She's SO Unusual...

As I have mentioned here on the blog before, Cyndi Lauper is coming to Iceland to give a concert in Reykjavik on June 12th. I have been a huge fan ever since 1983 and was quick to secure front row tickets to see her live in concert for the first time.



To celebrate, the galaxy will be posting several blogs over the coming weeks, taking a look at the career (so far) of a singer that has above all followed the beat of her own drum, wherever it has taken her (and often at the cost of commercial success). Throughout highs and lows, she remains a much loved singer all over the world - not only for her classic songs from the 80s but also  for her later work. Not to mention all the amazing work she has done for the gay community throughout the years.

So, let's take a look at the strange girl from Queens that became a worldwide superstar: Miss Cyndi Lauper.



Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper was born on June 22nd in 1953. She had a difficult childhood (she was abused by her stepfather for years). She escaped into music, listening to the likes of Billie Holiday, Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald. She had a great love for art and music and tried to find different ways to express herself. At the age of twelve, Lauper learned how to play an acoustic guitar (which her sister had given to her), and she started to write her own lyrics. Even at this early age, Lauper started dyeing her hair different colors and wearing radical fashions. At the age of seventeen, she left home, planning to study art. Her journey would take her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog, trying to find herself. She eventually wound up in Vermont where she took art classes, and supported herself by working at various odd jobs.

By the mid 1970s, Lauper was back in NY , performing as a vocalist with various cover  bands. Even though she was now performing on stage, she was not happy singing cover songs - she wanted to perform her own material. In 1977, Lauper damaged her vocal cords and took a year off. She was told by several doctors that she would never sing again. Cyndi turned to a vocal coach, who helped her regain her voice by teaching her proper vocal exercises.



In 1978, after Lauper regained her voice, she met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt. Turi and Lauper became writing partners and formed a band called Blue Angel. They decided to put everything they had into making an album of original material. A few demos were recorded and shopped around to various record labels. The response was usually the same: the labels wanted to sign Cyndi as a solo artist. Lauper held out, wanting the band to be included in any deal she made. The group eventually signed with Polydor Records.



In 1980, the group released their selftitled debut album. Despite critical acclaim, the album sold poorly (or "went lead", as Lauper says) and the band broke up. Polydor had a regime change, and the label would not let the band back into the studio unless they had a hit. The group had a falling out with their manager and fired him. He later filed an $80,000 suit against them, which forced Cyndi into bankruptcy.









Cyndi started working in retail stores to make ends meet, and she still sang in local clubs. In 1981, while singing in a local New York bar, Lauper met David Wolff, who took over as her manager and became her boyfriend. He got her signed with Portrait Records (a subsidiary of Epic). Cyndi, now a solo act, started to work on her debut album.



She knew she could write songs, but the record company already had a lot of material they wanted her to record. So she would alter a lot of the songs that were given to her, often changing the lyrics to suit her. Eventually, Cyndi did manage to get a couple of her own songs onto the finished album. Two of them would become massive hit singles...



On October 14, 1983 "She's So Unusal" was released. The album peaked at #4 in the US and went on to become a worldwide hit - helped along greatly by the albums first single.



That was a song that has now become one of the ultimate anthems of the wonderful decade that was the 80s. "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" exploded onto radio in late 1983 and peaked at #2 in the US and the UK and topped various charts all over the world. Today it is regarded by many as one of the ultimate feminist anthems. The music video (which starred her real life family and friends - and even her dog, Sparky, who had been her only companion in Canada!) became one of the most popular on MTV at the time, launching Cyndi into superstardom overnight.





The album's second single was "Time After Time". Lauper co-wrote the track with Rob Hyman when her producer, Rick Chertoff, suggested that the album could use one more song. And while the record label did not have much faith in Lauper as a songwriter, they gave her the chance to prove herself. "Time After Time" went #1 in the US (#3 in the UK) and was one of the biggest hits of 1984. Since then the track  has been covered by more than 100 artists. It remains one of her biggest hits, and a stunning highlight at her concerts.



The beautiful music video became another huge hit on MTV. It starred again her own family, and her boyfriend who she was in fact breaking up with at the time (the tear at the end of the video was very real).



One of the most beautiful live performances I have heard in my life:





The controversial "She Bop" was the album's third single release. It reached #3 in the US (but only managed to peak at #46 in the UK). The lyrics (about masturbation, of all things) were disguised well enough so that kids wouldnt really get what the song was about - and the amusing video that went with it only offered more double meanings.







The albums fourth single was the beautiful "All Through The Night". It was released without a music video and would not be met with as much success as her previous singles, except in the States where it peaked at #5. It has however grown to become one of the biggest fan favourites of her career (it is certainly one of my faves) and she usually performs the track at her concerts.





The last single from the album was "Money Changes Everything", which reached number 27 on the US charts. In some countries, her cover of "When You Were Mine" (originally by Prince) was released as the albums final single.

Cyndi spent 1984 touring and promoting She's So Unusual. By the end of the year, she was the first female to have four consecutive Top Five hits from one album at the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The LP itself stayed in the Top 200 charts for almost 70 weeks and has since sold 16 million copies worldwide. Cyndi was on the cover of Rolling Stone, People, Time, Newsweek - she had arrived!









In 1985, Lauper won a Grammy award for Best New Artist. Around the same time Steven Spielberg asked Lauper to be record a song for his upcoming movie "The Goonies".



"The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" was released as a single in the summer of 1985. For years the song was considered a rarity among fans, having never appeared on any of Lauper's albums or her 1994 Greatest Hits compilation. Lauper admitted in an interview she hated the song, which was why she had chosen not to include it on her first compilation. In another interview, Lauper was quoted as saying that she had long despised the song because of Richard Donner's insistence on everything being perfect for the video shoot. In behind-the-scenes footage of the video, you can see Lauper physically exhausted from the work on the video.

 The video was split up into two acts, making Lauper the very first artist to have a two-part video. The first part premiered on MTV before the film was released in theaters, and the second part came after the movie had opened. The song reached #10 on Billboards Hot 100 chart in 1985.



Cyndi stopped performing "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", in concert after her 1987 world tour. She would not perform it in full again until 2006.





TO BE CONTINUED...