Monday Music...Cindi Lauper "Girls just want to have fun"

I have been busy again, Nothing like a lot of work...

 

     They have opened the Spigot for this week and this weekend so I will be busy working and I will post when I can.  I have a couple of post that are half finished that are in the Que.  I will finish them up and post them:).  Next week I will be on a different shift, I will be range-master for Cub Day camp next week so My lead was cool with my changing shifts to accommodate the event.   The problem is that I will not be able to work overtime..and I will not be getting much sleep, Oh well the kids are more important than the money...

      I decided to roll with Cindi Lauper, When she hit MTV, she was really unusual, I liked the quirky video and the songs off the album were really good.  I still have the Album and the CD in my collection. 

She's So Unusual is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper, released on October 14, 1983 by Portrait Records. The album was re-released in 2014 to commemorate its 30th anniversary, and was called She's So Unusual: A 30th Anniversary Celebration. The re-release contains demos and remixes of previously released material, as well as new artwork.
In 1978, Lauper formed the band Blue Angel. The band soon signed a recording contract with Polydor Records; however, their debut album, Blue Angel, was a commercial failure. The band parted ways after firing their manager, who sued Lauper for $80,000 and forced her into bankruptcy.Lauper went on to sing in many New York night clubs, and caught the eye of David Wolf, who became her manager and subsequently got her signed to Portrait Records.
The album is primarily new wave-based, with many of the songs being influenced by synthpop and pop rock. Upon its release, the album received positive reviews from music critics, who noted Lauper's unique vocals. Lauper earned several awards and accolades for the album, including two Grammy Awards at the 27th Grammy Awards, one of which was for Best New Artist. She's So Unusual peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 chart and stayed in the chart's top forty for 65 weeks. It has sold over 6 million copies in the United States and 22 million copies worldwide. This makes it Lauper's best-selling album to date and one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s decade.The album was the second best-selling album in Canada by a female artist in the 1980s, behind Whitney Houston's self titled debut album, selling more than 900,000 copies. The album ranked at #487 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, and ranked at #41 on Rolling Stone's list of Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2012.
Seven singles were released from the album, with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" becoming a worldwide hit and her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. "Time After Time" became her first number-one hit on the chart and experienced similar success worldwide. Lauper found success with the next two singles as well, with both "She Bop" and "All Through the Night" peaking in the top five. This makes Lauper the first female singer to have four top five singles on the Hot 100 from one album. She's So Unusual was promoted by the Fun Tour throughout 1983 and 1984.

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is a song written by and first recorded in 1979 by American musician Robert Hazard. However, it is better known as a single by American singer Cyndi Lauper, whose version was released in 1983. It was the first major single released by Lauper as a solo artist and the lead-off single from her debut album She's So Unusual. Lauper’s version gained recognition as a feminist anthem and was promoted by an award-winning video. It has been covered on either an album or in live concert by over 30 other artists.
The single was Lauper's breakthrough hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming a worldwide hit throughout late 1983 and early 1984. It remains one of Lauper's signature songs and was a widely popular song during the era of its release, the 1980s. The "Rolling Stone & MTV: '100 Greatest Pop Songs': 1-50", "Rolling Stone: "The 100 Top Music Videos"" and the "VH1: 100 Greatest Videos" lists ranked the song at No. 22, No. 39 and No. 45, respectively. The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 2013, the song was remixed by Yolanda Be Cool, taken from the 30th anniversary reissue of the album She's So Unusual.
    
With the inclusion of promotional releases, the single has seen about 40 individual versions of release. The most common is a 7" vinyl single (with varying cover artwork) released in 1983/1984 (depending on the country) and the second most common is a 12" vinyl single (also with varying cover artwork) released in 1983/1984.
The song was written by Robert Hazard, who only recorded a demo of it in 1979. He wrote it from a male point of view. For Lauper's version, she changed the lyrics with Hazard's approval. Her version appeared on her 1983 debut solo record, She's So Unusual. It is a synthesizer-backed anthem about the roles of women in society and is considered by many to be a feminist classic of the era.  Gillian G. Gaar, author of She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll (2002), described the single and corresponding video as a "strong feminist statement", an "anthem of female solidarity" and a "playful romp celebrating female camaraderie."
The variety of releases of the single includes an Austrian birthday card with a 3" CD of the song inside. The song has been heavily distributed in karaoke version as well. Lauper later went on to completely re-work the song in 1994 resulting in the new hit "Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)". The song was remade by Lauper yet again in 2005 on her The Body Acoustic album, also produced by Chertoff and Wittman with Lauper, with guest support vocals from Japanese pop/rock duo Puffy AmiYumi.

    
The release of the single was accompanied by a quirky music video. It cost less than $35,000, largely due to a volunteer cast and the free loan of the most sophisticated video equipment available at the time. The cast included professional wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano in the role of Lauper's father while her real mother, Catrine, played herself. Lauper would later appear in World Wrestling Federation storylines opposite Albano and guest-star in an episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, in which Albano portrayed Mario (Albano also played himself in the episode). Lauper's attorney, Elliot Hoffman, appeared as her uptight dancing partner. Also in the cast were Lauper's manager, David Wolf, her brother, Butch Lauper, fellow musician Steve Forbert, and a bevy of secretaries borrowed from Portrait/CBS, Lauper's record label.
Lorne Michaels (Broadway Video, SNL), another of Hoffman's clients, agreed to give Lauper free run of his brand new million-dollar digital editing equipment, with which she and her producer created several first-time-ever computer generated images of Lauper dancing with her buttoned-up lawyer, leading the entire cast in a snake-dance through New York streets and ending up in Lauper's bedroom in her home. The bedroom scene is a homage to the famous stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers' film A Night at the Opera.
Before the song starts, the beginning of her version of "He's So Unusual" plays.
The music video was directed by Edd Griles. The producer was Ken Walz while the cinematographer was Francis Kenny. The treatment for the video was co-written by Griles, Walz, and Cyndi Lauper. The video was shot in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in summer 1983 and premiered on television in December 1983. The choreography was by a New York dance and music troupe called XXY featuring Mary Ellen Strom, Cyndi Lee and Pierce Turner.