JENNIFER RUSH V LAURA BRANIGAN The Power Of Love

A very different vibe to my last post with two rock chicks together; here I have two big voiced American singers on one of the biggest songs of the era of big hair and oversized shoulder pads - the 1980's! 'The Power Of Love' was first recorded in 1984 by one of its co-writers - Jennifer Rush, and the song was HUGE around the world; including here in Australia where it made #1; and in Britain where it became the best selling single of 1985; the 9th highest for the entire decade, and the first woman to achieve a million selling single in that country! Quite incredulously, America didn't embrace their own songstress with 'The Power Of Love' not even cracking the Billboard Top 40.

Maybe it was because Jennifer was based in Germany, but despite a prolific recording career and major success in Europe and in Australasia, only one track bearing her name cracked the Billboard Top 40 - a duet with Elton John 'Flames of Paradise' which made #36 in 1987.

'The Power Of Love' has been famously covered many times since the original landed - most notably Air Supply's in 1985 (the same year it charted for Jennifer) and Celine Dion who recorded it in 1993. But I decided to pit another big voiced singer against the mighty Jennifer Rush - the late, and great Laura Branigan who could belt out the ballads as well as the dance and pop confections that made her a name around the world with hits such as 'Gloria', 'Self Control' and 'Solitaire' just to name a few. Laura recorded this classic in 1987 for her 'Touch' LP and it would become her final Top 40 outing, reaching #26 on the Billboard chart.

Pitting Laura and Jennifer feels like a fair fight, but i did consider throwing in Celine Dion, but apart from that being probably weighted towards the French Canadian, that would simply be too much power and too much power of love! So fellow youtubers, who wins this battle?