September 1983 was a pretty special time for music.
Yesterday we marked the 40th anniversary of Culture Club’s iconic Karma Chameleon being released, and tomorrow will bring another huge 40th anniversary tune, but today it’s time to celebrate Cyndi Lauper.
The singer burst into our collective consciousness in 1983 with her debut solo release Girls Just Wanna to Have Fun. Released on this day four decades ago.
Lauper’s first musical output came as lead singer of the band Blue Angel. They put out an album in 1980 but it failed to get any traction and they soon broke up. She then went on to work as a solo artist and put together her debut album She’s So Unusual.
Her debut single Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was written by producer Robert Hazard who had laid down a demo of the song in 1979. Lauper thought the lyrics to his tune were misogynistic, so she wrote it, turning it into a feminist anthem.
At first Lauper’s tune stumbled in the charts, but she quickly gained lots of fans and by early 1984 she was topping the charts around the world. The song’s video was a huge part of its success, and it was an MTV favourite. The video featured wrestler Lou Albano playing Lauper’s father opposite the singer’s real-life mother Catrine.
Lauper would go on to release six singles from the album including She Bop, All Through the Night, Time After Time, Money Changes Everything and When You Were Mine. To date the album has sold 16 million copies around the globe. In 2014 to mark it’s 30th anniversary a special extended edition was released featuring early recordings, demo versions, and classic and new remixes.
For decades after its debut, the message of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is just as important.
OIP Staff
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