I woke up this morning and saw a Billboard article noting that Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 debut album, She’s So Unusual, turns 40 today, October 14. That this anniversary escaped my notice until this morning makes me ashamed.
To say I am a huge Cyndi Lauper fan is a vast understatement. I have written and spoken about her extensively over the years; have seen her live a bunch; and even had the pleasure of interviewing her twice. (I’ll put some of those links below.) I have some words on “Time After Time” that will surface eventually in a cool project.
I wrote this in 2006, and it’s a pretty concise summary of why I’ve always felt Lauper is a genius:
Cyndi Lauper's crazy hair, outrageous clothes and Noo Yawk accent pegged her as a patron saint to goofballs, thrift-store queens and misfits everywhere in the 1980s. But underneath her "she's so unuuuuusual!" exterior lurks an understated pop balladeer and underrated singer who's had a huge influence on many of modern music's free-spirited, sexually liberated dudettes (and dudes).
As an ’80s kid, I was blessed to grow up in the Golden Age of Cyndi. I’ve already written about her impact on my beloved Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and I have no doubt her presence seeped into my pop culture consumption. Exhibit A: In second grade, I went as a “punk rocker” for Halloween—and let’s just say I looked more like Punky Brewster dressed up as Cyndi Lauper. (Although the only thing I really needed to complete this costume was the wig and fake mic, because everything else was in my wardrobe rotation anyway. On brand for decades!)
But back to She’s So Unusual. Arriving a few years after her (severely underrated) rockabilly-pop band Blue Angel disintegrated, the album rearranged pop music’s DNA—no small feat in a groundbreaking decade overflowing with pop disruptors. It spawned five top 40 singles—including the chart-topping “Time After Time”—reached No. 4 on the Billboard album charts and is seven-times platinum in the U.S. alone. Lauper won a Grammy for Best New Artist (no curse for her!) and an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
On paper, She’s So Unusual shouldn’t work at all, because every single song sounded different. The tracklist encompasses Devo-esque synth-pop (“I’ll Kiss You”), laid-back reggae (“Witness”), scratchy-vinyl blues (“He’s So Unusual”), groovy funk-pop (“When You Were Mine”), meditative ballads (“Time After Time,” “All Through the Night”), funky synth-punk (“She Bop”), B-52s-esque bounce (“Yeah Yeah”).
In most cases, an album that covers vast sonic ground comes across as chaotic or unfocused. But She’s So Unusual works so well because Lauper carries these songs. Vocally, she’s switches between these multiple genres effortlessly and with sincerity—and, because of her multi-octave vocal range, she sounds great no matter what she’s singing. Plus, her voice is malleable and distinctive—coquettish in spots, plaintive in others, ferocious elsewhere.
Lauper is also a peerless interpreter, whether taking the Brains’ Springsteen-esque bombast and adding genuine urgency; amplifying the heartbreak of Prince’s “When You Were Mine”; and channeling a desperate, lovelorn pop balladeer on Jules Shear’s “All Through the Night.”
As a songwriter, Lauper also left her imprint on the album’s themes and lyrics; among other tunes, she co-wrote the self-pleasure jam “She Bop” and relationship-tumult anthem “Time After Time.” Even more notably, of course, Lauper edited and shaped the new wave irreverence of Robert Hazard’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” into a feminist rallying cry.
Musically, Lauper’s take resembles a girl-group single updated for the 1980s with bubbly keyboards and MTV gloss. And her lyrical suggestions gave the protagonist a strong voice—and agency over her own life and actions.
Below, look at the differences between Hazard’s song and Lauper’s version—and see how in the latter, the narrator puts her foot down and says she’s going to be shining on her own. In Lauper’s world, no man speaks for her protagonists.
Hazard:
Some guys take a beautiful girl
They try to hide her away from the rest of the world
All my girls have got to walk in the sun
'Cause girls just wanna have fun
Lauper:
Some boys take a beautiful girl
And hide her away from the rest o' the world
I wanna be the one to walk in the sun
Oh girls, they wanna have fun
For people who don’t fit in, a common coping mechanism involves leaning into being really weird or different. That way you’re not trying to conform to some impossible stereotype or societal norm; instead, you’re creating your own niche where you belong. Growing up with a disability, that was certainly my approach. (I wrote about that a bit in a 2018 essay about Doc Martens.)
I think that’s one reason why I love She’s So Unusual (and Lauper herself) so much. Her fashion sense certainly telegraphed an aesthetic of nonconformity. But Lauper didn’t try to camouflage her unique qualities: her singular voice, her voracious love of multiple music genres, her vulnerability, her live charisma. Instead, she considered them assets and strengths. Even the name of her album—She’s So Unusual—reclaimed a pejorative term, transforming being “unusual” into something to celebrate.
Women are (still) often taught to suppress the parts of themselves that might be seen as difficult (or different) to achieve professional success or land a successful relationship. But on She’s So Unusual, Lauper wasn’t afraid to show all sides of herself—the times when she felt heartbroken, sexually liberated, feminist, vulnerable, happy, sad, flirty, silly, contemplative. This wasn’t one-dimensional womanhood, but a messy, bold vision of how to live life in brilliant color.
Best of all, She’s So Unusual was a massive success. Weirdness won—and so did Lauper’s offbeat vision. Forty years later, She’s So Unusual is still incredibly comforting—and deeply inspirational.
Bonus fact 1: Ellie Greenwich—who co-wrote girl-group songs like "Be My Baby," "Then He Kissed Me," "Do Wah Diddy Diddy," and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," among others—sings backing vocals on She’s So Unusual.
Bonus fact 2: Here’s Cyndi Lauper covering Fleetwood Mac’s “You Make Loving Fun” in 1977; the song was released in Japan in 1984:
Cyndi Lauper Articles/Podcasts/Radio:
5 Reasons why Cyndi Lauper Deserves to be in the Rock Hall (Ultimate Classic Rock)
Who Cares About the Rock Hall Podcast?: Cyndi Lauper (guest)
Interview: Cyndi Lauper on her rockabilly roots, the song that makes her sound like Ethel Merman, and her special kinship with Patsy Cline (Salon)
Why Cyndi Lauper Deserves to Be in the WWE Hall of Fame (Ultimate Classic Rock)
Music Monday: Cyndi Lauper, Cheap Trick, Trashcan Sinatras, more (Ideastream Public Radio)
I bought this album the day it came out because she covered the Brains’ “Money Changes Everything !!! (I was in school at Georgia Tech and a huge fan of the band)
I remember seeing an old b/w clip of her Doing The Impossible with Blue Angel: ab A+ cover of “I’m Gonna Be Strong”!