POLLS Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper SHE'S SO UNUSUAL album poll

I remember a Time Magazine story on Cyndi and Madonna at the time of this album; they were equally big stars at that point.

I very distinctly remember standing at the bottom of the staircase (which should be in the photo, if i can find it) and my mom saying that she thought Cyndi was way more talented than Madonna, who was going to be a flash in the pan as far as she was concerned. I agreed with her iirc.

all through the night v. time after time

Yeah, there's a reason this poll was never done before. It's on my shortlist of perfect albums (every track is great). If you also figure in the equally-excellent b-sides and soundtrack cuts from that era ("Goonies R Good Enough", "Right Track Wrong Train", "Such A Thrill"), it's just such an amazing run.

i still agree with your mom, la lechera!

plaintive impassioned hope forever forward v. quiet melancholic time travel

it's raining today so, time after time

Cyndi's problem was thinking she was good for writing more than two songs per album.

lol i've never listened to this record before

lol it's amazing

So why were The Hooters so mediocre? (Weren't they?)

I liked the Hooters (and so did my mom)

They had some extremely crappy lyrics, but a lot of their songs were pretty good. One of them was about ~zombies~ (I think it was about religion but I was kind of focused on the zombies at 10)

ALL YOU ZOMBIES

i love that song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LE0KpcP05I

Hooters were plenty okay. I'm listening to "And We Danced" right now and it's still one of my mid-80s faves.

yeah the Hooters rule, at least what I know of their hits

When I talk about crappy lyrics, I mean shit like "she was my be bop baby at the union hall" and they had a horrible quasi reggae song too iirc. I liked Johnny B (lol Johnny B) and Zombies the best. My mom used to kid me for only liking the glummest songs. This was a year or two before I bought my first Cure album, so we could retroactively easily see where all of this was heading.

Is 'All You Zombies' actually abt zombies tho? Even as a kid I was like 'eh, this isn't about REAL zombies'

I remember their trademark melodica with a blowing tube attached to it-- for some reason we thought that instrument was called a 'Hooter' and hence their name

You don't have to hide anymore!

I willfully pretended it wasn't about religion, I think. But there were lyrics about Noah and Moses and whatnot.

i think someone even hollers "yeah they were the israelites!" at some point
(sorry cyndi)

Maybe they were coming from the same place as that guy who wrote horror novels abt Jesus Christ: Vampire etc

xpost !!! what?

Oh no I just got to 'All Through The Night' ;_;

the feelingz

time after time y'all

but I'm not going to be critical of any winner in this poll

"some point" = 2:38 (re: Zombies)

Back to SHE'S SO UNUSUAL. Best track is hard, but best MOMENT is easy - the giggle in She Bop!

was just thinking that! And the bizarre thing way she super nasalizes her voice immediately after

bizarre way, that was meant to read

If her Goonies track had been included as "Good Enough" then we'd have a perfect album.

Ironically she didn't think "Good Enough" was good enough. That's probably her best song too.

all about the call and response vocals on that one.

Kind of impossible, but I'm going with All Through the Night.

That song glistens.

The visual on this is jumpy as hell but this is her live in 2011, doing Good Enough -- she sounds fucking great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rhaAVDm1l8

apparently she disliked the song and was surprised enough by fan enthusiasm to start performing it again.

Someone I know used to pet sit for her. I'm wracking my brain trying to remember who. It seems I know a lot of pet sitters.

this is cool: on Howard Stern she sang the Jules Shear version of All Through The Night, singing the lead part on the chorus instead of the harmony like she did in her version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfpyqi7xFV0

"I'll Kiss You" is the sleeper.

It's got my vote! It's the first track I heard that had enough propulsion to appeal to my 16-year old years (which were listening to basically metal-or-nothing at the time). Resistance was futile!

I'm so glad you're voting for it, it's rad
I hope it gets a few

I'LL KISS YOU
KISS YOU
KISS YOU

Kiss You, live at the Budokan, 1986 <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbXir908LCo

my god the hair on that keyboardist.

lol I know right

okay so this has nothing to do with anything but it's an awesome bit of miscellany

Her 'We Are the World' recording session!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=HpReqNFVL-0

That Howard Stern "All Through the Night" video gave me the idea for a "songs where the main melody was originally conceived as a harmony part" thread. But I doubt there are enough to merit a thread. (Only 1999 comes to mind.)

she's def the highlight of 'we are the world' for me, along with ray charles.

She won that poll, rigiht?

Huey Lewis comes off as a mega dbag of course

I love how MJ nails his part and is just off chillin

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH First cassette I ever bought with my own money -- I love every single song so much, dressed up as Cyndi for more than one Halloween because it meant I could wear my crazy clothes. Now I am an adult and I can wear my crazy clothes whenever I want! Cyndi taught me that.

This was a year or two before I bought my first Cure album, so we could retroactively easily see where all of this was heading.

Wow it's like we're the same person. Cyndi was my first real pop idol (I loved Boy George and Michael Jackson before like all the other kids but she was a revelation.) First album I bought, first concert I went to (with the mostly unknown Bangles opening). I wanted to dress up like her for Halloween too but didn't have the balls to do drag at 10 so I went as a "punk" instead.

Loved the Goonies track too, but was really disapointed with the True Colors album. Then I discovered The Cure and the "alternative" scene as it was called around here and became a teenager. She kind of disapeared after that movie she did flopped and "I Drove All Night" which was only OK.

Seemed like she would rule the world for a while there, kind of like Lady Gaga did 2 years or so ago. I wonder if she'll fade away as quickly and quietly as Cyndi did.

Apart from the three big singles, my favorites when I got the album were "When You Were Mine" and "I'll Kiss You", so it's a close call between those two. Always thought WYWM would've made a better single than "Money", but I'm voting "I'll Kiss You" for being the first album track I really loved.

When I learned that our departmental classrooms had VCRs in them, the first movie I brought to work to watch over lunch was Vibes. Then I got the Second Voyage of the Mimi via inter-library loan and watched that. At the time, neither of them were on Youtube.

And the Goonies theme was always my favorite.

"A Hole in My Heart(All The Way to China)"!!

in that "We Are The World" I love how everyone's delighted by Lauper ("Oh it's me janglin'?!"), Lewis is the pro trying to harmonize and keep his hair straight at the same time, while everyone ignores Kim Carnes.