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Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper's Genre:

Contemporary Pop/Rock, New Wave, Punk/New Wave

Biography

Cyndi Lauper was one of the biggest stars of the early MTV era, selling five million copies of her debut album, She's So Unusual, as well as scoring a string of four Top Ten hits from the record, including the major hits "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time." Lauper's thin, girlish voice and gleefully ragtag appearance became one of the most distinctive images of the early '80s, which helped lead her not only to the top of the charts, but also to stardom. Throughout America, there were numbers of teenage girls dressing like Lauper and using "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" as an anthem, a call to arms for self-expression. At first, her music was a bright, colorful new wave fusion of a number of styles, including new wave, post-punk, reggae, pop, and funk. Both her music and her appearance helped popularize -- and just as importantly, sanitize --- the image of punk and new wave for America, making it an acceptable part of the pop landscape. Lauper didn't follow through on the success of her debut, choosing to turn toward middle-of-the-road balladry and mainstream pop, but her first album remains a benchmark of the early '80s.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the neighboring borough of Queens, Lauper (born June 22, 1953) dropped out of high school in her late teens, choosing to sing in a number of local cover bands instead. Eventually, her voice was so strained she turned to voice lessons from Katherine Agresta, a well-known vocal teacher in New York. In 1977, Lauper began writing her own material with keyboardist John Turi. The duo formed Blue Angel that same year. Over the next few years, the group built up a solid following in New York, culminating in the release of an eponymous debut album on Polydor in 1980. Blue Angel flopped and shortly afterward, Lauper filed for bankruptcy, which led to her group's disbandment.

Lauper subsequently sang in local clubs and restaurants. In 1983, her manager and boyfriend David Wolff managed to secure her a contract with Portrait. At the end of the year, she released her debut album, She's So Unusual. Helped by heavy MTV support of the album's first single/video "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," the album became a major hit in the spring of 1984, eventually climbing to number four on the U.S. charts; it would wind up going platinum five times, as well as becoming a hit in the U.K. and Europe. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" peaked at number two, while its follow-up, the ballad "Time After Time," reached number one; two other songs, "She Bop" and "All Through the Night," went Top Ten.

With the mainstream success under her belt, Lauper was an official star, yet she wasn't able to maintain her popularity. During 1985 she worked on her follow-up album; her only release of the year was "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough," the theme song from the children's adventure film The Goonies. Her second album, True Colors, appeared in the fall of 1986, and while it was successful -- the title track went to number one, while the album peaked at number four and went platinum -- its softer, adult contemporary sound lost Lauper some fans. Lauper's career continued to lose momentum, as her feature film debut in 1988's comedy Vibes bombed. A Night to Remember, her third album, was released to weak reviews in 1989, and although it spawned the Top Ten hit "I Drove All Night," it suffered from disappointing sales, peaking at number 37. The next year, she severed her relationship with Wolff and married actor David Thornton.

After taking a few years off, Lauper returned in 1993 with Hat Full of Stars, an album where she co-produced and co-wrote all of the tracks. The record stiffed, peaking at 112. The following year, the hits compilation Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some was released in the U.K.; the album reached number two, while a remixed "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" became a number one hit. Twelve Deadly Cyns was released in America the following year to less attention. Lauper released Sisters of Avalon, her first album of new material in four years, in the spring of 1997 to generally positive reviews, yet the record didn't chart. Merry Christmas...Have a Nice Life! followed in late 1998.

After a long hiatus, Lauper returned to the studio in 2003 for At Last, a collection of pop standards that garnered favorable reviews and spawned a live DVD, Live...At Last. The Body Acoustic, a collection of stripped-down reinventions of previous hits, followed in 2005. In 2008, Lauper released her tenth studio album, the dance-oriented Bring Ya to the Brink. She then switched gears for 2010's Memphis Blues, which featured her versions of several classic blues songs. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

AOL Radio Stations Cyndi Lauper is Featured on (15)

LGBT Pride

Celebrate LGBT Pride with a Slacker Radio station that's as diverse as the gay community itself. You'll hear anthems from "I Will Survive" to "Born This Way," plus out and proud artists from Adam Lambert to Frank Ocean. And of course we've got all the hot dance tracks to soundtrack your Pride celebrations.

Twin Shadow Showcase

This is the Twin Shadow Artist Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by the band including music that is hand-picked by George Lewis Jr. as well as commentary by him about the songs that influenced his music and his life.

'80s Hits

80's Hits takes the biggest hits from the decade of big hair and music videos and puts it together on one station. From the new wave of Duran Duran, to the arena rock of Def Leppard, from the end of disco to the beginning of hip hop (remember Tone Loc?), it's all on 80's Hits.

The Kooks Showcase

This is The Kooks Artist Showcase on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by The Kooks including music hand-picked by each member of the band as well as commentary about the songs that influenced their music and their lives.

Family of the Year Showcase

This is the Family of the Year Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by Family of the Year including music hand-picked by the band as well as commentary about the songs that influenced their music and their lives.

The Wanted Showcase

This is The Wanted Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by the members of The Wanted including music hand-picked by Tom, Max, Siva, Jay and Nathan as well as commentary by each about the songs that influenced their music and their lives.

Dance Party

Get the party started with Dance Party on Slacker! This station is guaranteed to rock all parties from corporate retreats to living room get-togethers, combining upbeat hip hop, new dance hits, disco classics, and hands-in-the-air favorites. In the immortal words of LMFAO, "Everybody just have a good time."

Classic Hits

Classic Hits on Slacker plays the greatest pop and rock hits of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

Easy Listening

If you can remember back to when stores were closed on Sundays, life was "slow, and oh so mellow" and lazy Sunday afternoons were spent listening to the soft sounds from the radio...then Easy Listening on Slacker Radio will bring you back. Many classic artists that you don't hear on terrestial radio anymore like Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand and John Denver are all here mixed with some beautiful instrumentals and Yacht Rock favourites....sit back, enjoy the sweet sounds and the memories!

Love Songs

Love Songs on Slacker Radio has just the right blend of sentimental favorites. Set the mood with artists like Rod Stewart, Celine Dion, Elton John, Mariah Carey, The Beatles, and Stevie Wonder plus classic romantic favorites. Listen and fall in love with Slacker Love Songs.

Soft Hits

Soft Hits on Slacker Radio is the best blend of softer current and classic hits. You’ll hear Kelly Clarkson, Rob Thomas and Gwen Stefani along with Sheryl Crow, Goo Goo Dolls, Mariah Carey, Prince and more.

Matt Nathanson Showcase

This is the Matt Nathanson Artist Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear a station built entirely by Matt including music that he hand-picked as well as commentary about the songs that influenced his music and his life.

Kids

Kids' Radio on Slacker features all the songs that kids love, without all that yucky boring stuff that their parents like. And for parents? Rest assured that Slacker Radio Kids' features the greatest kid-friendly hits, so there's no need to keep your hand on the forward button. From Justin and Selena to Rihanna and Katy to One Direction and the Black Eyed Peas, get ready for fun, energy and more fun!

Cyndi Lauper's Selected Discography (50)

Artists Related to Cyndi Lauper (50)

	Bangles	The Bangles combined the chiming riffs and catchy melodies of British Invasion guitar pop with a hint of the energy of new wave.
	Duran Duran	Duran Duran personified new wave for much of the mainstream audience. And for good reason, too. Duran Duran's reputation was built through music videos, which accentuated their fashion-model looks and glamorous sense of style.
	Wham!	Wham! sparked something of a pop revival in the mid-'80s and could arguably be held responsible for sparking off the boy band trend of the '90s.
	Culture Club	Few new wave groups were as popular as Culture Club. During the early '80s, the group racked up seven straight Top Ten hits in the U.
	Madonna	After stars reach a certain point, it's easy to forget what they became famous for and concentrate solely on their personas.
	Pat Benatar	Pat Benatar's polished mainstream pop/rock made her one of the more popular female vocalists of the early '80s.
	Phil Collins	Phil Collins' ascent to the status of one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond was probably as much of a surprise to him as it was to many others.
	Men at Work	Men at Work were one of the more surprising success stories of the new wave era, rocketing out of Australia in 1982 to become the most successful artist of the year.
	The Police	Nominally, the Police were punk rock, but that's only in the loosest sense of the term. The trio's nervous, reggae-injected pop/rock was punky, but it wasn't necessarily punk.
	Billy Idol	Along with Duran Duran, Billy Idol was one the first pop/rock artists to achieve massive success in the early '80s due to a then brand-new U.
	Genesis	Genesis started life as a progressive rock band, in the manner of Yes and King Crimson, before a series of membership changes brought about a transformation in their sound, into one of the most successful pop/rock bands of the 1980s and 1990s.
	The Cars	Blondie may have had a string of number one hits and Talking Heads may have won the hearts of the critics, but the Cars were the most successful American new wave band to emerge in the late '70s.
	Journey	During their initial 14 years of existence (1973-1987), Journey altered their musical approach and their personnel extensively while becoming a top touring and recording band.
	Bryan Adams
	INXS	INXS hailed from the pubs of Australia, which is part of the reason the band never comfortably fit in with new wave.
	Eurythmics	Eurythmics were one of the most successful duos to emerge in the early '80s. Where most of their British synth pop contemporaries disappeared from the charts as soon as new wave faded away in 1984, Eurythmics continued to have hits until the end of the decade, making vocalist Annie Lennox a star in her own right, as well as establishing instrumentalist Dave Stewart as a successful, savvy producer and songwriter.
	Blondie	Blondie was the most commercially successful band to emerge from the much-vaunted punk/new wave movement of the late '70s.
	Heart	Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson are the creative spark behind Heart, a hard rock group who initially found success in the mid-'70s only to reach greater heights after engineering a major comeback a decade later.
	Tears for Fears	Tears for Fears were always more ambitious than the average synth pop group. From the beginning, the duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were tackling big subjects -- their very name derived from Arthur Janov's primal scream therapy, and his theories were evident throughout their debut, The Hurting.
	Huey Lewis	Huey Lewis & the News were a bar band that made good. With their simple, straightforward rock & roll, the San Francisco-based group became one of America's most popular pop/rock bands of the mid-'80s.
	Billy Joel	Although Billy Joel never was a critic's favorite, the pianist emerged as one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the latter half of the '70s.
	Hall & Oates	From their first hit in 1974 through their heyday in the '80s, Daryl Hall and John Oates' smooth, catchy take on Philly soul brought them enormous commercial success -- including six number one singles and six platinum albums -- yet little critical success.
	Chicago	According to Billboard chart statistics, Chicago is second only to the Beach Boys as the most successful American rock band of all time, in terms of both albums and singles.
	Paula Abdul	In the wake of Madonna's success, many dance-pop divas filled the charts, but out of them all, Paula Abdul was the only one who sustained a career.
	The Go-Go's	The Go-Go's were the most popular all-female band to emerge from the punk/new wave explosion of the late '70s and early '80s, becoming one of the first commercially successful female groups that wasn't controlled by male producers or managers.
	Bon Jovi	After ushering in the era of pop-metal with their 1986 blockbuster Slippery When Wet and its hit singles “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and “Living on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi wound up transcending the big-haired ‘80s, withstanding changes in style and sound to become one of the biggest American rock bands of their time, selling over 120 million albums worldwide, and sustaining their popularity well into the new millennium.
	George Michael	George Michael was the biggest British pop star of the 1980s, spinning a series of infectiously catchy pop singles into global stardom that saw him sell over 100 million albums worldwide.
	U2	Through a combination of zealous righteousness and post-punk experimentalism, U2 became one of the most popular rock & roll bands of the '80s.
	Fleetwood Mac	While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac.
	Foreigner	While quite a few arena rock acts of the '70s found the transformation into the '80s quite difficult, several acts continued to flourish and enjoyed some of their biggest commercial success: Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, and especially Foreigner.
	Prince	Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. During the '80s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock.
	Stevie Nicks	Famed for her mystical chanteuse image, singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks enjoyed phenomenal success not only as a solo artist but also as a key member of Fleetwood Mac.
	Rod Stewart	Over the course of his career, Rod Stewart has had it all. He's been lauded as the finest singer of his generation, he's written several songs that turned into modern standards, he sang with the Faces, who rivaled the Rolling Stones in their prime, he had massive commercial success.
	a-ha	Pal Waaktaar and Magne Furuholmen, formerly of Bridges formed a-ha in the early '80s. Morten Harket joined the duo, and they left for the now "legendary London flat" (so called because of its state of disrepair) to make it.
	Michael Jackson	Michael Jackson was unquestionably the biggest pop star of the '80s, and certainly one of the most popular recording artists of all time.
	Bananarama	The most successful British girl group in pop history, Bananarama formed in London in late 1981. Drawing equal inspiration for their name from the children's television program The Banana Splits and the Roxy Music song "Pyjamarama," the trio was comprised of lifelong friends Keren Woodward and Sarah Dallin along with Siobhan Fahey, whom Dallin befriended at the London College of Fashion.
	Aerosmith	Aerosmith were one of the most popular hard rock bands of the '70s, setting the style and sound of hard rock and heavy metal for the next two decades with their raunchy, bluesy swagger.
	Rick Springfield	Although Rick Springfield's music was frequently dismissed as vapid teen idol fare, his best moments have actually withstood the test of time far better than most critics would ever have imagined, emerging as some of the best-crafted mainstream power pop of the 1980s.
	The B-52's	The first of many acts to cement the college town of Athens, GA, as a hotbed of alternative music, the B-52's took their name from the Southern slang for the mile-high bouffant wigs sported by singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, a look emblematic of the band's campy, thrift-store aesthetic.
	Depeche Mode	Originally a product of Britain's new romantic movement, Depeche Mode went on to become the quintessential electro-pop band of the 1980s.
	Pet Shop Boys	Postmodern ironists cloaked behind a veil of buoyantly melodic and lushly romantic synth pop confections, Pet Shop Boys established themselves among the most commercially and critically successful groups of their era with cheeky, smart, and utterly danceable music.
	David Bowie	The cliché about David Bowie says he's a musical chameleon, adapting himself according to fashion and trends.
	The Human League	Synth pop's first international superstars, the Human League were among the earliest and most innovative bands to break into the pop mainstream on a wave of synthesizers and electronic rhythms, their marriage of infectious melodies and state-of-the-art technology proving enormously influential on countless acts following in their wake.
	Richard Marx	Before he became a pop/rock heavyweight during the late '80s (and an adult contemporary balladeer throughout the following two decades), Richard Marx sang on commercials and performed as a backing vocalist for Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, and Julio Iglesias.
	Simple Minds	Best known in the U.S. for their 1985 number one hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from the film The Breakfast Club, Scotland's Simple Minds evolved from a post-punk art rock band influenced by Roxy Music into a grand, epic-sounding pop band along the lines of U2.
	John Mellencamp	Throughout his career, John Mellencamp has had to fight, whether it was for the right to record under his own name or for respect as an artist.
	Def Leppard	In many ways, Def Leppard were the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder (and were more dangerous) than the Sheffield-based quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well.
	Gloria Estefan	As one of the biggest new stars to emerge during the mid-'80s, singer Gloria Estefan predated the coming Latin pop explosion by a decade, scoring a series of propulsive dance hits rooted in the rhythms of her native Cuba before shifting her focus to softer, more ballad-oriented fare.
	Peter Gabriel	As the leader of Genesis in the early '70s, Peter Gabriel helped move progressive rock to new levels of theatricality.
	Bruce Springsteen	In the decades following his emergence on the national scene in 1975, Bruce Springsteen proved to be that rarity among popular musicians, an artist who maintained his status as a frontline recording and performing star, consistently selling millions of albums and selling out arenas and stadiums around the world year after year, as well as retaining widespread critical approbation, with ecstatic reviews greeting those discs and shows.