Although Cyndi Lauper had been in the music industry since the early 1980s, it wasn’t until 1984 with the release of her single “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” that she made a name for herself.
The song quickly rose to the top of the charts and was very popular with younger females at the time. She was known for her bright, and sometimes outlandish outfits, that often appeared as if she had purchased them in a local thrift store.
The song was really an anthem of women empowerment in the 1980s, and it is one of those songs that immediately comes to mind when you think of the best songs of the 1980s.
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
The song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was actually written by Robert Hazard back in 1979. Hazard grew up in Pennsylvania, and he was known for writing and performing music in a variety of different genres.
In 1979, he formed a band known as Robert Hazard and the Heroes, which would later record the song for the first time.
According to Robert, he wrote the song in about 15 minutes as he was taking a bath in a motel near one of their gigs. Although he would record a demo, he did not put much effort into publicizing the song.
The Story Behind “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
In 1984, Cyndi Lauper needed something to announce to the world that she represented the new wave of female vocals in the music industry. Rick Chertoff, had come across the original demo by Robert Hazard, and felt that it would be the perfect anthem for Lauper. However the problem was the song itself was written by a guy, and there was very little effort put into the actual production of the song.
Although she did not want to perform the song as her anthem at first, her producer continued to push her to take on the song and make it her own. Eventually, she decided to sing the song in the same manner as Shirley & Lee did in the song “Let the Good Times Roll”. The higher-pitched singing style ended up being a very popular choice for girls and younger women in the early 1980s.
The Influence Of Come On Eileen
At the same time, Cyndi Lauper also needed to revamp the music styling of the original song recorded by Hazard. She spent weeks trying different musical styles, but none of them seemed to work with her voice. That was until one day when Cyndi Lauper was talking about the hit 1983 song, “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, that she finally found the beat she was looking for.
“Come on Eileen” was a very upbeat song, and had already worked its way up to the top of the charts. But, the tempo was a little bit fast for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”.
After slowing down the tempo quite a bit, and inserting a similar kick drum style as “Come on Eileen”, she started singing to the beat and found a perfect match.
The Girls Just Want To Have Fun Music Video
Without a question, MTV’s continuous playing of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” helped with the song’s popularity. The video itself was not produced by an outside party, rather it was Cyndi Lauper herself who had produced the entire music video with the help of the state-of-the-art equipment used in the production of Saturday Night Live.
With the help of Captain Lou Albano, a popular wrestler at the time, she put together an amazing video that ended up winning the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards for the best female video of the year.
Even the entire Saturday Night Live cast got in on the action. In the end. she produced a simply amazing video that to date has garnered over 1 billion views on YouTube.
