She's So Unusual

She's So Unusual is the debut album by American singer Cyndi Lauper. With the album she managed the commercial breakthrough as a solo artist. The music magazine Rolling Stone chose it in 2003 at No. 494 to its list of the 500 best albums of all time. Four of the singles were Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album, produced by William Wittman, sold in the U.S. alone so far nine million times.

Find out more

Until early 1982, Cyndi Lauper was a singer of the rockabilly band Blue Angel. After its dissolution Lauper had to make a declaration of bankruptcy and again began to work as a bar singer. She met the music manager David Wolff, who established contact with Lenny Sneaks by Epic Records / CBS. Cyndi Lauper had it so thanks to Wolff that Portrait Records ( a sub label of Epic Records ) took them under contract. Lenny Sneak organized a meeting with the music producer Rick Chertoff, who should produce Lauper's album. The artist had their own ideas of what they wanted to sing, and it came to differences with Chertoff. This it presented a series of finished songs that sounded very largely to the artist by pop music. In particular, " Girls Just Want to Have Fun " She refused because the text contradicted her feminist views. Chertoff and Lauper agreed that the singer presents her skills as a songwriter demonstrated by reviewing the songs so that they match their needs. Because of these revisions Cyndi Lauper received copyright to some of the songs, what with Robert Hazard led to dispute over the royalties for " Girls Just Want to Have Fun " later.

The recordings took place in the Record Plant Studios held in New York City, was accompanied Cyndi Lauper, inter alia by Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian of the band The Hooters and studio drummer Anton Fig In the play " When You Were Mine" is it a cover version of Prince, "Money Changes Everything " referred to the Rolling Stone in its original version of The Brains as one of the anthems of the 1970s lost. The ballad " Time After Time " was written during a jam session in the studio. Lauper had leafed through magazines, while she remembered the title of an old movie in the eye, the " Time After Time " was. Rick Chertoff began to play on the keyboard, some composed by Rob Hyman chords to the Lauper sang improvised lines of text. At the point of the chorus she remembered the movie title and the idea for the song was born.

Title list

Reception

The Rough Guide to Rock described the album as " crazy mix of pop and energiegeladenem nachdenlichen ballads " and the hit single " Girls Just Want to Have Fun " as an " anthem for bored teenagers and young feminists ". The Rolling Stone gave Cyndi Lauper in a contemporary review for one of the best " junk rock " singers since Maureen Gray and compares her voice to the girl - pop of the era before the Beatles. Kurt Loder criticized in his review that " He's So Unusual " Songs befänden with " Witness" and on the album that did not belong there. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described the album as " ludicrous mixture of self-confidence, exuberant pop music, unabashed sentimentality, subversiveness and intelligent humor ." The Slant Magazine noted that it is the balance between kitsch and sincerity that makes this album a classic and chose it in 2003 under the top 50 pop albums.

Achievements

In addition to the top ten rankings of the album and single releases in many national charts the album in the U.S. in 1997 reached six times platinum status. At the Grammy Awards in 1985 Cyndi Lauper was voted best newcomer, the album received an award for the artistic design as Best Album Package.