Be the One to Walk in the Sun, Part 1

Summary

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia

Episode Title: Be the One to Walk in the Sun, Part 1
Host: Chris Molanphy
Date: November 20, 2021

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the stories of women who dominated the pop and rock charts—and challenged industry norms—in the mid-1980s: Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles, and Aimee Mann (with her band 'Til Tuesday'). Host Chris Molanphy connects their intertwined stories of career risks, artistic autonomy, persistent industry bias, and the creation of iconic pop anthems. Along the way, he explores how these artists crossed paths on Cyndi Lauper’s sophomore album, and how their parallel arcs reflect broader changes (and ongoing obstacles) in the music industry for women.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Landscape: Women in 1986 Pop & Rock (00:03–07:07)

• Lauper, the Bangles, and Aimee Mann all reached career-defining moments in late 1986, frequently collaborating and intersecting on the charts and in the studio.
• Molanphy places their achievements against a wider legacy of 80s women in pop (Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Eurythmics, Pretenders) and notes the unique convergence on Lauper’s True Colors album.
• The episode chronicles how these artists faced the double pressure of following up breakthrough hits and asserting control in a male-dominated industry.

2. Industry Challenges & Misogyny in the Rock Hall (07:08–12:31)

• Molanphy contextualizes their careers by referencing the belated Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction of the Go Go’s, noting how institutions have historically overlooked even hugely influential women performers:
  • “The Go Go’s were the first and still only all-woman rock band to score a number one album... and it took this long for them to make the Rock Hall ballot…” (11:39)
• Despite commercial and cultural impact, neither the Bangles, Lauper, nor Mann had been nominated.

3. Artist Origins: Lauper, The Bangles & Aimee Mann (12:32–31:28)

Cyndi Lauper/Blue Angel (12:31–19:18):

• Lauper's early struggles, including failed band projects (Blue Angel), vocal cord injuries, and an eventual bankruptcy.
• Her time at Screaming Mimi’s thrift shop as a kind of cultural incubation period.
• Meeting her future manager and partner, Dave Wolf, jumpstarted her solo career and led to her eventual signing to Portrait/Epic Records.

The Bangles & the Paisley Underground (19:18–29:32):

• How the Peterson sisters and Susanna Hoffs formed the Bangles (originally the Bangs), drawing from 60s pop and British Invasion influences.
• They became a key part of LA’s “Paisley Underground” scene—a retro-modern blend of 60s style and 80s sensibility. Molanphy uses Chris O’Leary’s quote:

  “Translators of the dead 60s into the fledgling 80s who treated it with more love than irony.” (23:45)

• The addition of seasoned bassist Michael Steele completes their classic lineup.

Aimee Mann & 'Til Tuesday (29:33–33:25):

• Mann’s turbulent upbringing and attraction to punk/new wave.
• Formation of post-punk Young Snakes, brief time in Ministry, and eventual founding of 'Til Tuesday.
• The band’s first demo "Love in a Vacuum" propels them to win a Boston radio competition and land a deal with Epic.

4. Creation of Iconic Records: From Songs to Anthems (33:26–44:39)

Cyndi Lauper's Early Solo Work:

• Recording She’s So Unusual: Molanphy details how covers (Robert Hazard’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun," Prince’s "When You Were Mine") were reimagined into empowering anthems, with Lauper’s vision guiding her band and producer.
• Lauper’s collaboration with legendary songwriter Ellie Greenwich:

  “…she convinced Cyndi Lauper they should be in the form of a chant, the way the Shangri-Las might sing it…” (39:32)

• Songwriting struggles, including the story of “Time After Time.” Lauper has to push to be taken seriously as a writer, ultimately co-authoring a track that becomes an enduring standard.

Notable Quotes:

• “Few debut singles are as artist-defining as ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ was for Cyndi Lauper. The song was a party ... yet it was also strangely moving…” (40:23)
• About “Time After Time”:

  “Why did you make me do all this other stuff? I could have been writing more songs all along.” (44:39)

5. Breaking Barriers & Industry Perceptions (44:40–52:29)

• Lauper scores four top-five hits from her debut, an unprecedented feat for a woman or debuting artist.
• The Bangles, now on Columbia, face “girl band” comparisons to the Go Go’s but produce their own identity with songs like “Hero Takes a Fall” and covers such as “Going Down to Liverpool.”
• Molanphy highlights the tacit industry quotas for women on playlists and frequent manufactured rivalries among female artists.

On the Madonna vs. Cyndi Lauper Rivalry:

• “The press always asked me about Madonna. They tried to create this big rivalry, but my feeling was: You don’t fuckin’ knock another sister ever.” – Cyndi Lauper (51:08)

Further Commentary:

• “We wouldn’t have that discussion... They pit women against women. Unfortunately, I felt very bad at that time.” – Cyndi Lauper, reflecting in a 2019 interview (52:19)

6. ‘Til Tuesday’s Mainstream Moment & Music Video Power (58:28–61:44)

• The cinematic video for “Voices Carry,” with its drama and imagery of defiance, sets Mann’s reputation as an alternative pop rebel:

  “Amy Mann’s final scene, defiantly standing to yell the song’s refrain… still ranks as one of the most memorable music video climaxes ever.” (59:38)

• By summer 1985, “Voices Carry” becomes Till Tuesday’s signature hit, peaking at #8.

7. Intertwining Stories and Setting Up for Part Two (61:44–64:13)

• In 1985, Lauper’s star power brings her into cross-media projects (“We Are the World,” “Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” video).
• The Bangles feature as pirates in Lauper’s “Goonies” video—showing their increasing visibility.
• The end teases the next episode: Prince’s pivotal role in the Bangles’ biggest hit, Lauper’s struggles after She’s So Unusual, and Amy Mann’s winding career path.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The Go Go’s were the first and still only all-woman rock band to score a number one album, the 1982 chart topper Beauty and the Beat ... and it took this long for them to make the Rock Hall ballot, let alone get inducted.” (11:39)
• “She elevated them [the Bangles]. Slightly older, with a decade of experience … she had the Neosophy 60s sound down cold, and she added a robustness to the harmonies.” – On Michael Steele joining the Bangles (26:35)
• “The word 'anthem' kept coming up. Lauper said in her memoir, 'So I went about the arrangement in a more radical way.'” (38:56)
• “You don’t fuckin’ knock another sister, ever.” – Cyndi Lauper, on Madonna rivalry (51:08)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:03–07:07 — Introduction: Setting the stage for the artists and era.
• 07:08–12:31 — Industry barriers: Rock Hall’s sexism, Go Go’s legacy.
• 12:32–19:18 — Cyndi Lauper’s pre-fame struggles & breakthrough.
• 19:18–29:32 — The Bangles: Formation, Paisley Underground, lineup.
• 29:33–33:25 — Aimee Mann: From punk roots to ‘Til Tuesday.
• 33:26–44:39 — Lauper’s She’s So Unusual: Covers, originals, and anthems.
• 44:40–52:29 — Chart battles, industry perceptions, and the Madonna-Lauper rivalry.
• 58:28–61:44 — ‘Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry” video and breakthrough.
• 61:44–64:13 — 1985 highlights: Collaborations and setting up future stories.

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Tone & Style

Molanhpy’s narration blends passionate musicology, social commentary, and pop culture nostalgia. The episode is rich in storytelling, meticulously traced chart stats, and cultural critique—all delivered in his signature, enthusiastic tone that mixes reverence for his subjects with a healthy dose of industry skepticism.

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For Further Listening

• Part Two will pick up with the Bangles’ superstar moment (with help from Prince), Lauper’s struggle for a follow-up hit, and Aimee Mann’s resilience—continuing the legacy of these “persistent women of 80s pop” as Molanphy dubs them.

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Transcript

[Chris Melanfi]

You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.

[Narrator/Host]

Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is Part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end of the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. You can try it for a month for just $1 and it supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate slate.com hitparadeplus you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge, our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hitparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of the of this Hit Parade episode. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanie, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why is the song number one series on today's show. 35 years ago, in the closing months of 1986, women with rock foundations and pop sensibilities were doing quite well on the charts. From Tina Turner to Belinda Carlisle, Carly Simon to Aretha Franklin, the Chrissy Hind led Pretenders to the any Lennox fronted eurythmics. But by November 1986, three acts in particular were drawing outsized attention and they were all singing on the same lp. That album was True Colors, the second studio LP by New York singer, songwriter and fashion iconoclast Cyndi Lauper. A lot was riding on Lauper's sophomore album, which was following up a multi platinum debut. So Cindy brought backup, literally on background vocals. The LPs lead off track, Change of Heart featured the fast rising Los Angeles all female foursome, the Bangles. The Bengals were having a very good 1986. They'd scored a couple of top 40 hits and a gold album on its way to platinum. And at the same moment that they were backing up Lauper, another Bangle single was rising fast and about to change the trajectory of their career. Among the other guest vocalists on Lauper's album was a Boston based songwriter and very distinctive vocalist who fronted a band of her own, Amy Mann, the leader of Till Tuesday. They too were rising on the Billboard charts in the fall of 86.

[Chris Melanfi]

What about love baby? What about making room for.

[Narrator/Host]

Like Lauper? Mann was under pressure to show that her prior success wasn't a fluke. Till Tuesday had scored a big hit A year earlier, one that had defined Amy Mann in the public's imagination, Man at Lynn least wrote her breakthrough hit. The Bangles were also trying to live up to the success of a recent smash, but theirs had been bequeathed to them by a rock superstar. Even Cyndi Lauper, a formidable songwriter, had broken through with a mix of tracks she'd written and some she hadn't. But she made all of them her own.

[Chris Melanfi]

Come home in the morning like my mother said when you gonna live your life right?

[Narrator/Host]

There are many parallels in the careers of these 80s hitmakers. They fought for their autonomy in a business that often belittled women performers or pitted them against each other. Each of them sought to define their own image, even when the public and the industry had other ideas. And they weren't afraid to defy expectations, zigging when they could have zagged.

[Chris Melanfi]

Look around, these are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter in the Salvation army van.

[Narrator/Host]

Keeping their careers going past the 1980s meant persevering even when it looked like they had been forgotten.

[Chris Melanfi]

It's not good to stop till you rise up.

[Narrator/Host]

And between Hollywood and Broadway, they wound up in places most none of them could have foreseen. Today on Hit Parade, we'll consider these persistent women of 80s pop. How they emerged from distinctive rock scenes and then outgrew them. How they survived fights they didn't start, sometimes within their own bands, and why they remain fondly remembered, critically acclaimed and influential decades later. And they all crossed paths just once on a platinum album that was make or break for its vibrant, flamboyant and oh so unusual star.

[Chris Melanfi]

When the darkest new inside you make you feel so small But I see your true colors shining through.

[Narrator/Host]

And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending November 1, 1986, when True Colors by Cyndi Lauper, the title track from her then new LP, was in its second week at number one on the Hot 100. The same week the Bengals and till Tuesday cracked the top 40 with their latest hits. One of those hits would soon wind up even bigger than True Colors. The other, not so much, even less predictable. In 86, was where these women would all wind up in the decades to come. How did Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles and Amy Mann survive the colorful, capricious world of 80s pop? Speaking of 80s survivors, this is the Go Go's with their classic We Got the Beat, a number two hit in 1982. We're dropping this episode of Hit Parade, just weeks after the Rock and Roll hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, where, as you may have heard, the Go Go's were among the 2021 inductees. The female fivesome even performed their classic hit live on the Rock Hall. This recognition was a long time coming. Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin first recorded together as the go go's as early as 1980. Long waits are not unusual for Rock hall induction, but the institution's track record with women has been particularly poor. This year's hall roster was hyped as a triumph for diversity because half of the class of 2021 were women. Tina Turner, Carole King and the go go's. And unlike such recent hall inductees as Nina Simone, Whitney Houston and Sister Rosetta Tharp, all three of this year's acts are still alive. That is, sadly, a first for the Hall. Half the class are living women. I bring up all of these Rock and Roll hall of Fame statistics as a stark reminder. Reminder of the long odds female performers, even legends, have to confront. The Go Go's were the first and still only all woman rock band to score a number one album, the 1982 chart topper Beauty and the Beat. They were seminal in the development of rock for women and for performers of any gender. And it took this long for them to even make the Rock hall ballot, let alone get inducted. It might not surprise you, therefore, that none of the subjects of this episode of Hit Parade have been so much as nominated for the Hall. As I noted in our December 2017 episode, much of which focused on the Go Go's, and they were an influence on both the Bangles, a near contemporaneous all female group, And Cyndi Lauper, a New Wave fellow traveler. But Lauper and the Bangles grew out of distinctive scenes separate from the LA punk scene that spawned the Go Gos. That also goes for the rangy, far reaching career of new wave turned adult alternative exemplar Amy Mann, I don't suppose.

[Chris Melanfi]

You give it a shot knowing all that you've got a cigarettes and Red Vines.

[Narrator/Host]

So fine, we won't hold our breath waiting for these performers to make the Rock hall ballot anytime soon. But even if the Rock hall isn't going to honor them, we can to trace how they developed their distinct personae as the 80s dawned. We have to go back to some garages in Los Angeles, the clubs around Boston and the streets of New York City. This demo, appropriately enough, is called Hungry and it was recorded by the downtown New York band Blue angel, which formed in 1978 when saxophonist John T. At a Greenwich Village nightclub met a 25 year old strong lunged singer named Cynthia Ann. Stephanie Lauper. Born in 1953 and raised in Ozone Park, Queens, Cyndi Lauper, a teen friend, encouraged her to give her first name, the unusual spelling C1Y N D. I left home at 17 and spent her early 20s singing with several cover bands. They all took full advantage of Cindy's potent four octave voice. So much so that she had damaged her vocal cords by 1977 and relied on a singing coach to get her voice back. It would not be the last time Cyndi Lauper overcame long odds.

[Chris Melanfi]

Decorate like this often. It was a rough night last night. Just another, another night in a rock star's life.

[Narrator/Host]

Blue angel was finally the band to win Lauper a recording contract. At the fairly advanced age of 26, she, John Turi and the other band members settled on a kind of new wave retro rockabilly sound, which they showcased on the band's one and only self titled album on Polydor Records in 1980. It was a sound suffused with kitsch. Lauper would wear vintage clothes in clashing patterns and it was informed by New York rock. Blue angel were not punk and they never played legendary club cbgb. In fact, Cindy notes in her memoir that the band mostly played uptown clubs as well as Great Gildersleeves, a downtown club a block away from cbgb. But Cindy was a fan of that first wave of punk, post punk and new wave, idolizing the likes of Elvis Costello.

[Chris Melanfi]

So you had better do what you were told. You better listen to the Riddle.

[Narrator/Host]

The early punk era version of of the Police. And the tough minded transatlantic rock of Chrissy Hines Pretenders. And in the wake of such campy punk and post punk bands as the the New York dolls and the B52s, The sound of retro crossed with new wave was very on trend. Cindy Lauper did indeed possess a classic Phil Spector girl group worthy voice. But what really seemed to connect for Blue angel were not the bops, but rather Cindy's torch songs, which she also sang beautifully. Indeed, the only Blue angel song to break on any chart anywhere in the world was their slow dance cover of Gene Pitney's I'm Gonna Be Strong, which went to number 37 in the Netherlands. Cindy turned down multiple offers to ditch the band and go solo. She was loyal to John and the Blue angel bandmates, and she didn't want to be pigeonholed as a balladeer. Relations soured with both Polydor records and the band's manager, and Lauper ultimately declared bankruptcy to get out from under her contract to pay the bills. Cindy wound up working at Screaming Mimi's, a vintage clothing store famed for its ahead of the curve looks and informative to Lauper's own look. Cindy worked as a salesgirl at Mimi's for two years, minding the racks while cutting edge new wave stars like Lena Lovic passed through. Lauper, a former recording artist herself, was too afraid to talk to Lovage. Strong. That might have been the end of the story had Cindy not attended a Christmas party in 1981 and met a fast talking, goofy but charming musician turned road manager named Dave Wolf.

[Chris Melanfi]

I have a blue Christmas without you.

[Narrator/Host]

After they started dating, Lauper invited Wolf to a New Year's gig that she and Blue angel were playing in a dive in Passaic, New Jersey. When her tipsy performance of the standard Blue Christmas didn't scare Wolf off, she not only kept dating him, she hired him as her manager. By the end of 1982, Wolf had gotten Lauper signed to Portrait Records, a subsidiary of major label Epic Records. Three years after the flame out of Blue Angel, Cyndi Lauper was going along with what everyone in the business had long recommended to her recording a solo album. Meanwhile, around the same time on the west coast, here's another early recording by a hungry, eager band. In 1981, the Peterson sisters, guitarist Vicki Peterson and drummer Debbie Peterson of Northridge, California, met Brentwood native Susanna Hoffs. They literally met in a garage, which Hoffs had converted into an apartment and a place where Susanna could practice her guitar. Vicki, Debbie and Susannah were all born in at the turn of the 50s into the 60s, and they spent their childhoods listening to AM radio pop music. Rehearsing together in Hoff's garage, they discovered they not only loved a lot of the same British Invasion era pop, their voices had natural, instantaneous harmony. Coming after bringing in a bassist named Annette Zelinskas and trying out several band names. By 1982 they had settled on the Bangs, after the hairstyle inspired by a reference in a 1965 fashion magazine article. And that name wasn't the only thing retro about the Bangs. Chiming guitars, vintage mod beats, sweet harmonies. These were would be 60s songs played on 80s instruments and in a way, a West coast analog to what the East Coasters in Blue angel were doing. And like Cyndi Lauper's first group, the Bangs were part of a scene. Susanna Hoffs boyfriend David Roback was in a similarly retro LA band called Rain Parade.

[Chris Melanfi]

What she Said to your mind.

[Narrator/Host]

Their contemporary Michael Curcio formed a garage style band first called the Salvation army and then eventually the Three o'. Clock. And Susannah Hoffman and Vicky Peterson's friend Steve Wynn formed a band called the Dream Syndicate. Together these bands came to be known as the Paisley Underground, a name Curcio from the 3 o' clock tossed off in an interview that stuck, music critic Chris o' Leary calls the Paisley Underground acts quote translators of the dead 60s into the fledgling 80s who treated it with more love than irony, unquote. By the end of 1982, the four bands were playing live bills together and the Bangs informed that a band from the east coast already had that name, had tweaked it. They were now the Bangles.

[Chris Melanfi]

Time is up, girl now no more season you.

[Narrator/Host]

On the strength of their first self titled EP featuring songs like Merry street, the Bangles were signed to IRS Records, the indie super label that had signed the Go Go's IRS label chief. Miles Copeland served as the Bengals manager, and he moved quickly to increase their profile, getting them opening slots on a tour by new wave titans the English Beat. And a guest slot on MTV's first indie music show, the Cutting Edge, where Susanna Hoffs described their whole 60s gone 80s ethos.

[Chris Melanfi]

Well, I think we all grew up listening to Top 40 radio in the 60s, which was everything from Dusty Springfield to Dylan to the Beatles to Motown stuff. And growing up in la, where you're always in a car, we were always listening to the radio constantly. And so that was a major influence. Radio influences, yeah, that's where it started, I think. And TV and everything. The media was just exploding in the 60s, so it was visual, it was radio, everything was happening.

[Narrator/Host]

By 1983, still, with only an independent EP under their belt, the Bangles were even appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.

[Chris Melanfi]

The next song is called Want yout.

[Narrator/Host]

Who creates the music?

[Chris Melanfi]

Who writes the music? Well, Vicky and Susannah do. Did you write this one?

[Narrator/Host]

I sure did. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, the Bangles. It was around this time that bassist Annette Zalinskas, whose voice never quite harmonized as well with the Peterson sisters and Hoffs, left the group for another band. The Bengals needed a new bassist, preferably one with girl band experience, and so they decided to try for a real pro. Mickey Steele had played in the first version of the Runaways, the legendary all women band alongside Joan Jett and Sandy West. This demo of Yesterday's Kids with Steel was never issued and she left before the band's first recording. Steele then went on to play in more than a dozen LA bands, and she was known around the scene as a potent bassist who played the instrument like it was a lead. By the 80s, Mickey had changed her first name to Michael Steele, and that's when Vicki Peterson recruited her for the Bangles. Michael Steele blended seamlessly into into the Bangles, not only her bass playing, but her voice. Critic and Bangles chronicler Chris o' Leary writes, quote, some bands only cement upon the arrival of a final member the Beatles with Ringo, the Bangles with Steel. She elevated them slightly older with a decade of experience on stage. She had the neosophy 60s sound down cold, and she added a robustness to the harmonies. She would soon become as substantial a composer as Hoffs and the Petersons. The Bangles were now complete, and they had both retro harmonies and punk energy. Meanwhile, back on the east coast, one more rock loving woman was finding her sound and her tribe. Amy Elizabeth Mann, born just outside of Richmond, Virginia in 1960, had a tumultuous childhood after after her parents split, Amy's mother and a new boyfriend kidnapped Mann and took her to Europe. Her father found her and brought her back to Virginia, and as a tween, Amy taught herself bass and guitar over the disinterest and even the ridicule of her family. By the time she was a teenager in the 70s, Amy had grown attracted to punk rock. Mann later told the Guardian, it was a revelation. The punk and new wave scene was so interesting, so inventive, literally do whatever you want, that Patti Smith was out there and people were accepting her. Oh my God, there's a way out.

[Chris Melanfi]

I'm dancing back. What?

[Narrator/Host]

Amy Mann escaped Virginia by enrolling in Boston's Berklee College of Music in 1978, but she dropped out after only a year and a half and dove into the Boston music scene. She soon formed a post punk group called Young Snakes, to which she brought the unique sound of her bass playing and her voice. On the 1981 Boston punk compilation, Mann was one of only three female singers. But Mann tired of the band's angular, arty sound. She wasn't all that interested in punk credibility. The other two guys objected to any love songs or any songs that had melody. She later told the LA Times. They were into lyrics that didn't mean much, unquote. After breaking away from Young Snakes, Amy man briefly joined proto industrial band Ministry, led by Al Jorgensen. At the time, Ministry were closer to a synth pop band, and in her brief time with the group, Mann learned how to write songs more efficiently.

[Chris Melanfi]

Just like the wind you blew away A happy lover's touch you blend the blues into my life just like a rush.

[Narrator/Host]

By 1983, Amy Mann had formed the band that would be her ticket to fame Till Tuesday, a foursome that included her then boyfriend Michael Houseman on drums. The group combined the synth pop production Mann picked up in her stint in ministry with the singing style she'd brought to young Snakes. Their first single, a demo called Love in a Vacuum, won a Battle of the Bands competition by a Boston radio station. Within a year, Till Tuesday were signed to Epic Records, the same parent label that had just signed Cyndi Lauper. The band's sound was now squarely in the new wave pop realm, as heard in this demo of no More Crying. The demo that most appealed to Epic Records when they signed the band was a track Mann wrote about an embittered relationship. Provocatively, the song's pronouns were all she, not he. That's how Mann performed it live, suggesting it might be about a lesbian relationship.

[Chris Melanfi]

Why don't you say.

[Narrator/Host]

Label predictably pushed Amy Mann to flip those pronouns, because to them, Voices Carrie sounded like a hit hit. Even with its pronouns changed, however, the song would be exceedingly raw for a radio single. Back on the East Coast, Cyndi Lauper was headed into the studio with Rick Chertoff, a producer from Columbia Records, a sister label to Epic in the CBS family. Chertoff at the time, was working on the debut album by an up and coming Philadelphia band called the Hooters. Lauper liked elements of the Hooters sound, and so the groups Rob Hyman and Eric Bazillion, became the backbone of her studio band. For the album, however, she had to direct the band to play the sound she was hearing in her head. For example, for a cover of this song by cult band the Brains, Money Changes Everything, which would lead off the album, Cindy felt the band was playing in a very dated, Dylan esque style. So she told guitarist Eric Bazillion and producer Rick Chertoff to go and listen to the Clash. Make believe you're playing London Calling, she said.

[Chris Melanfi]

London calling to the faraway towns now war is declared and bad.

[Narrator/Host]

That tough guitar sound was then emulated by Bazilion and the band in Lauper's final version of Money Changes Everything. The album wound up being half covers, thanks largely to producer Cherta, who envisioned Lauper as a song interpreter more than a songwriter. He would ultimately be proved wrong on that score. Fortunately, Chertoff and Lauper had good taste in material like this track from a Recent Prince album. When you Were Mine was Prince's new waviest song of his early years, an album cut on his 1980 Dirty Mind LP that had only ever seen release as a B side. Cindy transformed that song too, finding the ache in Prince's jam.

[Chris Melanfi]

I don't care.

[Narrator/Host]

But easily the most transformative cover on the album was a song you may not have known was a cover and it was by this somewhat obscure rocker dude. Robert Hazzard was a would be hit maker who never quite hit. An American from Pennsylvania trying to sound like a British new waver, this song, Escalator of Life was his only Hot 100 appearance and it peaked at number 58 in mid-1983. However, a few years earlier Hazard wrote and demoed this song, an ode to girls and their frivolity. Written from a male point of view, The song was quirky, horny and kinda sexist. Hazard's version was about a boy warned by his parents to stop hanging around with good time girls. Yet Rick Chertoff was convinced Girls Just Wanna have Fun could be transformed by Cyndi Lauper into something empowering. The word anthem kept coming up, lauper said in her memoir. So I went about the arrangement in a more radical way. At the time the Hooters Eric Bazillion was playing in a sort of white reggae style. Lauper asked him to keep the reggae feel but shift his playing toward more Motown esque riffs. She also shifted the key of the song towards something more female friendly. She was inspired by an old song by the 50s duo Shirley and Lee. Shirley sang in a higher key.

[Chris Melanfi]

To know you're revealing feel so good now please stop now.

[Narrator/Host]

While Lauper was working up her vocal, Chertoff encouraged her to try a hiccuping sound after the word fun, telling her to evoke Buddy Holly, oh Peggy my.

[Chris Melanfi]

Peggy Su well I love you girl.

[Narrator/Host]

Then to help help with the backing vocals, Chertoff invited into the studio the great singer songwriter Ellie Greenwich, co writer of such 60s classics as Be My Baby and Leader of the Pack. Greenwich not only sang and helped arrange the vocals, she convinced Cyndi Lauper they should be in the form of a chant, the way the Shangri La's might sing it. The leader of the packs this bespoke combination reggae filtered through Motown, a bubbly lead vocal punctuated by little hiccups and an army of women who had her back. This utterly transformed Robert Hazard's trifle into an anthem, yet it was still a bop. Lauper added the feminism and kept the fun. Few Debut singles are as artist defining as Girls Just Want to have Fun was. For Cyndi Lauper, the song was a party, as exemplified by its music video, which co starred Lauper's mother and an army of multicultural multiracial friends. And yet it was also strangely moving, as when Cindy declares, I want to be the one to walk in the sun. The madcap energy of the track matched the album's title, which Lauper Adapted from a 1920s ditty by Helen Kane, the singer who inspired the cartoon character Betty Boop. Cindy included a brief cover of that track near the end of the album.

[Chris Melanfi]

He says, please stop it. Please.

[Narrator/Host]

He's so Unusual she's so Unusual the LP was expert branding on Cindy's part. Lauper was photographed for the COVID by Annie Leibovitz, dancing in Brooklyn's Coney island in a red prom dress, barefoot and in fishnet stockings. The COVID matched the contents, and Cindy really leaned into that unusual image.

[Chris Melanfi]

Her over the Top who is this girl, Cyndi Lauper and why is she so Unusual?

[Narrator/Host]

Released in the fall of 1983, she's so Unusual climbed the Billboard LP chart steadily through early 84, while Girls Just Wanna have Fun scaled the Hot 100, fueled by heavy play on MTV. By March of 84, the single had peaked at number two on the pop chart. Three weeks later, she's so Unusual broke into the album charts top 10. An amazing start, but Cyndi Lauper's year of chart dominance was just beginning. While making the album album, Lauper had to convince her label and producer Rick Chertoff she was a capable songwriter. So she tried writing with the duo from the Hooters, who were backing her in the studio. Keyboardist Rob Hyman had a phrase Cindy liked a suitcase of memories that she thought she could build a song around. The song's other memorable lines lying in my bed, I hear the clock tick or the second hand unwinds. Those were Cindy's coinages. She built the song to showcase the powerful ballad voice she had used so memorably with Blue angel for the title, Cindy flipped open a TV guide, which was broadcasting a 1979 sci fi film about a time machine starring Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenbergen. Its name? Time After Time.

[Chris Melanfi]

Time After Time.

[Narrator/Host]

The song was good, so good. Lauper was a little ticked off that they had discouraged her from penning her own material. Why did you make me do all this other stuff? She asked them. I could have been writing more songs all along. When it was finally issued as the second single from she's so Unusual Time After Time went all the way to the top. Casey Kasem counted it down. Cyndi Lauper says, people used to throw rocks at me for my clothes. Now they want to know where I buy them. Doesn't that seem weird to you? Well, there's nothing weird about Cyndi Lauper's current hit song because it's gone to the top. The new number one song in the USA Time After Time Cyndi Lauper and Rob Hyman hadn't just written a hit, they'd created a new standard. Time After Time has been covered repeatedly over the last four decades, including by jazz legend Miles Davis, who was including it in his sets as early as 1985. Acoustic jazz duo Tuck and Patty, who recorded a take in 1988 that became popular on Quiet Storm and Smooth Jazz stations. And 90s pop and be singer in OJ who took the the song back onto the Hot 100 in 1998, where it peaked at number six. Back in 1984. For the follow up to Time After Time, Epic issued a very different track, another one Lauper had co written for herself, and it was about what she'd like to do to herself. Lauper and her co writer Steve Lunt wanted Shebop to be an unprecedented song about female masturbation, one that would sail over the heads of young kids. Though it referenced Blue Boy magazine and included such lines as they say I'll better stop or I'll go blind. It was subtle enough to get played on the radio. Lauper's subterfuge mostly worked, although the song was later included in the Parents Music Resource Center's Filthy fifteen list of objectionable pop songs, alongside the likes of Prince's Darling Nicky and Judas Priest's Eat Me Alive. This censure by the PMRC annoyed Law not just for its sex negativity, but because she really had tried to keep it PG rated. I was so mad, she said in her memoir. I had made sure that I never mentioned touching myself so that little kids would never know. Nonetheless, given Cindy's hot streak on the charts, she Bop was an instant smash, rising to number three by September 1984, just in time for the start of school. Of course, Lauper was hardly the only artist pushing boundaries on the radio in 1984. She wasn't even the only female artist based in New York City. By sheer happenstance, Cindy broke on the charts virtually simultaneously with another provocative solo woman pop singer, and the media that year couldn't help but compare the two. It was probably inevitable, but still frustrating. Madonna's debut album arrived in the summer of 1983, just a a couple of months ahead of Cyndi Lauper's. She's so unusual. Like Lauper, the Michigan born, New York nurtured Madonna had made her name in the downtown scene singing in clubs. And she too had an eclectic fashion sense. Cindy does claim that she wore a corset like a blouse before Madonna did. And that's about the only shady thing Lauper says about her. By early 1984, the Press and even Cindy claims the music industry pitted the two singers against each other in a kind of competition. One that neither singer, not even the hyper competitive Madonna, seemed interested in stoking. For the record. Madonna's album took a bit longer to break. Lauper's first single, girls Just Wanna have Fun, was such a big hit so quickly that she was already in the top 10 months before Madonna cracked it. In fact, borderline reached number 10, its peak, while Cindy's time after time was already number one, another chart feat Lauper achieved first. By early fall, Lucky Star became Madonna's first top five hit just weeks after she bop peaked. I offer these chart peaks for statistical purposes, but let me just say as a guy who was a teen Music Fan In 1984, I have have long been skeptical of this media fomented battle royal. So was Lauper. As she recounts in her memoir, the press always asked me about Madonna. They tried to create this big rivalry, but my feeling was you don't fuckin knock another sister ever. Even her record company got in on it. The thing was, our music wasn't even similar and she was so smart about business and marketing. I never was and she always was and still is Beautiful. By the way, Cyndi Lauper is still fielding these rivalry questions. Here's an Excerpt from a 2019 interview Cindy did with New York classic rock DJ Shelly Sunstein. We were discussing who we thought would.

[Chris Melanfi]

Have the bigger in the music business. Was it Madonna or was it Cyndi Lauper? And I picked you. Well, because I thought you had more talent, you had the chops. I think she has different chops. I think everybody's different. But I'm just saying we wouldn't have that discussion. No, no, not with men. No. They pit women against women. Unfortunately, I felt very bad at that time.

[Narrator/Host]

Of course, Madonna went on to become a pop legend by the fall of 1984, performing in a disheveled wedding Dr. On the first MTV Video Music Awards and launching her risque single Like a Virgin, which soon became her first number one. But Cyndi Lauper was doing just fine. The week before Virgin broke into the top 10, Cindy was peaking with her fourth straight hit from she's so Unusual all through the Night. When the song peaked at number five, Billboard reported that Cyndi Lauper had become the first female artist to pull four top five hits from a single album and the first artist of any kind to do so with a debut lp. As for the album she's so Unusual, it peaked at number four and by early 85 would be certified quadruple platinum. By the way, all through the Night was Cindy's first single since Girls Just Want to have Fun. That was a cover she remade, a track by singer songwriter Jules Shear. Remember that name because Jules Shear will be be back. Part of the story of all three of this episode's subjects. Speaking of which, by the fall of 84 the Bangles had moved to the majors. They signed to Columbia Records and they were finally issuing a full length debut album called all over the Place. Its first single was the chiming Hero Takes a Fall.

[Chris Melanfi]

When the Hero Takes Fall when the Hero Takes Fall.

[Narrator/Host]

And as with Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, the perception in the industry was that Columbia had signed their own version of the Go Go's who were at the time scoring their final hits and about to break up. One DJ was later quoted in Billboard saying of the Bangles, quote, we need stuff like this. We haven't had a girl group since the Go Gos, unquote. As critic Chris o' Leary writes in his study of the Bengals quote, the two bands had never been rivals as much as legend has it, but many rock radio stations had strict if tacit limits on how many female artists would get airplay. So if that girl rock band was over, there was more room on playlists for that other girl rock band. At first call, Columbia focused the Bangles promotion on rock radio and Hero Takes a Fall managed to eke out a number 59 peak on Billboard's album rock chart. Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson had co written Hero Takes a Fall, but for their second single the band went with a cover of this song by the British American band Katrina and the Waves. Going down to Liverpool took the Bangles even deeper into their British invasion gone New Wave style. It was Paisley underground turned maximalist pop, with a lead vocal by Bank Singles drummer Debbie Peterson. As an extra insurance policy for the music video, Susanna Hoffs brought in family friend Leonard Nimoy, who played a grumpy shot chauffeur to the four ladies squeezed into the back of his car. The Bangles Going down to Liverpool didn't chart, but the video drew enough attention that by early 85, the Bengals were given an opening slot on Cyndi Lauper's tour, where the LA group and the New York singer took a shine to each other. It was a synergistic pairing, as the ladies were all signed to CBS labels, as were Till Tuesday, who spent the closing months of 1984 working on their debut album. Amy Mann was honing their angular new wave sound.

[Chris Melanfi]

Hold on, it's just because I hope you be there.

[Narrator/Host]

And at her label's insistence, Mann did indeed flip the pronouns on that ethereal, oddly catchy song Voices Carry, which would also be the title of the album when it arrived in march nineteen nineteen eighty five. Voices Carry. The song was alluring on its own, but what really broke it wide was its cinematic, melodramatic music video. I'm so happy the band's doing well. By the way, what's with the hair? Is that part of the new image? The clip portrays Amy Mann in an abusive relationship with a controlling boyfriend who hates competing for her attention with her band and hates her countercultural lifestyle. They fight, they make up, at one point he even forces himself upon her. The song, about a woman being silenced by her lover, only amplifies the drama in the clip. Filmed at sites all around Boston and a final climax purported to be at New York's Carnegie Hall. The video drew acclaim from critics, one of whom said it looks better than most feature films. Amy Mann's final scene, defiantly standing to yell the song's refrain in the middle of a starchy Carnegie audience, still ranks as one of the most memorable music video climaxes ever. Nan's video performance, coupled with her cathartic song established her pop rebel image by the spirit summer of 1985, Voices Carrie had risen to number eight on the Hot 100. It would be the biggest pop hit of Amy Mann's career. For Cyndi Lauper, 1985 was about affirming her stardom. She was among the artists invited to participate in the American charity mega single We Are the World by USA for Africa, on which Cindy provided the show stopping vocal performance.

[Chris Melanfi]

When we stand together as one.

[Narrator/Host]

By the summer, Lauper was scoring a hit with the theme song to a Steven Spielberg produced movie, the Richard Donner directed kids adventure film Goonies. The music video for Goonies Are Good Enough even featured a cameo by Cindy's new friends, the Bangles, who played pirates. Clearly the Bengals had ingratiated themselves with enough famous people to help their career, but as of mid-1985, they had yet to score a serious hit. However, that was all about to change as Susanna Hoffs made perhaps the most important famous friend of all. When we come back, his royal badness bestows a ready made hit upon the Bangles. And it wasn't even their biggest single ever. Cyndi Lauper struggles to follow up her insanely successful debut, and Amy Mann enters the pop wilderness. Non Slate plus listeners will hear hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Asha Soludja. Extra thanks to critic Chris o' Leary for his exceptional scholarship on the Bangles. June Thomas is the Senior Managing Producer and Gabriel Roth the Editorial Director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of [e-mail] podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. We'll see you for Part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfilt.

[Chris Melanfi]

I wish it was Sunday cause that's my fun day.