She was so different from most of the female artists of the 80's. Unusual, if you will.
Cyndi Lauper's debut album, She's So Unusual, made her the first female artist to have four top five hits on the Billboard charts. Not bad for a singer who was told by a doctor in 1977 that she would never sing again, after damaging her vocal chords.
Lauper spent her early years singing in cover bands, but by 1978 met John Turi, and formed the band, Blue Angel. They released a single album in 1980 which not very successful. However,even then, the offers were forthcoming for a solo recording contract. Offers, which she didn't take. Instead, she was more interested with the band getting a contract.
Unfortunately, Blue Angel broke up shortly thereafter, and a financially troubled Lauper took to working in retail stores and restaurants. Meanwhile, she continued to perform in clubs, eventually signing with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic in 1981, mostly due to her new manager, David Wolff.
She's So Unusual was released on October 14, 1983, and was an instant smash, eventually peaking at number four on the charts.It went on to reach the top five in multiple countries, and to date, remains her most successful album of all time, selling an estimated sixteen million copies worldwide.
Between 1983 and 1984, Lauper embarked on the Fun Tour in support of her first album, and in 1985 contributed to both USA For Africa's We Are The World, and the soundtrack for The Goonies. All the while, fans eagerly awaited her second album.
True Colors was released on September 18, 1986. While ultimately not as successful, this didn't stop accolades from being given, and pennies from rolling in. That tends to happen with an estimated seven hundred million sales worldwide. Especially the latter.
The album kicks off with the Bangles backed Change Of Heart, and sets a somewhat more mature tone for the once quirky artist. She's all grown up, and she wants the world to know it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it also catches you off guard a bit. This is when I realized that I was more so familiar with the image of Lauper, and her affiliation with Pee-Wee Herman, than her actual music.
While there's no denying that True Colors, the song, is a massive hit, what the album itself stumbles a bit under is the sheer weight of her debut. It just doesn't pack the punch. While this is typically how it goes, it also doesn't stop it from being a bit disappointing. The hype is there, and the audience wants to badly for the artist to bottle lightening twice.
It would only be fair for me to admit that I did end up grabbing five tracks in total, of the ten, for my shuffle list. But, these are essentially two hits, and three mediocre (at best) tunes. Whereas with She's So Unusual, which I also took five from, these were big chart toppers.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wanted, and expected more.
Waiting three years in between albums is typically not a good thing, and yet, this seemed to be a trend for Lauper in the 80's. She didn't release her third album until 1989. This gives people too much time to forget about you, and in such an iconic era as the 80's this may have contributed greatly to the continued plummeting sales since her debut. A Night To Remember was the last of her prime, selling one hundred twenty thousand albums, a considerable drop from 1986.
Things fared far worse as the 90's came into play. The once platinum selling artist was now only selling gold records for her 1993 and 1996 releases, and then, despite continuing to release albums, fell completely off the sales charts until 2010's Memphis Blue, which went silver. Since then, she has only released one additional record, 2016's detour.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS January 31, 1981 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS January 31, 1987 |
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