Cyndi Lauper - A Night to Remember

[POP!]

I know it is categorically not the pop icon that She's so Unusual is, and objectively not as good as True Colors, but I revisited this today and I have a genuine soft spot for this and don't think there's a bad track on it.

You can totally tell she hates it, however, not that she hides it now, but she might as well be singing half of it through GRITTED TEETH. I do recall part of her autobiography going on about the 1989-1993 period and Tommy Mattola being particularly SCATHING.

Anyway what do you think about this oft-derided period in Cyndi's career?

00 I Drove All Night
00 Primitive
00 My First Night Without You
00 Like a Cat
00 Heading West
00 A Night to Remember
00 Unconditional Love
00 Insecurious
00 Dancing With a Stranger
00 I Don't Want to Be Your Friend

00 Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China) *fun for Japan bonus track*

 

[POP!]

In hindsight what HORRIBLE single selections (IDAN aside obviously)... releasing only ballads was one thing, but the most pedestrian/middling ones was uninspired to say the least. "I Drove All Night" followed by "Unconditional Love" and "I Don't Want to Be Your Friend", and then a camp video for "Like a Cat" would have been PERFECT.

The videos and singles:

"I Drove All Night" US #6 UK #7


"My First Night Without You" US #62 UK #53


"Heading West" UK #68


"A Night to Remember"


"Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China) Australia #8 US #54


"Unabbreviated Love" ("My First Night Without You" b-side)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Nj_EFsgTE

 

[POP!]

10 I Drove All Night
09 Primitive
08 My First Night Without You
07 Like a Cat
06 Heading West
07 A Night to Remember (this has actually got a gorgeously unexpected middle eight, the rest is just alright)
09 Unconditional Love
06 Insecurious
06 Dancing With a Stranger
09 I Don't Want to Be Your Friend

08 Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)

 

[Sharla]

It really is a solid pop/rock album, not surprising considering the songwriting talant involved. Billy Steinburg found it a very difficult experience - "Cyndi was a better singer and interpreter of songs than she was a songwriter" - but Diane Warren has never commented publicly.

11 I Drove All Night
08 Primitive
07 My First Night Without You
08 Like a Cat (co-written by Chrissie Amphlett of the Divinyls (RIP from cancer xx))
09 Heading West
09 A Night to Remember
09 Unconditional Love (Susannah Hoffs' version is really special)
10 Insecurious
07 Dancing With a Stranger
08 I Don't Want to Be Your Friend

09 Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China) *fun for Japan bonus track*

 

[Sharla]

I had this to say about the album in my 1989 thread

After the gifting her True Colors Cyndi spent some time writing with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly who’d managed to score a US #1 over five consecutive years with Like A Virgin, True Colors, Alone, So Emotional and Eternal Flame although it wasn’t an easy process as Billy Steinberg hinted in a recent interview. In Cyndi’s defence, the record company weren’t pressuring her to compromise her artistic integrity during the recording and she clearly wasn’t a happy bunny. But of the ten tracks on the album 6 were Steinberg Kelly songs and 2 were from the pen of none other than Diane Warren so there was clearly potential for a decent album.

The first single was I Drove All Night, a riproaring belter of a song recounting the irrepressible sexual urge of a cock hungry person driven to distraction. Those sorts of songs were ten a penny but the inappropriate lyrics combined with the crazed video proved unsettling. Why didn’t Cyndi put any shoes on when she escaped the city? Where were her car keys and her driver’s licence? Did the man who’s bedroom Cyndi crept into even know her? Was he a partner or could he have been the pharmacist who dispensed her mood suppressants, or did he once brush up against her in a sports jacket? The media controversy helped provide some publicity and the song became a top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

The album was duly released and while it became Cyndi’s first album to make the top 10 in the UK it became her first album not to make the top 10 in the US. The follow up single was another motoring themed song and as pleasant as it was there were other obvious songs that could have been a second single. Unconditional Love, a blood relative of True Colors, Insecurious, a fast paced Diane Warren collaboration, or the superior title track would have been better choices to consolidate the initial success of “the campaign” but My First Night Without You wasn’t the right song and it wasn't a hit.

Heading West was the third single and released in the UK over Christmas as East Germany residents made their way over the crumbling Berlin Wall looking for freedom. Melancholic yet hopeful, it’s a shame she couldn’t have tweaked the lyrics to make it more topical, but it was a lovely song that deserved to chart more highly, especially with that key change.

In Cyndi adjacent news I was listening to True Colors a lot this week and found myself in Trafalgar Square listening to Change Of Heart and had to stop myself from recreating the video.

 

[POP!]

Billy Steinburg found it a very difficult experience - "Cyndi was a better singer and interpreter of songs than she was a songwriter"

That's quite brutally honest but more or less true. She seems to kind of lack a certain identity as a songwriter (hell look at all the genres she's ticked since this album), which is surprising given her range as a singer/interpreter. Hat Full of Stars I think is the exception, but even there the melodies are rarely strong or memorable enough to support the material or intimacy of the lyrics.

Although she did arguably co-write arguably one of the best pop songs of all time ("Time after Time")- however most of her more famous 80s output was not written by her (e.g. "Girls...", "All Through the Night", "True Colors", "I Drove All Night" to name a few)

 

[BoysForSeles]

I love Cyndi and I loved 'I Drove All Night' and 'Heading West' from this record but this album veered too closely to record company steered plodding MOR pop-rock. Cyndi has always loved a ballad and has many before and after this record which still have her little touch of quirkiness to them. It's not a bad record but just filters down her personality an awful lot.

 

[POP!]

I thought I posted this in the Classics forum, but apparently I did not. If it could be moved that would be excellent.

 

[BoysForSeles]

Although she did arguably co-write arguably one of the best pop songs of all time ("Time after Time")- however most of her more famous 80s output was not written by her (e.g. "Girls...", "All Through the Night", "True Colors", "I Drove All Night" to name a few)

Technically true but I saw an interview with Billy Steinberg of the True Colors writers who said the song they submitted to Cyndi was very different to the version she released and that she had created something special from their blueprint which she completely dismantled and turned into a new song. In comparison he said 'Like A Virgin' came out pretty much as submitted to Madonna. Not that I'm trying a Cyndi v Madonna thing here, I love them both.

 

[straightorbroken]

In that same interview he reveals how Susannah Hoffs tried to pinch Unconditional Love for T'Bangles, but he reassured her they'd come up with something even better (coming up with some minor gem called Eternal Flame - yes, it's true, Jenny Frost didn't actually write it). Hoffs later did cover Unconditional Love, which almost outdoes the original before it loses ground after something of a key change. A bit like Madge in the early years, I imagine she had her eye on Cyndi. The Bangles would cocer Jules Shear, like Cyndi, did in fact sing back up on the criminally underrated Change of Heart, and Hoffs would still bang on about Lauper years later when generously saying she'd be willing to cover All Through The Night, saying the US top 5 smash (without a video) "deserved to be a hit".

 

[straightorbroken]

Here for Hole:



This would have been huge if it were song #2 from The Goonies. Coincidentally I've only just found out Goonies 'R' Good Enough features in the NES game's soundtrack - so cute!

All The Way To China is a frantic racket, held together by Cyndi as the whole thing collapses I'd actually say that the production is what failed it, but often songs are rendered classics due to nothing more than having been hits. Those lucky Kiwis and Koalas I guess (#8 in both territories).

Back to this album, I Drove All Night is a perfect fit, Unconditional Love the only other hit (that never was), her Bette Midler treatment rubbing Diane Warren the wrong way is a story that continues to fascinate me more than the actual song, the title track gets a beefier edge on the single edit, and the verses of My First Night Without You are an atypical appeal until the chorus kills it and it wouldn't be until Say A Prayer where she does the style justice. Unabbreviated Love is in the trail of Gloria Estefan, but then so were Lile A Prayer and Express Yourself if you really listen to their album version backing tracks. A terrible album, but Cyndi's raw energy has a successful smouldering makeover in a few songs and utterly frustrates and serves as a poor imitation of herself that I remain incredulous over.

 

[VoR]

Most of this album is sadly pretty boring, but Heading West has really been doing it for me lately.

 

[FetchFugly]

I do love Heading West. A big ol flop but I remember the video getting plays, might have been on The Chart Show.

And it might just be childhood nostalgia but I definitely prefer this album to True Colors.