"Solitaire" is a 1981 song sung and written by

Martine Clémenceau Martine Clémenceau (born 18 March 1949) is a French singer. She won the Yamaha Music Festival in 1971 with the song ''A jour l’amour''. Then, she represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 with '' Sans toi'', taking the 15th p ...

. The English version was later released in March 1983 as the lead single of American singer Laura Branigan's second studio album, '' Branigan 2'' (1983). It was lyricized in English by

Diane Warren Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has received several awards including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three ''Billboard'' Music Awards and an Honorary Academy Award. Wa ...

and produced by Jack White and Robbie Buchanan.

History

The song originated as a 1981 recording in French by

for whom "Solitaire" was a modest hit with a French chart peak of #50 on the French pop charts where it remained for 22 weeks. Written by Clémenceau herself, the French version of "Solitaire" concerned a recluse who shuts himself away from a world moving toward nuclear war. The English lyrics of "Solitaire" reinvent the song's narrative, with the playing of the card game

solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...

employed as a metaphor for the singer enduring the neglect of her lover. "Solitaire" would launch the hitmaking career of

, who had recently been employed as a staff writer by Branigan's producer Jack White; Warren gave White the completed lyrics for "Solitaire" the day after he asked her to give the song an English rendering.

Laura Branigan version

Released as the lead single from the '' Branigan 2'' album, "Solitaire" debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 the week Branigan's breakthrough single "

Gloria Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkins) ...

" fell off the chart. With a peak position of number seven, "Solitaire" became Branigan's second consecutive top-10 entry. It also reached numbers 16 and 28 on ''Billboard''s

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

and

Dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

charts, respectively. Internationally, the single charted at number eight in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and number 12 in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. 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 pop song, which is held by

Donna Summer LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...

in "

Dim All the Lights "Dim All the Lights" is a song by American recording artist Donna Summer released as the third single from her 1979 album ''Bad Girls (Donna Summer album), Bad Girls''. It debuted at number 70 on August 25, 1979, and peaked that year at number two ...

" (which was covered by Branigan in 1995).

Promotion

Branigan promoted the song with appearances on ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pro ...

'', '' 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 young

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

, who performed the song in a rare televised clip. "Solitaire" was promoted with an elaborately produced music video depicting the song's narrative: after her neglectful boyfriend leaves her, Branigan is shown recording at a studio and apparently occupied with the trappings of fame and career but spending her free time lonely. When her remorseful ex attempts a reconciliation, she shakes her head and walks away, pausing to flip a pack of cards toward him. He stoops down to pick them up. The rest of the video shows both of them spending time alone with flashbacks of their time together. 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 United States 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 ''The Best of Branigan'' is a greatest hits compilation by singer Laura Branigan to be released in the United States. The 1995 anthology collection also marked the end of Branigan's relationship with her record label, Atlantic Records. Of the th ...

'' (re-released in 2007), 2002's '' The Essentials: Laura Branigan'', and 2006's ''The Platinum Collection''.

Track listings

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Other versions

In 1982 "Solitaire" had been rendered in German as "Immer Mehr" and recorded by Milva; in 1983, in the wake of the Branigan version, another German rendering retaining the title "Solitaire" was recorded by Séverine using the backing track from the Branigan recording. Also in 1983, Hungarian female singer

Kati Kovács Kati Kovács (born Katalin Anna Sarolta Kovács 25 October 1944), is a Ferenc Liszt and Kossuth Award-winning Hungarian pop-rock singer, performer, lyricist and actress. She is one of the most famous singers of Hungary with dozens of recorded ...

recorded her rendition of the song, using the lyrics from the Branigan version, that appeared on the album ''Super Hits''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solitaire (Laura Branigan Song) 1981 songs 1983 singles Atlantic Records singles Laura Branigan songs Songs written by Diane Warren