The Great 80s

Cyndi Lauper

Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper (born June 22, 1953) is an American Grammy- and Emmy award winning singer-songwriter and actress. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual, and became the first artist to have four top-five singles released from one album. Lauper has released 11 albums and over 40 singles, selling more than 25 million albums and singles worldwide.[1] She continues to tour the world in support of human rights.

On October 14, 1983, She's So Unusual was released, and became a worldwide hit. With help from Rick Chertoff, Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman (of The Hooters) as her primary studio musicians, She's So Unusual's popularity spread like wildfire. At the time, Lauper became popular with teenagers and critics, in part due to her hybrid punk image.

Lauper knew she could write songs, but the record company had a lot of material they wanted her to record. She altered a lot of the songs that were thrown her way, often changing the lyrics to suit her. (This would end up helping her in the long run financially as she could claim credit as a co-writer and collect royalties.)

An example is "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Lauper says the original lyrics of the song dealt more with a girl pleasing a man, therefore she changed the lyrics, wanting the song to be more of an anthem as she felt the original song seemed misogynistic.

The album's second single was the ballad "Time After Time". Lauper co-wrote "Time After Time" with Rob Hyman when her producer, Rick Chertoff, suggested to the band that the album could use one more song. The record label didn't have much faith in Lauper as a songwriter, but they gave her the chance to prove herself. "Time After Time" was one of the biggest hits of 1984. It has been covered by more than 100 artists.

Lauper came up with the title for "Time After Time" while reading TV Guide — Time After Time was a 1979 science fiction movie starring Malcolm McDowell as a man who invents a time machine. She has also stated that the apartment that she shared with David in New York had a very loud alarm clock, and that's where the lyrics "I hear the clock tick and think of you" originated.

"All Through the Night" was written by Jules Shear. It was later re-recorded in Swedish and released as the B-side to a single from the debut album of Marie Fredriksson (who'd achieve international success later as Roxette's female lead vocalist), in 1984. In 2005, a cover by Tori Amos appeared on her set of live albums, The Original Bootlegs. Shear and Lauper had also collaborated on his single "Steady" which became a Billboard Top 40 hit that year.

The album also includes a cover of The Brains' New Wave track "Money Changes Everything" (another Top 40 hit for her), and "When You Were Mine", a cover of Prince's song that was later released as a promotional single in 1985.

Lauper spent 1984 touring and promoting She's So Unusual. By the end of the year, she was the first female to have four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 Top 5 hits from one album. The LP itself stayed in the Top 40 charts for more than 65 weeks and sold 16 million copies worldwide. The original title of She's So Unusual was She's So Wonderful.[citation needed]

The video for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" made Lauper an MTV staple. The video ran constantly on MTV, and featured wrestler Captain Lou Albano as Lauper's father. It won the first ever award for Best Female Video at the 1984 Video Music Awards. The video featured many of Lauper's family members and her dog, Sparkle. Lauper appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in May of 1984. The photo on the cover had been reversed to make room for the title. She also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and Newsweek with the headline, "Women In Rock". Lauper was voted by Ms. Magazine as one of its women of the year.

The video for "Money Changes Everything" was shot during a concert at the Summit in Houston, Texas. The concert was broadcast over the radio and fans were told to show up wearing white T-shirts. The video featured pop singer Martika (of "Toy Soldiers") hugging Lauper onstage.

She started 1985 by participating on USA for Africa's famine-relief fund-raising single "We Are the World", singing the climactic soprano part of the bridge.

In 1985, Lauper won a Grammy Award in the Best New Artist category. At the event, she appeared with WWF Superstar Hulk Hogan, who played her "bodyguard". In return, she made many appearances as herself in a number of WWF's "Rock and Wrestling" events, where she was the manager of Wendi Richter. Their entrance music was "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".

Steven Spielberg had asked Lauper to be the musical director of his latest film The Goonies, an adventurous family film about lost treasure. Lauper had the power to choose whom she wanted on the soundtrack, so she tried to make the album very diverse. The Bangles were just one of the bands that contributed to the soundtrack.

Lauper worked so hard on the soundtrack that she wound up in the hospital.[citation needed] Lauper states in a 1986 interview that she had been working 12 hour days and had gynecological problems. Lauper had a minor operation and spent some time in the hospital. Her doctors told her that she needed some rest. This was the reason she wasn't able to participate in the Live Aid concert.

Lauper's "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, for the film The Goonies. The video featured many guests including WWF Wrestlers such as the Iron Sheik, Captain Lou Albano, Roddy Piper, André the Giant, "Classy" Freddie Blassie, The Fabulous Moolah & Nikolai Volkoff, the Goonies cast as well as The Bangles. The video was split up into two acts, making Lauper the very first artist to have a two-part video. Spielberg even allowed her access to the set pieces from the film. The soundtrack album reached #73 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Lauper stopped performing "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", in concert around 1987. During the Australian leg of her 2004 "At Last" tour, at the request of the crowd, she performed an a cappella version of the first verse and chorus at several shows. It was at a show in Baltimore on Lauper's 2006 tour that she finally played it in full again. The crowd was chanting "Goonies" and she sang the song a cappella to an ecstatic crowd. She finally agreed to play the song again on her "True Colors" tour in 2007 and it was featured in her 2008 tour of Australia as the second number performed at each show.

During the video commentary for "The Goonies" actor Sean Astin can be heard thanking Lauper for the song. He says that they all appeared tired on the set of the video, due to the rigorous shooting schedule, but they really did love the song. Sean apologizes to Lauper again in footage that can be seen in the upcoming "Goonies Documentary".

In 1985, The Women in Crystal Film Awards awarded her with the New Directions Award, given to those who are known for their creativity and originality.

Lauper released her second album True Colors on September 15, 1986. It reached number four on the Billboard 200. For this album, she increased her involvement both in production and songwriting. Guests on the album included Angela Clemons-Patrick, Nile Rodgers, Aimee Mann, Billy Joel, Adrian Belew, The Bangles, Ellie Greenwich, and Rick Derringer. Lauper co-wrote most of the album with Essra Mohawk, John Turi, Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.

Although the album was not as commercially successful as its predecessor was, it contained three high-charting singles, including the title track (which become her second platinum number-one hit), "Change of Heart" (#3) and a cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" (#12). The album also featured an older song called "Maybe He'll Know" which was on Lauper's Blue Angel album.

The album covers for both She's So Unusual and True Colors were composed by photographer Annie Leibovitz. "True Colors" was licensed to Kodak for use in its commercials. Lauper had no control over the song, which was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.

The 4th single from the album, "Boy Blue", became Lauper's first solo non-top-40 single. The proceeds of the song were donated to AIDS research.

In 1986, Lauper appeared on the Billy Joel album The Bridge on a song called "Code of Silence". Lauper also sang the theme song for the series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" the same year, though she was credited as "Ellen Shaw". Playhouse star Paul Reubens appeared on the True Colors album track "911" as an emergency operator. The album sold nearly 12 million copies.

In 1987 David Wolff produced a concert film for Lauper called Cyndi: Live in Paris. The concert was broadcast on HBO that same year.

Lauper made her film debut in August 1988 in the quirky comedy Vibes, alongside Jeff Goldblum, Julian Sands, Elizabeth Peña and Peter Falk. Lauper played a psychic in search of a city of gold in South America. The film was produced by Ron Howard and David Wolff acted as the film's associate producer.

To prepare for the role, Lauper took a few classes in finger waving and hair setting at the Robert Fiance School of Beauty in New York and studied with a few Manhattan psychics. The film was poorly received by critics and commercially flopped, though it reached the Top 30 in America’s Most Rented Movies. Lauper contributed a track called "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)" but the song was not included on the soundtrack. A video was released, which was meant to be a high energy, hysterically funny action/adventure romp through a Chinese laundry. The song hit #54 on the US charts, but fared better in Australia, peaking at #8 and becoming her fifth and final Top 10 single in Australia. It was performed as the opening track on her 2008 Australian tour.

At the beginning of 1988, Lauper traveled to the Soviet Union as part of a project to collaborate with Russian songwriters. Her trip resulted in the song "Cold Sky", a duet with Russian superstar Igor Nikolaev, which appeared on the album Music Speaks Louder Than Words. Lauper says she was unhappy about the way the album was mixed.

Lauper received an honorary diploma from Richmond High School, Queens, in 1988.

Wikipedia contributors. Cyndi Lauper. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. February 1, 2009, 17:34 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cyndi_Lauper&oldid=267860180. Accessed February 2, 2009.