Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Christopher Cross - "Think of Laura"

Think of Laura - Another Page

(Debuted December 10, 1983, Peaked #9, 16 Weeks on the Chart)

The TV soap opera General Hospital was at the peak of its popularity during the early 1980s. Not only did it help two songs become #1 hits (1979 "Rise" and 1983's "Baby, Come To Me") due to their exposure on the show, but one of its own actors -- Rick Springfield -- enjoyed a string of hits during the same time he played Dr. Noah Drake on the show. It even inspired a Top 40 spoof hit called "General Hospi-tale" in 1981.

In 1983, it helped another song, Christopher Cross's "Think of Laura." One of the show's popular couples was Luke and Laura Spencer, who "split" when Genie Francis left the show. Her character was killed off, but would reappear later...because soap operas just work that way. After Laura's "death," whenever Luke would think back to the life they shared, "Think of Laura" would play in the background.

However, the song wasn't written with the show in mind. Instead, he was writing about a Denison University lacrosse player named Laura Carter, whose death was much more of a reality than the TV show's. She was tragically killed by a stray bullet that was fired from a block away. Carter's roommate was Cross's girlfriend at the time, so he wrote the tune as a way of helping her out.

While "Think of Laura" would be Cross's last Top 10 and final Top 40 hit, it also spent four weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary chart, which matched 1981's "Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)" for his best showing on that survey.




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