Track Listing

1. I'm Gonna Be Strong
2. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
3. Money Changes Everything
4. Time After Time
5. She Bop
6. All Through The Night
7. Change Of Heart
8. True Colours
9. What's Going On
10. I Drove All Night
11. World Is Stone
12. Who Let In The Rain
13. That's What I Think
14. Sally's Pigeons
15. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (2)
16. Come On Home

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7353 in Music
• Released on: 1994-08-22
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Think of her as a novelty if you want--with her squeaky-voiced, New Yawk accent, her flame-coloured hair and her pals in the World Wrestling Federation--but realise that she was one of the most distinguished pop singers of her time. Between 1983 and 1986 Cyndi Lauper had seven top-10 singles and she had range. There were cheeky anthems to girldom ("Girls Just Want To Have Fun", "She Bop"), there were timeless ballads ("Time After Time" and "True colours", her two well-deserved number ones), and there was real rock jangle ("Money Changes Everything").
That New Yawk soprano managed to carry both impudence and compassion, and found in some songs what even the songwriters could not. Lauper's "All Through The Night" is a grand pop melody that Jules Shear's original version barely suggested, and her take on "Money Changes Everything" is a power-pop epic with a wave of synthesizer and electric guitar that drowns the original by the Brains. TWELVE DEADLY CYNS, which features eleven hits and album tracks, a soul-reggae remake of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", and two other new songs, continues the story post-1986 and finds muchof the distinction gone but the pop sensibility still strong.
1989's "I Drove All Night" is a neat Roy Orbison homage; "Sally's Pigeons", a 1993 writing collaboration with Mary-Chapin Carpenter, is an unlikely flirtation with singer-songwriter-dom; and the previously unreleased "I'm Gonna Be Strong" is a dramatic stab at an old Gene Pitney ballad. They're not so much pop singles as they are musings of an orange-haired cabaret singer.

Customer Reviews

Simply superb - cyns to be proud of!
A superb selection of Cyndi's most rememberable songs. I actually bumped into this album by accident, and I'm pleased to say it was an accident well worth it. The opening track, and my favourite 'I'm Gonna Be Strong' is simply amazing, and Lauper's vocal style is tested to the limit, with soft ballad tones at the start and her voice soon soaring into the upper range with amazing ease.

The thing that makes her voice so different from all the rest is the way she can move from childish girl-tones to strong diva belt-voice. The immediate contrast in her songs shows that here is a woman with something no one else ever will have. A cd to be treasured.

Consistently good nostalgia trip
This solidly entertaining set charts Cyndi Lauper's career from it's sparky novelty song beginnings through her adult contemporary/soft rock period, to her most recent forays into world beat.

In 1984, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Lauper would turn out to be another one-hit-wonder a la Toni Basil, or even a rival for Madonna's then-burgeoning audience. How wrong you'd have been though!

The collection leans heavily on her first two solo albums (also her most commercially successful) so you get the expected "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and "She Bop", as well as sensitive ballads like "True Colors" and "Time After Time".

Although her commercial star began to fade in the late '80s, her music continued to develop. "I Drove All Night" is AOR at the top of its game, sung with a sensual urgency that even Roy Orbison couldn't hope to capture. "Who Let In The Rain" is a touching adult contemporary ballad filled with aching loss. "Sally's Pigeons" is a surprising and disturbing account of a disastrous teenage abortion.

This is precisely why this collection is a winner. Few people got a chance to hear her later records, and they get to hear the highlights of those here together with the proven hits.

One can always argue about the track list on a "best of" like this. There were some hits and important album cuts that would have fitted in well here ("When U Were Mine", "My First Night Without You", "The Goonies R Good Enough"), but with a collection this entertaining, who's arguing?

Primarily to settle an argument
I Drove All Night was originally written for Roy Orbison, but he declined it. The song was then passed to Cyndi Lauper, who performed it; he heard her version, loved it and decided he wanted a go. Make of that what you will.

Either way, this is still a great album. I could never have imagined an artist like Cyndi putting out 16 tracks that were this good. I strongly recommend you buy this. I was 19 when I got it (primarily on the strength of Time After Time), and it's still good. I Drove All Night is the personal fave, followed by the two I'm sure you can guess, then the beautiful Sally's Pigeons. But this is, all-round, a great album.