“If you're lost you can look--and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you--I'll be waiting
Time after time”

Cyndi Lauper - "Time After Time"

With a catalogue that includes everything from bouncy hits like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” to slow, thoughtful pieces like “Time After Time,” Lauper has amazed us with a talent that just won’t quit. Few artists from the height of the music video revolution were as memorable, or as colorful as she; nor have they found the career longevity so many seek, yet she seems to have captured.  Just three years after MTV hit cable television, Cyndi Lauper became a household name with the release of her solo debut, She’s So Unusual.  As is common with the “overnight success story,” success was hardly overnight, and in the case of Lauper, it almost never took off.  

Cyndi Lauper grew up in New York City, NY, and spent her earliest years listening to strong female voices, like Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday, as well as pop culture icons, The Beatles.  She was encouraged creatively, and at the age of 12, she learned to play guitar.  As she learned to express herself through music and lyrics, she also began expressing herself outwardly, dying her hair and wearing bold, expressive clothes at a time when it just wasn’t a popular thing to do.  Though she was accepted into a public school for the arts, she was held back and eventually dropped out, getting her GED later on. 

Often feeling like an outcast, she left home to pursue her art and find herself, only to return to NYC and begin singing with various cover bands in the area throughout her teenage years.  At one point, Cyndi damaged her vocal cords and took some time away from singing.  Doctors told her she would never sing again, yet at the insistence of friends, she went to see a vocal coach who helped her regain her voice.  Once her voice recovered in 1978, she joined up with Blue Angel, and released an album in 1980 on Polydor Records.  Though the album and its singles would flop in the states, they managed to chart up to #37 in Australia with the single, “I’m Gonna Be Strong.”  The band eventually dissolved under financial and management pressures, which forced Lauper into bankruptcy.  

Let’s face it, most musical dreams stories come to an end once you hit the back 5 of your 20s.  Here she was, so much potential with a four-octave vocal range, but she was in her late 20s, which in the late 70s and early 80s may as well have been “Game Over.”  In 1981, Lauper met David Wolff after a singing gig at a local bar.  They fell in love, and the rest is history, or so the story goes.  He became her manager and got her a deal with Portrait Records, under Columbia.  On October 14, 1983, She’s So Unusual hit the store shelves and on the strength of its first single, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” it was an instant hit.  The synth-laden party anthem found immense popularity, thanks to the help of MTV who had the music video, featuring Ms. Lauper and her friend, wrestler Captain Lou Albano engaging in zany antics.  The powerful follow up single, “Time After Time,” went to #1.  This somber number showed the world that Lauper wasn’t a one-time wonder, she had much more to come, and has given more than 100 artists something to cover.  Two other singles “She Bop” and “All Through the Night” went into the Top 10, solidifying She’s So Unusual’s position as one of the greatest albums of the 80s.  For her efforts, she was awarded Best Female Video at the MTV Video Awards, the Billboard Award for Top New Pop Artists, and a Grammy for Best New Artist.

Shortly after the tremendous success of She’s So Unusual, Cyndi Lauper signed on for the all-star charity single, “We Are the World,” as well as recording theme song from one of the 80s greatest kid adventure movies, The Goonies.  Both went on to tremendous success, and surprise! another single from She’s So Unusual, “Money Changes Everything,” a cover of The Brains’ New Wave tune, broke into the Top 40 giving her a fifth hit single from her debut album.  As the accolades kept pouring in, from appearing on the covers of Rolling Stone, Time and Newsweek, to being named one of Women Magazine's ‘Women of the Year’, Lauper spent the better portion of 1984 on tour in support of She’s So Unusual, which stayed in the Top 40 for over 65 weeks, selling over 16 million copies around the world.  She was also the first female artist to have four consecutive Top 5 hits from one album. 

Lauper’s follow up, True Colors, was released in 1986.  Though Lauper was well-known for her punky pop stylings, it would be the title track, another soft ballad that was a moving tribute to ‘being different’, that would give her a second #1.  True Colors found a second hit single with the Bangles-backed “Change of Heart” and a cover of the Marvin Gaye hit, “What’s Going On.” 

Ever the performer, in 1988, she added acting to her credits, starring opposite Jeff Goldblum in Vibes.  By 1989 she released a third album, A Night to Remember, which featured guest appearances from artists as varied as Eric Clapton and Bootsy Collins of Parliament.  The lead single, “I Drove All Night,” became a Top-10 hit, helping to drive sales of the album.  Lauper continued to break away from her own recording career, but remained busy performing.  In 1990, she joined Roger Waters for a tremendous performance of Pink Floyd’s The Wall in Berlin to commemorate, naturally, the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The same year, she recorded “The World is Stone” for Tycoon, a Tim Rice musical.

As the 90s came alive, Cyndi returned to her own career with 1993’s Hat Full of Stars and 1994’s best-of compilation, Twelve Deadly Cyns.  “Hey Now Girls,” a remix of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” off of Twelve Deadly Cyns, went on to become a hit in the U.K., while Cyndi continued acting in bit roles, including appearances on the hit sitcom, Mad About You, which earned her an Emmy.  By 1997, Cyndi was expecting her first child, Declan, who would come as she was wrapping up production on her album Sisters of Avalon.  Though it had modest sales, it found critical success and expanded her fan base into the gay and lesbian community.  The single, “Unhook the Stars” would eventually be made into a movie of the same name.  In 1998, Lauper released Merry Christmas, Have a Nice Life, a collection of folk-rock, Cajun and Celtic sounds blended into her own material as well as holiday standards.  The following year, she appeared on The Simpsons, as well as performing alongside Cher for her song “Turn Back Time” on the program, VH1 Divas. 

Lauper has been far from bored since then, performing in a variety of critically acclaimed roles in independent films, as well as releasing albums, like 2001’s Shine, 2003’s At Last, which featured her version of The Righteous Brothers’ classic “Unchained Melody.”  Her interpretation of the song gave her a Grammy nomination in 2005.  Most recently in her body of work is The Body Acoustic. Released in 2007, it features performances alongside Ani DiFranco, Sara McLaughlan, Jeff Beck, and Puffy Ami Yumi, among others.  The album came out while she was on the True Colors Tour 2007, which she headlined in the name of human rights.  The hugely successful tour included other artists, such as Deborah Harry of Blondie, Erasure and others.  Last, but certainly not least, is another album slated for release in 2008.  All of this has come without sacrificing the humor and style we’ve come to know and love from Ms. Lauper, helping to give new artists the inspiration to fly their ‘true colors’ for generations to come.