Cyndi Lauper - "I Drove All Night"

(Debuted May 6, 1989, Peaked #6, 15 Weeks on the Chart)

I featured a Cyndi Lauper song on this blog last summer, mentioning that she was something of a "wild child" during her breakout years. She was a perfect antidote to the Reagan years, providing us with anthems ("Girls Just Wanna Have Fun") and even sang about pleasuring herself ("She Bop"). The music landscape was a different place in 1989, and so was America...even Cyndi Lauper was different. Her LP A Night to Remember was a more mature effort, with the outrageous costumes toned down. That said, she was proving that she actually had vocal talent to anybody who wanted to listen. Unfortunately, few did when it came to the album, even though this single reached the Top 10.

"I Drove All Night" was written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, the team that wrote Lauper's 1986 #1 hit "True Colors." They wrote it with Roy Orbison in mind and were surprised when he agreed to record it. Unfortunately, that version wasn't released until after Orbison's death...and after Lauper had a hit with it. The song agrees with Lauper's range and has proven versatile over the years. It was a minor country hit for the Canadian group Pinmonkey in 2002 and was given a typically over-the-top performance by Celine Dion the next year. It says something when a rendition by Cyndi Lauper is considered "toned down" to your own.

Cyndi Lauper - "She Bop"

(Debuted July 21, 1984, Peaked #3, 18 Weeks on the Chart)

In ten days, my little girl turns 13. While I'm enjoying watching her grow up, I am still aware of how I was at her age and that fact frightens the hell out of me. She's still her Daddy's little girl, but I know I'm going to have to deal with boys soon, and those boys are going to have an agenda that is a complete opposite from the one I want for my daughter. In a way, I realize it's payback for what I did when I was younger...but I don't have any intention of letting up when that first boy comes over to visit.

This has very little to do with "She Bop," except for the fact that the song came out when I was just a little younger than my daughter is now. When it came out, it didn't take long for the older brothers and sisters of my friends to start whispering to us what the song was about. Masturbation. And not just masturbation, but female masturbation. At that age, I had no idea that girls did stuff like that.

So, any "No way!" retorts were met with words from the lyrics. From the pages of a magazine, to a mention of "going south" and the line, "They say I better stop or I'll go blind," the arguments were persuasive. Since we saw the free-spirited Cyndi Lauper as a little weird in the more straight-laced Reagan years, perhaps some dismissed the subject of the song as a play for attention. In that sense, it probably worked.