Cyndi Lauper

Girl Punk for Your Phone

Cyndi Lauper started to pen her own song lyrics at age 12. It was the late 1960s at this point. Lauper played guitar and found her own singing style. By the mid-1970s she was playing cover bands.

Lauper’s first commercial attempts at a musical career included stints with a number of bands whose specialties were covers of the leading rock bands of the day. In 1978 she formed her own band, Blue Angel, which produced a musically notable album if not a commercial success. Following this disappointment, Lauper moved onto odd jobs by day and sang in whatever New York City bars would allow her, by night. Producer David Wolff discovered her in 1981 in just such a bar. After signing with a sub-label of Columbia Records, Lauper’s first solo album, She’s So Unusual, landed on the music scene in 1983. The biggest single off the album was by far “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” but the album as a whole made her an instant star. Other hits included the bittersweet “Time after Time” and “She Bop.” The sound was pop and New Wave; her style, pure girl-punk.

True Colors Era

Following a 1985 Grammy win and appearance, Lauper digressed into an odd assortment of entertainment projects, spearheaded by her manager Wolff. She participated in a number of World Wrestling Federation events, but managed to get herself back on music track in time to release her next album True Colors. The record earned Lauper yet another Grammy.

Mature Lauper

The next decade of Lauper’s career lacks in musical landmarks. The new millennium perhaps best served to pinpoint her return, again with critical acclaim. Album Shine (2003) proved Lauper’s versatility. The Body Acoustic (2005) features artistic collaborations with Sarah McLachlin, Shaggy and Jeff Beck, among others. Her official website is located here.

She’s So Unusual (1983):

1. Money Changes Everything
2. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
3. When You Were Mine
4. Time After Time
5. She Bop
6. Through the Night
7. Witness
8. I’ll Kiss You
9. He’s So Unusual
10. Yeah Yeah
11. Money Changes Everything (Live)
12. She Bop (Live)
13. All Through the Night (Live)

True Colors (1986):

1. Change of Heart
2. Maybe He’ll Know
3. Boy Blue
4. True Colors
5. Calm Inside the Storm
6. What’s Going On
7. Iko Iko
8. The Faraway Nearby
9. 911
10. One Track Mind

The Best Remixes (1989):

1. Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Extended)
2. She Bop (Dance Mix)
3. The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough (Dance Remix)
4. Change of Heart (Extended)
5. What’s Going On (Club Version)
6. Money Changes Everything (Extended)

A Night to Remember (1989):

1. Intro
2. I Drove All Night
3. Primitive
4. My First Night Without You
5. Like A Cat
6. Heading West
7. A Night to Remember
8. Unconditional Love
9. Insecurious
10. Dancing With a Stranger
11. I Don’t Want to Be Your Friend
12. Kindred Spirit
13. Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)

Hat Full of Stars (1993):

1. That’s What I Think
2. Product of Misery
3. Who Let In the Rain
4. Lies
5. Broken Glass
6. Sally’s Pigeons
7. Feels Like Christmas
8. Dear John
9. Like I Used To
10. Someone Like Me
11. A Part Hate
12. Hat Full of Stars

Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some (1994):

1. I’m Gonna Be Strong
2. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
3. Money Changes Everything
4. Time After Time
5. She Bop
6. All Through the Night
7. Change of Heart
8. True Colors
9. What’s Going On
10. I Drove All Night
11. That’s What I Think
12. Sally’s Pigeons
13. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)
14. Come On Home

Wanna Have Fun (1996):

1. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
2. When You Were Mine
3. A Night to Remember
4. Dear John
5. Calm Inside the Storm
6. Money Changes Everything
7. That’s What I Think
8. Dancing With a Stranger
9. Iko Iko
10. Someone Like Me

Sisters of Avalon (1996):

1. Sisters of Avalon
2. Ballad of Cleo and Joe
3. Fall Into Your Dreams
4. You Don’t Know
5. Love to Hate
6. Hot Gets a Little Cold
7. Unhook the Stars
8. Searching
9. Say a Prayer
10. Mother
11. Fearless
12. Brimstone and Fire
13. Lollygagging

Merry Christmas...Have a Nice Life (1998):

1. Home On Christmas Day
2. Early Christmas Morning
3. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
4. Christmas Conga
5. Minnie and Santa
6. Feels Like Christmas
7. Three Ships
8. New Year’s Baby (First Lullaby)
9. December Child
10. In the Bleak Midwinter
11. Silent Night

The Essential Cyndi Lauper (2003):

1. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
2. Money Changes Everything
3. Who Let In the Rain
4. She Bop
5. Time After Time
6. I Drove All Night
7. Hat Full of Stars
8. Change of Heart
9. Sisters of Avalon
10. All Through the Night
11. When You Were Mine
12. True Colors
13. Unhook the Stars
14. The Goonie ‘R’ Good Enough

At Last (2003):

1. At Last
2. Walk On By
3. Stay
4. La Vie En Rose
5. Unchained Melody
6. If You Go Away
7. Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)
8. My Baby Just Cares For Me
9. Makin’ Whoopee (with Tony Bennett)
10. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
11. You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me
12. Hymn To Love
13. On the Sunny Side of the Street

Shine (2004):

1. Shine
2. It’s Hard to Be Me
3. Madonna Whore
4. Water’s Edge
5. Shine (Illicit Remix)

Hey Now! (Remixes and Rarities) (2005):

1. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Vasquez Remix)
2. You Don’t Know (TM’s Know It All Mix)
3. Come On Home (Extended Club Mix)
4. That’s What I Think (Club Mix)
5. Ballad of Cleo and Joe (Soul Solution Vocal Dub)
6. Walk On By (S.A.F.’s Walk to the Dance Floor Club Mix)
7. What’s Going On (Long Version)
8. Mother (Extended Version)
9. World Is Stone
10. You Have to Learn to Live Alone

The Body Acoustic (2005):

1. Money Changes Everything (ft. Adam Lazzara)
2. All Through the Night (ft. Shaggy)
3. Time After Time (ft. Sarah McLachlan)
4. She Bop
5. Above the Clouds (ft. Jeff Beck)
6. I’ll Be Your River (ft. Vivian Green)
7. Sisters of Avalon (ft. Ani di Franco and Vivian Green)
8. Shine
9. True Colors
10. Water’s Edge (ft. Sarah McLachlan)
11. Fearless
12. Girls Just Want to Have Fun (ft. Puffi AmiYumi)