Song:Time After Time
Album:The Essential Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper was one of the biggest successes of the early days of MTV. She seemingly came out of nowhere with this thrift store look that was very popular with young girls. Her two really big hits were Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Time After Time. Of course nothing ever lasts in the music business and Cyndi hasn't had a hit since 1989. But she's still around. She was born June 22, 1953 in Astoria, Queens, New York City. She began writing songs as a teen. And that's also when she adopted the thrift store look and the name Cyndi. In the early 70s, she was performing in cover bands in New York City clubs. In 1978, she formed Blue Angel with sax player John Turi. They released an album on Polydor in 1980. It went nowhere and management problems forced Blue Angel to split up. She had been offered solo deals but chose to remain with the band. Then David Wolff became her manager and her got her a deal with the Epic Records label Portrait. Her 1983 debut album She's So Unusual was produced by Rick Chertoff. He produced The Hooters and he brought in Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman of The Hooters to work with Cyndi. The first single Girls Just Want To Have Fun was a huge success. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. But mainly MTV played the video to death and the song became an anthem. The second single Time After Time did even better. It topped the Billboard Hot 100. But it's a more subdued song and I doubt it would have been as big if Girls Just Want To Have Fun hadn't been a hit first. Cyndi wrote the song with Hyman. And that is David Wolff in the video. The film Cyndi is watching is the 1936 film The Garden Of Allah starring Charles Boyer and Marlene Dietrich. She's So Unusual sold six million copies. Cyndi's other number one hit was True Colors in 1986. And she had four other top ten hits. Her final top ten hit was I Drove All Night in 1989. By that time she had gotten into acting and she hadn't released new music for three years. She didn't release her next album until 1993. When an artist goes that long between albums, we forget about them. And that's what happened to Cyndi Lauper. She remained with Epic until 2008 but Cyndi didn't have any more hits. You can get all of her hits on this budget comp. In recent years, she wrote the musical Kinky Boots and she still records and tours. Her latest CD Detour is on Sire Records and it was released last month. Of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention Cyndi's contribution to the 80s popularity of the WWF. Her involvement was Wolff's idea. It ended when they split up. Here's the video for Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper.
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