Cyndi Lauper

The girl was only supposed to have fun, and success would come on its own. Epic Records had sniffed out a good deal when they signed the not-so-young-anymore Cyndi Lauper, unemployed after the breakup of her playful rockabilly band Blue Angel, critically acclaimed but ignored by the wider public. There was no way, they figured, that this odd little woman could go unnoticed, with her clumsy yet exuberant femininity, her fiery punk hairdo, and a look that seemed like the result of an accident with a trunk full of carnival costumes. And above all, there was no reason to leave without a microphone that shrill, impertinent-child voice, capable of hitting unexpected octaves and suddenly taking on desperately dramatic tones.

She was entrusted to a promising producer and businessman, Rick Chertoff, and given a handful of songs to interpret. It's a story that has repeated itself constantly over the years, to the point of becoming a cold assembly line geared more toward monetary profit than artistic achievement.

This time, though, things went differently, because Cyndi Lauper was a thoroughbred performer and an artistic spirit that was anything but tameable, and because those songs fit her better than her outlandish outfits, capturing her persona and imagery so faithfully that they seemed inseparable from her, unimaginable sung by anyone else.

Money changed everything, yes, but so did great pop songs, and the kaleidoscopic "She's So Unusual" contained plenty of them, all set to turn Cyndi Lauper into the popstar everyone would be watching and listening to. And the new chapter of her career was kicked off by the propulsive, shimmering jangle-pop of "Money Changes Everything", where, amid a blues harmonica and a synth line with an almost Celtic flavour, the coordinates were laid down that many successful groups would soon follow, from the Bangles (with whom she'd collaborate on her second album) to the Eurythmics, who would soon shed their electronic skin to pursue similar sounds.

But what truly changed Lauper's life was above all the irresistible first single lifted from the album, that hiccuping electro-pop racket "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", impossible to get out of your head, which was crowned a feminist anthem by an entire generation of girls before becoming one of the most distinctive pop songs of the entire '80s.

Rounding out the pool of unforgettable tracks were also the dreamy ballad "All Through The Night", which stood out against a delicate backdrop of iridescent electronics before literally melting away in its melancholic chorus, and a cover of an obscure Prince track (who had only just risen to fame with "1999") taken from his first true masterpiece, "Dirty Mind", released just three years earlier: Lauper amplified the synth-wave hues of "When You Were Mine", stripping it of its original lightness and making it darker, aided by a melodramatic delivery that even spilled over into excessive sobbing by the end.

The influence of the Minneapolis wunderkind could also be felt in the thick, lascivious synth-funk of "I'll Kiss You" and in the kitsch choice to revive an old '20s torch song, "He's So Unusual" (which, declined in the feminine, served as a fitting title track), as if it were being played on a crackling gramophone. A quirk that many other pop divas would return to in the years to come.

The restless young woman, however, was keen to have her own say and to show off the songwriting skills she'd already displayed in Blue Angel. She therefore took part in writing some of the tracks, drawing on her experience in New York's multiethnic club scene, both as a singer and as a waitress, which took shape as "Witness", with reggae undertones far removed from the almost holiday-mood ones of the recent cover of Blondie's "The Tide Is High", and as the synthetic rockabilly of "Yeah Yeah", which closed the album amid driving ska horns and helium inhalations.

Lauper's best shots, though, were that ode to female masturbation that was "She Bop" (where "to bop" was slyly used, and conjugated, to stand in for the verb "to masturbate"), in which a sinister, baroque synth-pop arrangement clashed with the ramshackle, contagious melody, and above all that bare-bones, two-voice declaration of love (the other voice belonging to her co-writer Rob Hyman), steeped in tenderness and romance, titled "Time After Time". A song so perfect in its simplicity that it became a modern standard of American pop music, even earning unexpected praise, such as that of Miles Davis (one of over a hundred artists to have covered it).

The girl had a great deal of fun, for more than two years, and so did the millions of people who bought the record, the critics who deservedly praised it, and the media (the fledgling MTV chief among them), who made Lauper the first case of overexposure, on television and beyond, in the world of female pop; rarely in successful pop music have form and substance walked hand in hand so well.

When it came time to return to the studio to follow up her triumphant debut, Cyndi Lauper understandably demanded full autonomy and freedom, writing nearly all the songs herself and co-producing the record. However, the more serious-minded "True Colours", perhaps hurt by the overly long wait and saddled with a sound that was no longer quite so fresh by the time it came out, fell well short of repeating that success, and Lauper's star soon began to dim, despite a bang of a start thanks to the hugely popular and well-crafted title track. Ironically, it was also the only new track on which her songwriting contribution was minimal (curiously, a similar scenario played out with her third and disappointing album, "A Night To Remember", and its first single "I Drove All Night", written once again by the same pair, the celebrated Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly).

There's perhaps little else that's truly memorable in her unlucky, uneven discography, but the substantial legacy of "She's So Unusual" is enough to shield Cyndi Lauper from undeserved obscurity, and indeed it still stands there, despite the sonic wear brought on by the passing years, as testimony to an unrepeatable alchemy of songs, genres and colours - one that remains, to this day, both the burden and the delight of every singer (or their handlers) still trying to pull off the perfect pop album.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

13/11/2011