Cyndi Lauper - Essential Cyndi Lauper
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Free Music Notes for Essential Cyndi Lauper
Free Music Review: Great CD
Hit: 5 Stars
Pushed all my buttons - great songs - great singer - great collection!Free Music Review: All Hail Cyndi Lauper
Hit: 5 Stars
Even if you are a casual fan of Cyndi Lauper, you must own this CD.Free Music Review: extremely good--as far as it goes, that is...
Hit: 4 Stars
The Essential Cyndi Lauper really should have been a two CD set. While we get a good number of her biggest hits on this album, there isn't quite enough to satisfy me. Although the material that we do get is wonderful; where are some more very good tunes? At any rate, Cyndi worked hard to produce great music for her fans; and just one listen to this album proves it. In addition, the quality of the sound is excellent and the artwork is very well done.
"Girls Just Want To Have Fun" starts the CD off with a huge number that was one of Cyndi's earliest hits. "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" celebrates women who just want to enjoy their relationships with men without long term commitments; and Cyndi delivers this like a pro! The number is full of positive energy and it's great music for dancing even today. "Money Changes Everything" was another early hit for Cyndi; this has that mid `80s dance flavor to it and Cyndi's really good diction enhances the number even more. "Who Let In The Rain" features Cyndi front and center--right where she belongs! "Who Let In The Rain" is a fine number that proves Cyndi can easily tackle a rock flavored ballad to make it take flight!
"She Bop" was always one of my very favorite Cyndi Lauper hits; this hit the airwaves big time during the summer of 1984 and I remember going to dances where the DJs played this very often. "She Bop" has a great, power-packed melody that is also rather catchy and it remains one of Cyndi Lauper's best hits ever. "Time After Time" also comes from the mid 1980s; and Cyndi does this wonderfully. "I Drove All Night" comes from Cyndi's great album entitled A Night To Remember and just one listen proves that Cyndi is a champ! "Hat Full Of Stars" is a ballad from the album of the same name; and listen for "All Through The Night." "All Through The Night" is one of Cyndi Lauper's best hits ever--period. The percussion enhances the musical arrangement and Cyndi's excellent diction makes her performance even better. "All Through The Night" is another one of my very favorite Cyndi Lauper tunes and it deserves its place on this CD.
"When You Were Mine" comes from Cyndi's first album entitled She's So Unusual; and Cyndi's cover of the song originally done by Prince really shines bright. "True Colors" comes from the album of the same; Cyndi does this with great sensitivity and the guitar work enhances the melody quite a bit. Awesome! "Unhook The Stars" plays with major and minor keys as Cyndi sings this very well; and the album ends strong with a great number from the movie The Goonies entitled "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough." I agree with other reviewers who write that this last number is a most welcome addition to this album.
I always liked Cyndi Lauper; so while I love the tunes on this album I must admit that it's not as complete as it should be. There should be several other songs here. Specifically, I would have wanted extra songs like "Hole In My Heart (All The Way To China);" "My First Night Without You;" "Ballad Of Cleo & Joe;" "Boy Blue" and maybe even one or two more. That's a missed opportunity; and I can only hope that we get a better Cyndi Lauper "essential" collection two CD set soon. Nevertheless, I still recommend this album for Lauper's fans; and it makes a great starter CD for people just discovering Cyndi's talents. It's also a fine CD for people who merely want a small sampling of Cyndi Lauper's incredible artistry.
Free Music Review: Can't stop messing with the Danger Zone
Hit: 4 Stars
Cyndi Lauper is one of those eighties singers whose talent was modest but personality was overwhelming. It was what made "She's So Unusual" so brilliant; Cyndi was so totally outside the mold that everything on it quaked with the stellar portrayal of the artist as a young woman. From the classic anthem "Girls Just Wanna have Fun" to the emotional bulls-eye of "Time After Time," Cyndi and all her friends established the pattern that would follow for the rest of her career. Cyndi found songs to match her one-of-a-kind voice and would deliver them with style.
That she had a knack for plucking gems from obscurity also helped. The Brains' apocryphal "Money Changes Everything" is one such example, ditto for "True Colors's" rocking "Change of Heart." She was such a colorful fusion of styles and personality that the singles on this "Essential" collection still often sound buoyant and alive even now. It was around the time of "A Night to Remember" and "Hatful Of Stars" that Cyndi's efforts to sound serious got the better of her. On "Twelve Deadly Cyns and Then Some," Cyndi wisely chose to include "Sally's Pigeons" (co-written with Mary Chapin Carpenter, of all people), where the emotional heft matched the ambition, where the title track here didn't.
That ambition also lead to Cyndi's activism. "True Colors" has become something of a gay anthem, a call to recognize yourself as the person you are. It became the Nom De'Tour of Cyndi's summer 2007 tour for the Human Rights Campaign (along with Debbie Harry and Erasure, among others), and her tireless work on behalf of the Matthew Sheppard Foundation and other causes. Her timeless music couples with her work for the future.
Her attempt to broaden the style works OK on "Sisters of Avalon" and "Unhook The Stars," but I would have happily traded them (or "When You Were Mine") in for "What's Going On." All is forgiven however, by finally finding "The Goonies R Good Enough" on a proper US Cyndi Lauper CD. A quickie knock-off to a Steven Spielberg screaming kids movie, it is all the things great about Cyndi's hits; melodic, energetic and sing-along-quirky. It makes "The Essential Cyndi Lauper" the best single disc collection of Cyndi you can get without shelling out for pricey double-disc imports.
Free Music Review: Very solid Lauper collection, and finally, The Goonies!
Hit: 4 Stars
When I heard that another Cyndi Lauper best-of album was going to be released, my first question was whether this new collection would measure up to her previous best-of collections, especially 12 Deadly Cyns...And Then Some. Well I can tell you that it certainly does. Essential Cyndi Lauper, in my opinion, comes the closest to being the ideal Cyndi collection available. But before I go on, I thought it would be helpful to first give a track listing (taken from her official website) since there doesn't seem to be one here:1) Girls Just Want To Have Fun
2) Money Changes Everything
3) Who Let In The Rain
4) She Bop
5) Time After Time
6) I Drove All Night
7) Hat Full Of Stars
8) Change Of Heart
9) Sisters Of Avalon
10) All Through The Night
11) True Colors
12) When You Were Mine
13) Unhook The Stars
14) The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
The first thing I noticed about this collection is that it offers *all 6* of the smash hits from She's So Unusual. That alone is a major plus when it comes to a Cyndi Lauper collection. I would have liked to see "What's Going On" on this disc instead of "Change Of Heart," as I think that song better represents the True Colors album. But oh well, "True Colors" is here, and that's the biggest hit from her sophmore release. Yet again, only "I Drove All Night" is included from Cyndi's highly underrated A Night To Remember album. The powers-that-be still think that this song is the only worthy one off that album. But we know better, don't we?
Another thing worth mentioning about this collection is that it offers songs from both Hat Full Of Stars and Sisters Of Avalon. Whether you agree or disagree that the songs here representing those albums are the best selections, it's nice to see some songs from Cyndi's lesser-known (but still great) albums here.
And of course, my review wouldn't be complete without saying that "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" has FINALLY been included in an official domestic best-of collection. Until now, one had to spend quite a lot of money to get this song from the import collections or the (also pricy, not to mention hard to find) Goonies soundtrack. The inclusion of "The Goonies" here will surely make a lot of Cyndi fans quite pleased. I think it's a tragedy that "Hole In My Heart (All The Way To China)" is again not included in a Cyndi Lauper best-of compilation. If it had been, I would have given this album 5 stars without a second thought. So if you want that song, you'll need to find the Japanese version of 12 Deadly Cyns or A Night To Remember: it's a bonus track on both of those albums.
All in all though, this Cyndi Lauper collection doesn't disappoint and delivers. Highly recommended.