Gloria Loring-Lagler (born Gloria Jean Goff, December 10, 1946) is an American singer and actress. She is known for playing
Liz Chandler on ''
Days of Our Lives'' for six years (1980–1986, 2024). She and singer-actor
Carl Anderson performed the duet "
Friends and Lovers," which reached number two on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1986.
Early life
Gloria Jean Goff was born in New York City, the daughter of Dorothy Ann (née Tobin), a singer, and Gerald "Buzzy" Lewis Goff, a professional
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
player with the
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-to ...
big band as well as other renowned swing groups; a salesman and hospitality/restaurant industry consultant.
Career
Loring began her music career at age 14, singing with a folk group known as Those Four. Loring released her first album in 1968. It was titled ''Today'' on MGM Records. Several singles, including
cover version
In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
s of
Fred Neil's "
Everybody's Talkin'" and
Roger Whittaker's "
New World in the Morning" were released on the Evolution label, though none charted. She also released, as a single, an early cover version of
Joni Mitchell
Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
's "
Chelsea Morning" in 1968.
She went on to perform on a wide range of television shows in the late 1960s and 1970s, from ''
The Carol Burnett Show'' (Season 1, Episode 4, which first aired October 2, 1967) to the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
ceremony. Signed to
Atco Records
ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the com ...
, she released the single "Brooklyn", produced by
Mike Post, in 1977 under the alias Cody Jameson, and it became her first chart single, climbing to No. 74 on the
Billboard Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...
and also appearing on the Adult Contemporary and Country Charts.
In March 1977, she flew to Toronto to be the special guest star on the popular weekly variety program ''
The Bobby Vinton Show'' which was seen all across the United States and Canada. The program was produced by her husband Alan Thicke. Loring performed "
Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and performed a duet with
Vinton on "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do".
In 1978 and 1979, Loring and then-husband
Alan Thicke composed the theme songs to ''
Diff'rent Strokes
''Diff'rent Strokes'' is an American television sitcom, which originally aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and ...
'' and ''
The Facts of Life''. There were two versions of the ''Facts of Life'' theme song that Loring sang. One version was used from seasons two through six, and a second was used from seasons seven to nine.
Her son, Brennan, was diagnosed with
Type 1 diabetes in 1979. A year later, Loring joined ''
Days of Our Lives'' and got the idea to create and self-publish the ''Days Of Our Lives Celebrity Cookbook'' to raise money for diabetes research. Volume One was published in 1981 and the follow-up Volume Two in 1983. The cookbooks, along with her recording "A Shot in the Dark", raised more than $1 million for the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation ("JDRF"). She followed that success with three commercially published books, ''Kids, Food and Diabetes'', ''Parenting a Child with Diabetes'', and ''Living with Type 2 Diabetes: Moving Past the Fear''.
For more than 30 years she has served as a spokesperson for JDRF. JDRF was the official philanthropy of her college sorority,
Alpha Gamma Delta, before shifting its focus to fighting hunger in 2017.
In 1980, when Loring joined the
NBC daytime soap ''Days of Our Lives'' as chanteuse
Liz Chandler, the show was going through a dry spell, with many veterans dropped and many new faces alienating long-time fans. Of the nine new characters introduced in the 1980–1981 season, only Liz garnered a fan following, and was the only one to have her contract renewed. For three years, in real-life, Loring dated
Don Diamont, the actor who played Carlo Forenza who was murdered by her TV husband Dr.
Neil Curtis. Loring returned to the show in December 2024.
In 1986, Loring scored a No. 2 Pop and No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit record in the United States with "
Friends and Lovers", with
Carl Anderson (also a No. 1 country hit in 1986 for
Eddie Rabbitt and
Juice Newton under the title "Both to Each Other"). She originally performed "Friends and Lovers" on ''Days of Our Lives'' more than a year before it hit the charts. Her performance of the song generated the largest mail response of any song in NBC daytime history. First recorded as a duet with Anderson (who appeared on ''Days of Our Lives'' to sing the song with Loring) in 1985, its release as a single was delayed for a year by legal complications.
Loring left ''Days'' in 1986 and made sporadic film and television appearances over the next few decades. Her main efforts were spent in theater and in her recording career (though "Friends and Lovers" was her only major hit single).
In 2003, Loring released her first holiday album, ''You Make It Christmas''. In 2008, she released ''A Playlist'', which included a new recording of the song "Friends and Lovers" with
Carl Anderson, recorded one year before he died.
Loring's book, ''Coincidence Is God's Way of Remaining Anonymous'', is a
spiritual autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...
of how a series of coincidences transformed her life. It was released in October 2012 by
HCI, Inc.
Bibliography
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Personal life
Loring was married to actor
Alan Thicke from 1970 until 1986. She has two sons with Thicke, Brennan and singer
Robin.
Loring has been honored with the Lifetime Commitment Award from
JDRF, and received the Woman of Achievement Award from the
Miss America Organization. She has been featured in ''
Who's Who in America''.
Discography
Albums
*1968: ''Today'' (
MGM Records); includes the original version of "
One Way Ticket"
*1970: ''And Now We Come to Distances'' (Evolution Records)
*1972: ''Sing a Song for the Mountain'' (Evolution Records)
*1984: ''A Shot in the Dark'' (Glitz Records); includes the full version of "The Facts of Life"
*1986: ''Gloria Loring'' (
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
); includes the original version of "
Friends and Lovers" with
Carl Anderson – AUS #83;
CAN #78
*1988: ''Full Moon/No Hesitation'' (Atlantic Records) – AUS #62
*1991: ''Is There Anybody Out There'' (Silk Purse); includes a solo version of "Friends and Lovers"
*1999: ''Turn The Page'' (Silk Purse)
*2000: ''By Request'' (Silk Purse); includes an acoustic recording of "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", the song adopted by
Bo & Hope as their theme song on ''
Days of Our Lives''
*2001: ''Friends and Lovers'' (Silk Purse)
*2003: ''You Make It Christmas'' (Silk Purse)
*2008: ''A Playlist'' (Silk Purse)
Singles
References
External links
*
*
Gloria Loring approved website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loring, Gloria
1946 births
Living people
American women singers
American soap opera actresses
Singers from New York City
American mezzo-sopranos
American people of Swedish descent
21st-century American women