chris Van Cleave, Walker Daniels, Bob Valdez and a rather young Laura Branigan formed a folk-rock group known as Meadow, then recorded their one and only album, The Friend Ship in 1972 and 1973. Long out of print, the Paramount Records release was certainly of its time, but it also showed the talent and promise of Branigan, who would make a name for herself nine years later on her solo debut.
The Friend Ship differs from Branigan’s solo material in that there’s a more pastoral and acoustic quality, thanks in large part to the violins, cellos, and flugelhorns backing up the band. But even the opening track, “When We Were Young,” displays a vocal power, certainty and confidence that go beyond Branigan’s relative youth. Sadly, The Friend Ship never really caught on due to poor promotion, the band split up and Walker Daniels died by suicide.
Fast forward to 1982 and Branigan was bursting onto the scene as a solo artist with “Gloria,” “Solitaire,” and the Michael Bolton co-penned “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.” She continued to enjoy moderate success throughout the ’80s with songs like “Self Control,” featuring a music video directed by William Friedkin of The Exorcist fame. “The Power of Love” would become a huge hit for Celine Dion, but Branigan’s original version has an intensity and passion lacking in Dion’s later cover.
What set Laura Branigan apart from contemporaries like Kim Carnes, Pat Benatar and Kim Wilde was her passion. She left nothing on the table, putting all of herself into everything she sang. Branigan could have been singing about picking up a gallon of milk at the store and still moved her audience to tears as she lamented the lack of 2 percent. Due to Branigan’s fervent delivery, you’d end up realizing such a song works as an allegory about having to make undesirable choices due to missed opportunities.
Many of her songs were written by others but it didn’t matter with Branigan, since she committed so deeply to everything she sang. Even her cover of the classic “Forever Young” gains a heartfelt yearning quality that had been absent from the Alphaville original.
Branigan poured her dedication into her life as well: When Branigan’s husband was diagnosed with colon cancer, she abandoned her singing career in order to take care of him full-time. Sadly, he succumbed in 1996, and Branigan spiraled into a grief that kept her out of the music scene for several years. Branigan was just starting to put herself back out there when she suffered a fatal aneurysm in 2004.
Her devotion lives on in the music: You’ll find a majesty to her delivery, more so than so many other singers. There are better technical singers, singers with voices that one might find more pleasant to listen to than Branigan’s, but I challenge anyone to find another singer who put so much of herself into every song. There are few with even a fraction of the intensity and emotion.
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