Still having fun: remembering Cyndi Lauper

The Grammys had just been awarded. “Entertainment Tonight” was doing a post-mortem and talking about what was next in music. Who were the up and coming artists?

The first one they mentioned was this quirky singer who just released this feel-good song called “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”.

It was not the first time I had heard Cyndi Lauper, but that was the time when she was launched on her way to stardom.

Yesterday, I heard she was selling the majority of her music catalogue. It reminded me of just how interesting a journey through the 1980s Cyndi Lauper had.

The epitome of Cyndi Lauper in the '80s.

Source: Facebook/Timeless Frames

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She’s So Unusual
The name of her debut album summed up Cyndi Lauper to a tee. She was not like other singers, with her multi-coloured hair, eccentric clothes, energy, and happy-go-lucky style. She didn’t seem to take herself too seriously. Quite the opposite, she seemed to be playing things tongue and cheek.

Her first album was “She’s So Unusual” which came out in 1983. It would become the first debut album by a female artist to have four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Her first single was “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. It fit perfectly the image she portrayed. The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video featured wrestling manager Lou Albano, a friend of Lauper’s, playing her dad. That relationship with Albano would blossom, as Lauper would go on to appear in story lines with the World Wrestling Federation.

The next single was “Time After Time”, a touching ballad that became Lauper’s first number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year in 1985. What I will always remember is watching the video on “Good Rockin’ Tonite” when they were interviewing the band The Hooters. It turns out Rob Hyman of The Hooters co-wrote the song, after both he and Lauper were coming out of recent relationships.

“She Bop” was the third single, and was a return to a sound more like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. What I really like about “She Bop” is the use of the flute. The song went all the way to number three on the Billboard Hot 100.

Her fourth single was “All Through the Night”, another ballad kind of like “Time After Time”. It peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100.

There were two other releases, “Money Changes Everything” which peaked at number 27 and “When You Were Mine”, which did not chart.

Lauper went on to win the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1985, and “She’s So Unusual” was nominated for Album of the Year and Record of the Year. She was also nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and Song of the Year for “Time After Time”.

USA for Africa
Famine and starvation gripped Africa in the 1980s, compelling musicians throughout the world to band together to raise money for relief efforts.

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by the British group of musicians called Band Aid was first at Christmas of 1984. A few months later in March of 1985, American performers gathered calling themselves USA for Africa and sang “We Are the World”.

Cyndi Lauper was part of that effort. Her contribution was the line “Well, well, well, let’s realize that a change can only come” followed by Kim Carnes singing “When we” then Lauper, Carnes and Huey Lewis together sing “stand together as one”.

It was part of a very powerful song.

“The Goonies”

Later in 1985, Cyndi Lauper supplied the song “Goonies Are Good Enough” for the movie “Goonies”, about a group of teenagers trying to save their homes from foreclosure. They discover a map, and go hunting for treasure, discovering an underground world and the adventures ensue. Lauper actually has a cameo in the movie, performing the song on TV.

“Goonies Are Good Enough” peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, becoming Lauper’s fifth top 10 hit.

I actually went to see “The Goonies” at the Green Acres Drive-in in Lethbridge the summer of 1985 with my friend and neighbour Mat. What I remember best is not being able to see much of the movie because it is shot in a dark, underground world. That made it really hard to follow the plot, so I remember very little of it.

True Colors
“Goonies Are Good Enough” was the perfect bridge for fans of Cyndi Lauper between her first and second albums.

“True Colors”, her second album, came out in 1986. The first single was the title track “True Colors”, which became Lauper’s second number one song on the Billboard Hot 100.

I remember the video, where Lauper is singing and kneels in front of a silver pool wearing what looks like a skirt made of newspapers.

It was a golden age of music for me, because other number one songs in that same period included “Amanda” by Boston; “You Give Love A Bad Name” by Bon Jovi”; “Human” by Human League; and “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby and the Range.

She would have one more hit from “True Colors”. “Change of Heart” went all the way to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and again showcased Lauper’s range.

Drive time
The next time I heard Cyndi Lauper, it was singing “I Drove All Night” in 1989, the debut single from her third album, called “A Night to Remember”. “I Drove All Night” went all the way to number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and garnered Lauper a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

The follow-up single “What’s Going On” peaked at number 12.

The years after
Lauper continues recording and performing to this day.

She also did quite I bit of acting where I saw her in “Mad About You” as the ex-wife of one of the characters; “Bones”; and “Magnum P.I.”. She often played herself, such as in “The Simpsons”; “Queer as Folk”; “The Backyardigans”; “Gossip Girl”; “30 Rock”; “The Apprentice: The Celebrity Apprentice 3”; “Young Sheldon”; and “Project Runway”.

She also appeared in movies such as “Life with Mikey” opposite Michael J. Fox in 1993.

Parting thoughts
Cyndi Lauper has always been a bit of a paradox to me, a contradiction in terms. She has always had this quirky look with the different coloured hair, eccentric clothes, and energy. If you closed your eyes and listened to “Time After Time”, “All Through the Night” or “True Colors”, I am guessing that is not the picture your mind would conjure up to match that powerful, heartwarming voice.

And that’s the best part. Not only did she dance to her own drum, and not really care what anyone else thought, she let the music speak for itself.

Through it all, she was just having fun.