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

Robert Hazard is a multimillionaire, I trust.

http://itsnotpossible.typepad.com/trashfan/cyndi2.jpg

In the 1980s albums poll we did several years back -- that we never saw the results of? -- I think this was my number 5 or 6 album. I love so many of the songs that voting for one feels arbitrary, but the build from verse to chorus on "All Through the Night" is the thing I'd most like to hear at the moment.

She is just so absolutely enchanting in Vibes, I wanna marry her. Watching it right now.

I didn't know The Bangles sang the backing vocals on "Change of Heart"!

wait I didn't know that either!

Makes sense.

Judging them from their work here and Tom Petty's "Waiting For Tonight," I'm wondering why they couldn't become a Trio for L.A. post-punkers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_of_Heart_%28Cyndi_Lauper_song%29

lots of high-profile cameos (is that the word?) on that album. Billy Joel!

Nile Rogers on guitar too

"Money Changes Everything" over "Time After Time"

the "wywm" cover doesn't do anything for me, but it's the only case where i actually like the track she's covering. and i honestly can't recall "all through the night" but with everyone raving about it i want to make sure "money" gets a vote cuz its outstanding.

considering her ability to rescue sounds from bellowing new wavers i wish she'd make an album of graham parker covers

rescuing songs, i meant to say

yeah haha she was pretty good at dismissing the sounds of New Wavers and coming up with her own.

my relationship with this album has mostly been knowing the hits, throwing it on when house-sitting for someone who owns it, and then just going back to the hits

admittedly with those hits being so totemic and so front-loaded on the album, it's not the best way to get into the deep cuts.

finally voted for "She Bop," which hasn't been mentioned much – my introduction as a child to how much fun garish synths could be (didn't know it was about jerking off until years later; blame Capt Lou).

Songs my mom heard me singing around the house and told me in no uncertain terms to stop (she usually let me sing anything I wanted, so her telling me to stop was a big thing):
"Like a Virgin"
"Sexual Healing"

"She Bop" was no problem. I didn't know what it was about either; thought it was about bopping.

girls just having fun!

when i was a little kid i didn't like "girls just wanna have fun" because it implied girls were irresponsible and i was raised to believe boys and girls were equal

I like how several of the songs take a cute squawking little synth sound and make an actual solo break out of it. Nice to hear a pop song with an instrumental solo for musical purpose, as opposed to just showing off (cf. all the compulsory guitar solos in all the metal that constituted my musical diet in '84)

At my company's xmas party last month, the DJ spun "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and yes shit he fucking FADED IT RIGHT AS THE BUBBLE SYNTH SOLO STARTED, fkin savage!

Robert Hazard is a multimillionaire, I trust.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 17, 2013 6:53 PM (Yesterday)

r.i.p. robert hazard

I like how several of the songs take a cute squawking little synth sound and make an actual solo break out of it.

I think the Hooters deserve a lot of credit for that, and for the overall sound of the album. Along with Rick Chertoff, obviously. The first Hooters album (also produced by Chertoff) shares a lot of sonic ground with SSU.

Really, as much of a New Yorker as Cyndi is, this album is the musical/commercial high-water mark for the Philly New Wave scene.

all it needed were Hall & Oates.

She Bop might be my favorite video of hers
The weird diner, and the awesome white tux, and that weird animated part in the middle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFq4E9XTueY

Yes she did animation before A-Ha and it never gets recognised! Did anyone do it before that?

"She Bop" might be my favourite video EVER! Always liked performers who looked a little clumsy while trying to perform choreographed dance steps required by the video revolution (see "Hot For Teacher")

yeah it definitely adds an extra layer of endearment

Sushi, I waaaant suuuuushiiii

saw her in '84 (outdoors on a pier next to the USS Intrepid)

MoneyCE by a sliver

!!!!

I saw The Smiths on the same stage btw, also New Order

wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y179mNzQgNc

Great interview with Howard from a few months ago. I'm only about 10 mins into it, but it's already great.

I started listening to that the other day! I need to finish it

can someone edit out the howard parts and repost that?

eh I don't mind howard if I wait like, idk, years in between bouts of listening to him :)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow that's a pretty cool spread, ty ILM!

am surprised When U Were Mine didn't get more votes given the early love it was getting

I once read some Klosterman essay where he called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun the saddest song ever.

I will never forget that. Fuck him.

kloster-not otm-man

"Witness" and "Yeah Yeah" would be the two best songs on a lot of other albums.

ugh i missed this!

back "during" occupy i made a mix to listen to on the way to/from the camp called OCCUPIED WHEN LIGHT IS ON and the closing track was "money changes everything" and it was the best thing ever because it is the best song ever.

Yeah Yeah is nice, hard to be a winner up against so many booming trax

completely missed this. when you were mine got shafted here but tbh i probably would have voted for "money changes everything"

should i go see her on the she's so unusual 30th anniversary tour? (the answer isn't that hard but the trick will be getting my girlfriend to come along w/ me)

this might be my favorite album of all time, or at least the album i've loved the longest. i had my mom buy me a copy when I was 6!

still think the arrangements/production is kind of the apotheosis of whatever it is. big drums/synth heavy/eclectic 80s pop-rock. so maybe little textural things here that tug at my heart and then some just beautiful codas and instrumental passages and shit. they should plant a copy of this on every planet we explore.

The clips of the tour I've seen online make it look like she takes breaks between the songs to just chat with the crowd, and she's hilarious anyway, so it's like seeing a rock concert and comedy show at the same time.