(Seagulls squawking, helicopter passing overhead)
(Foghorn blaring)
(Cars honking)
CYNDI LAUPER: Hey, what time is it?
WOMAN: It's about 9:45.
CYNDI: Oh my God, I'm gonna be late.
How long do you think it is before we get to Pearl?
Twenty-five? You think you can make that any shorter?
Cher taught me to be more on time, but...
(Sighing) Not freaking today, huh?
Where is my phone? Oh, guys, where the hell...
Please.
Okay, there it is. There it is.
Hi, change of plan. There we go.
♪ We just fit together ♪
That stuff, right? Yeah.
It's too many different jobs that I'm doing.
Like, when you're a singer and you have a lot of jobs?
That's one thing.
But when you start to have too many different professions?
That is a problem.
I didn't want anyone to tell me what I could and couldn't do.
To pigeonhole people in one genre of music is silly,
because that's your palate.
That's what you're learning from.
In the right rhythm...
saying the right thing...
you can open that door where this world
that you're standing in
and that world that you feel inside...
collide.
To attain that every time would be glorious.
Um, it doesn't always happen.
Fuck.
I'm always late.
I used to watch a lot of old movies.
And there was this song, "Pick yourself up, dust yourself off
"and start all over again."
And if you're doing what you love,
then, poof!
Magic.
("Girls Just Want To Have Fun" playing)
Cyndi's whole stance was provocateur.
♪ I want to be the one ♪
♪ To walk in the sun ♪
♪ Hey now, hey now ♪
♪ What's the matter with you? ♪
♪ Girls just wanna have fun ♪
I really loved her voice.
♪ Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? ♪
♪ Oh-oh-oh ♪
♪ He sat in her boudoir while she freshened up ♪
♪ And drank all the magnolia wine... ♪
I was like "Ahhh!"
I didn't know she could do that!
♪ Lady Marmalade ♪
(Vocalizing)
I became a super fan after that.
Cause you know, white people don't sing like that.
♪ At last... ♪
(Holding note)
Cyndi does what she wants to do.
And she tackles a bunch of different types of music.
♪ For you are mine ♪
(Holding note)
Because she can.
♪ At... ♪
She sings.
♪ Last... ♪
(Holding note)
I cleaned her plants in her office,
but she doesn't remember me.
I was working for a plant company.
(Laughing)
- Oh, Cyndi, I'm sorry-- - No, no, no, no. It's fine.
I was just telling her I used to clean your plants
- before I became famous. - You did my plants?
Yeah, you had a corn plant in your office
- I used to take care of. - I still have a corn plant,
- but it's dead. - Yeah, well, it's not my fault.
If you don't know where you came from,
you don't know where you're going.
*
First things first, we were Italian.
We're Sicilian.
ELLEN LAUPER: We were children of immigrants.
And lived in a cold-water flat in Brooklyn.
We were pretty poor.
Um... my father was a shipping clerk.
CYNDI: We lived across from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
And those uniforms. There was black and white.
Which, to me, as a kid, was a lot of costumes.
ELLEN: We had all kinds of people in that neighborhood.
We had Hasidic Jews. Puerto Rican kids.
Italians. It was just a real mix.
I watched the women in the neighborhood
and it was an extraordinary time for fashion.
There were a lot of makeup styles
and a lot of fashion styles.
The women were kinda sexy.
It was that late '50s period. Early '60s.
They had a certain look. And the hair dye.
And you see bright red.
Like, tomato red hair.
And dyed black hair.
And the thick eyebrows and the lipstick.
There's a sexiness to it.
ELLEN: A few years later, we moved to Queens,
which was a very different neighborhood.
Very German and Italian.
And it was kind of a culture shock because it's like,
"Where is-- Where are all these other people?"
FRED LAUPER: They kind of got the shaft when I came along.
My mother and father divorced when I was less than a year old.
She was a single mom raising three kids
and she tried to teach us all kinds of things.
We were exposed to music...
*
ELLEN: We listened to everything.
Opera, of course.
Mario Lanza. Enrico Caruso.
Because, you know, they're Italian.
(Man singing in Italian)
She would drag us to museums. All three of us.
And we would complain, of course, because we were kids.
FRED: We used to go to Shakespeare in the Park.
CYNDI: I started to look at my neighborhood in Ozone Park,
Queens like it was Shakespeare.
The guy who had the gas station he was a mechanic.
He'd come home from work in his uniform.
Like, I knew this one had a tragedy.
That one... And, all of a sudden, it was...
it was like Shakespeare.
ANNOUNCER: And it's all happening on Queen for a Day:
The Cinderella Show...
CYNDI: When I was upstairs with my grandmother,
we'd watch Queen For A Day.
And I crown you Queen Ella!
(Applauding)
CYNDI: And her big prize was a washing machine.
And my grandmother cried
because she washed the sheets in the tub.
And I thought to myself, "What queen washes clothes?"
It was like, "What the heck?!"
♪ This is la vie en rose... ♪
ELLEN: We'd grown up learning
your job is to make your husband babies and cook
and take care of the house.
(Sighing)
We came across this picture.
It's my mother's eighth grade graduation.
And, you know, my mom, she had a lovely voice.
Really nice voice.
And she got a scholarship to go to a Catholic high school
in Manhattan for singing.
And, uh, my grandfather
would not hear of it.
And what I see in her eyes is great disappointment.
But, for women...
It wasn't much, was it?
♪ It will always be ♪
♪ La vie en rose ♪
*
My grandmother and I watched Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
show and it happened to be the one Patsy Cline was on.
♪ I go out walking, after midnight ♪
♪ Out in the moonlight... ♪
I thought to myself, maybe instead of being the queen
that's crying about the washing machine, I was gonna sing.
(Cyndi singing)
♪ After midnight, searching for me ♪
(Crowd cheering)
ELLEN: We watched, in 1964, The Beatles on Ed Sullivan.
Lost our minds.
CYNDI: We would imitate The Beatles for my parents.
We'd do little shows. Oh, we wore jackets.
We had jackets because we went to Catholic school
so you had those blazers.
So, we'd wear the jackets and took a broom, a mop...
and Ellen was always Paul so I had to be John.
Why that was the case, I don't know.
Because she had the higher voice. But that's how it went.
(Church bell ringing)
CYNDI: My mother was divorced.
So, we went to Catholic school.
And there was this priest,
had this, like, rocking outfit.
He had, like, pants with the black shoes,
this white collar with the black shirt
and then he had a black skirt
over the black pants with a kind of slit.
It moved and you saw the pants and the skirt.
It was a whole, like, multi-gender thing.
And he had these big beads. Come on.
Jewelry and accessories were always a big thing.
And I thought, "Wow! What a look!"
So, I'd run to go talk to him.
And he goes, "And what are your sins?"
"Well, I didn't go to mass last Sunday because--"
And he's like, "You didn't go to mass?
"You're going to go to hell like your mother."
(Church bell ringing)
I didn't care what people thought.
But, you know, when you're a kid,
you're not thinking straight.
ELLEN: So, she would mouth off
and she just wasn't going to take shit from people.
Period.
Even from a young age, she just wasn't gonna.
And so, we'd both get the snot beat out of us
because we were little. (Laughing)
So, at that point, things in the household were not good.
My mom had married a second partner.
Her second husband was... whoa.
Really, really not...
Whoa. (Whistling) Real bad.
He was very good at abuse, both psychological and physical.
So then, the poor thing sends us to a convent school.
(Church bell ringing)
♪ You don't know where ♪
♪ You belong ♪
♪ You just need to belong somehow ♪
(Vocals echoing)
FRED: As bad as boarding school may have been,
at least it was safer than the home environment
for my sisters.
ELLEN: The place that we went to was a place
that many children were simply left.
And so, there was the thought, are we being left?
♪ Fare well in some company ♪
♪ But don't shove that bullshit ♪
♪ Down my throat ♪
♪ You don't know where ♪
♪ You belong ♪
♪ You just need to belong somehow ♪
ELLEN: When we came out of boarding school,
my father got me my first transistor radio
which means that now Cyndi and I could listen to...
rock and roll!
*
At this point, we were listening to everything
from The Beatles to Joni Mitchell...
Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin.
You heard The Chambers Brothers.
You heard Sly and The Family Stone.
Cynthia on the horn and the other woman
with the white hair and the minidress, dancing.
I mean, I loved those girls.
They were, like, "Wow, they're in a band!
"I could be in a band," you know?
So, I got a guitar, but we shared the guitar.
We would each sit on our beds, you know, play guitar,
and write and sing together.
And make up songs.
We were her first band.
I grew up in a really interesting time as an artist.
We had Jack Kennedy telling us...
Ask not what your country can do for you.
Ask what you can do for your country.
CYNDI: I just thought,
"Oh, we're going to have a whole different world."
ELLEN: But then, watching television
and watching the Civil Rights movement,
and watching the police dogs.
(Dog snarling)
My mother, my sister and I were all furious
that this was happening.
NEWS ANCHOR: From Dallas, Texas, the Flash:
President Kennedy died at one p.m.
Central Standard Time.
ELLEN: We saw on television, John Kennedy getting shot.
Martin Luther King getting shot.
Robert Kennedy getting shot.
And then all of our rock and roll heroes OD-ing.
CYNDI: And it symbolized for me
that a whole culture could self-destruct.
ELLEN: So, that's when you find your voice.
So, you're not just singing.
You're also singing what you care about.
We created together.
You know, sang teenage angst songs.
And it was our therapy for a while.
Our teenage years were hard.
Both in terms of society as well as personally.
♪ Stone ♪
♪ The world is stone ♪
♪ It's no trick of the light ♪
♪ It's hard on the soul ♪
*
CYNDI: We used to come home from school and lock our door.
They would have fist fights.
He'd say he was gonna beat up her old parents upstairs
and rape her two daughters.
♪ Stone ♪
♪ The world is stone... ♪
Cops would come and they would just look around
and look at each other and go, "Domestic" and leave.
That's when I realized "This is toxic.
"I can't do this anymore."
So, I left home.
CYNDI: When Ellen left, I was still in high school.
It was devastating.
Only because Ellen was always my hero.
And because Ellen was there, it was okay.
But when she left... it was horrible.
One day, I was in the tub and I dunked my head, came back up,
and my stepfather was looking at me.
♪ I would love not to care ♪
♪ Stone, the world is stone... ♪
When bad things happened as a kid,
you don't just feel like shit.
You feel like the ground shit falls on.
So, you start to do very self-destructive things.
I took LSD and came home really stoned.
I was crazy mad.
And, if I had no power, the only power I did have
was to scare the fucking crap out of everybody.
'Cause you didn't know what crazy was gonna do.
ELLEN: I was watching my sister kinda be way out of control.
And I was worried for her safety and her health.
♪ I've had all I can take ♪
♪ With my back to the wall... ♪
After a few months, I said, "Cyndi, you can't do this.
"I'm worried about you. Come and stay with me."
At that particular point, I started
to want to spend more time with my "girlfriends".
CYNDI: When my sister came out,
I was like how I always was with my poor sister.
I was like, "You know what?
"I was born to be your friend.
"So, I don't care who you bring around or what you do.
"You can't ditch me."
ELLEN: Cyndi's view of community and family
is much broader than, you know...
the average person.
CYNDI: Ellen's helping me move in...
ELLEN: And who comes out the door but Carl
and his partner Gregory.
Carl was my neighbor who lived upstairs from me
on the Upper East Side.
And I was so happy to see them because I was worried
about leaving Cyndi behind.
I had some things to work out.
I said "Could you please look out for my sister?
"Could you please take care of her and make sure she's okay?
"You're in the same building."
Carl said "Don't worry, Ellen.
I'll watch out for your sister."
And they did. They were like family. Especially Gregory.
Cyndi and Gregory were bonded.
I would go downstairs and...
I met everyone there.
We talked about everything from fashion to movies.
It was great.
You know, you start to have friends and family.
FRED: They went through some hard times together.
They didn't have a whole lot of financial resources.
And we had to do all kinds of things
that she had no desire to do just to survive.
CYNDI: I was a Gal Friday.
I like to say I was a Gal Friday the 13th,
'cause, you know...
I mean, would you like me outside of your office?
(Cyndi and audience laughing)
I'd fall asleep reading the mail.
And my boss was the greatest.
She reminded me of, like, Mary Tyler Moore.
She was stunning and she had long nails.
And she was really smart.
(Phone ringing)
"Simon and Schuster. How may I help you?"
I'd put it down and the whole thing was covered in sweat.
That's how nervous I was.
I would be like, "It's lunch time."
And I was like, "I think I'm really gonna splurge
"and I'm gonna get myself a sandwich and a beer."
I didn't think anything of it, except...
(Can popping)
...when my coworkers came to me and said,
"Cyn, the beer thing,
"it's not a good look."
I was like "Oh! Oh, okay."
Because that's how clueless I was.
(Keys clacking)
But when that electric typewriter came in
and I only typed 19 words a minute?
Well, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
And then I was gone from that job.
You know, so you could see, you know,
the career otherwise wasn't doing that good
so I may as well just start singing, 'cause, you know...
How much worse could I do, you know?
*
I went on an audition.
I sang a Gladys Knight song,
"I Really Gotta Use My Imagination."
♪ I really gotta use my imagination ♪
And then, when it went up high,
I don't know if I jumped the octave.
But I was up there.
♪ My imagination ♪
So, I'm singing way the hell up there.
And, of course, I didn't want to, you know,
lose the audition so I just kept singing.
And I just made my voice work.
And all of a sudden, what came out was something
that I didn't know was there.
I was so surprised.
What was coming out of my mouth?
I'd never heard that.
But, if you think I was surprised,
you should have seen the faces on these guys.
So, I was like, "Oh, I've got this gig."
But I was a backup singer. I sang disco songs.
Some really great ones. Patti LaBelle.
(Vocalizing)
(Singing "Lady Marmalade")
FRED: She was with a band called Doc West.
There was a gap between her and the rest of the band,
in so far as performance level.
CYNDI: My first gig as a lead singer
was in a kind of beer hall.
HOLLY: She couldn't even get booked to play at CBGB's.
She was part of this, kind of,
outsider little group of people.
And then she had this oversized,
amazing talent.
I just got fed up with what was happening.
When the band kinda started doing nothing,
I started looking for a job.
("She Bop" guitar riff playing)
I used to be a salesgirl for these people.
It was like working in a toy store.
LAURA: She bought so much stuff in the store
that when she asked us for a job we were like, "We hit gold."
We were like, "We probably never have to pay her."
And now and then we were kinda like, "Oh my God,
"she's taking the best stuff," you know?
She did have good taste. That was the only downside.
CYNDI: And the one thing that everyone always said
whenever you wanted to be an artist
or whenever you wanted to sing or act or whatever
was, "What will you do if you fail?"
And here I was trying to survive in the world
as a regular person and failing everything.
I just felt like...
might as well do what I really wanted to do.
So, I went into a club.
And I met this guy and he asked me
if I wanted to start a band.
And I said, "Sure, I'll start a band."
(Electric guitar riff playing)
FRED: That was Flyer. They were trying to find a niche.
(Cyndi singing in deep voice)
CYNDI: I'm trying to sound like Janis Joplin.
When I started to duplicate her sound,
it taught me a sense of freedom
in losing yourself in the music.
Losing yourself in singing.
But I couldn't really lose myself totally
and feel totally free because I felt myself in her shell.
I felt very little and the sound was very big
and I couldn't understand why.
Usually, I would start out full range,
and it would shrink and shrink and shrink and shrink.
Till the end of the show, there was, eh, not much.
At that time, I didn't have any technique.
And so, I lost my voice.
When she initially called me, she couldn't talk.
And I asked her to bring a cassette
or something of her singing.
So, she brought this cassette.
- (Tape deck clicking) - We put it on.
(Cyndi singing Janis Joplin-style rock and roll)
"No, Cyndi, I wanted to hear you.
"Not the music that you like."
She wrote, cause she couldn't speak to me, "That is me."
And I went "Oh my God."
At that time, I had never had a voice that was that bad.
She had met this doctor who told her she was finished.
CYNDI: I was really depressed.
I was even suicidal. I was.
But I couldn't really do that either.
That wasn't what I was going to do.
KATIE: I thought to myself, "If you could make your voice
"sound so much like that other person,
"when we take off all the damage,
"what's underneath there has got to be genius."
It took about a year but she completely recovered.
(Singing)
She met John Turi and they formed the band Blue Angel.
(Singing rock and roll)
CYNDI: And I went from years of doing cover songs
and I just got tired of it.
I couldn't live in somebody else's soul.
I had to have my own.
JOHN: A lot of the songs just came
without a lot of lyrics first.
And then the lyrics would come
as we developed the song.
Or she would have a set of lyrics
and then we would build a song around those lyrics.
(Cyndi vocalizing)
When I would play my saxophone with her,
it would be like playing with another saxophone player.
We would go into different rhythms, like five-four,
and she would be so comfortable.
"Anna Blue" was in five-four.
♪ Anna Blue ♪
♪ Oh, Anna ♪
♪ Oh, Anna... ♪
We loved Roy Orbison.
And Cyndi loved a lot of the '50s singers.
Every day, she would come in,
possibly with a different influence.
I could hear Ronnie Spector.
Shirley from Shirley and Lee.
Brenda Lee. I could hear Wanda Jackson.
Frankie Lymon.
We just started playing,
and everything just felt really good.
(Singing "I Had A Love")
♪ Baby don't go ♪
♪ I thought, maybe I should have told you ♪
♪ Long before... ♪
KATIE VALK: I was so mesmerized by Cyndi
the first time I saw her.
She was everything
that I would have wanted
in an artist to work with.
She was my next Dolly Parton,
because I was working with Dolly.
Yeah, that kind of talent.
(Vocalizing)
JOHN: And that's when we got our record deal with Polydor.
And we recorded our album called Blue Angel.
CYNDI SINGING: ♪ More than I could bear... ♪
I remember when she did "I'm Gonna Be Strong".
♪ So I'm gonna be strong... ♪
That recording studio had a big chapel
because it had been a church.
CYNDI: When you sing in there, it's like...
Oh my God.
♪ I'm gonna be strong ♪
♪ And stand as tall as I can... ♪
ELLEN: She goes otherworldly in a way when she sings.
When she's in the zone, she's like,
that's her church.
♪ I'm gonna be strong... ♪
KATIE: All the people that were recording the album
turned around and looked at me.
And they were all, like, "How is she doing this?"
♪ I'll smile and say, don't you worry ♪
♪ It's fine ♪
♪ And you'll never know, darling... ♪
JOHN: When we got our picture in Billboard, it was like,
"We're gonna make it."
We got incredible reviews.
CYNDI: There was something kind of pure about that album.
You know, it's always your first album
that's kinda got something pure.
We were going, going, going.
And one day, I jumped from the drum riser onto the stage
and my foot slipped.
I had been on stage and I twisted my ankle.
So, I couldn't really go any place, right?
"As I lay lazily and watch,
"I can't help thinking about my mother.
"Yesterday, I woke up. I saw her face.
"Her eyes twinkled with the innocence of youth
"and it seemed as though there was so much life
"to look forward to."
"Somehow, she was me.
"Or she was locked up as part of me, inside.
"I felt as if, in a crazy way, I was straightening out
"a great wrong in my mother's life."
ELLEN: Cyndi challenged the legacy
that was "supposed to be," the family drama.
And said, "No, we're going to rewrite this.
"We're going to make something else."
(Crowd applauding)
*
♪ Oh-oh, oh-oh... ♪
Cyndi came on my radar in an interesting way.
I had been invited to a birthday party.
I spent most of the evening trying to pick up
this young lady.
Failing miserably, I might add.
And when she got up and went to go to the bathroom,
I saw Cyndi sitting on a little couch near the bathroom.
So, I walked up to Cyndi and sat down with her.
And she kind of looked at me like "What is wrong with you?"
You know, "You tell that lady all this nonsense,
and now you're saying all this stuff to me."
And then we just kept talking.
And I had no idea who she was.
How she sang.
Nothing. I didn't know anything about her.
I'd never heard of her before.
(Singing "Maybe He'll Know")
♪ And call me back, don't take too long... ♪
When I saw her for the first time,
I just remember being so blown away.
♪ I got this anxious feeling ♪
♪ I got this ache engraved in me like stone... ♪
ELLEN: Cyndi said that she'd met this guy, David Wolff.
And she asked me my opinion. (Laughing)
Should she go out on a date with him?
And I said... "Oh, what the hell!"
DAVE: We were going home.
She lived in the fifth floor of a five floor walk-up.
I was carrying her stuff.
CYNDI: He was helping me carry up my pots and pans
because I'd always boil water and steam my throat
before and after the gig.
DAVE: We're on our way up the stairs.
CYNDI: If a guy likes you, he may go up to the fourth floor.
But the fifth floor it's always like "Hey, I'll call you.
And when Dave Wolff passed that third floor...
Passed the fourth floor...
and by the time we got to the top floor,
Dave Wolff turned around and he said,
"How do I love thee? Let me count the steps."
♪ Like stone ♪
♪ Don't take too long ♪
♪ Say you'll never ♪
♪ Say, say you'll never go ♪
(Audience cheering)
At one point, there was a guy at a radio station,
there's always a guy at a radio station, who decides,
"Oh, this is oldies.
"Blue Angel? Definitely old. Out."
And things just, you know, went...
the wrong way.
We were just on our knees.
We couldn't get them to go with any of the demos we sent.
We couldn't get anything.
DAN: Cyndi had a lot of pressure to go solo.
Everybody was saying, "You're phenomenal,
"you need to do this on your own."
And I think she fought that for a long time
and did protect the band.
JOHN: So, I was very disappointed that we broke up
because things were really going so well for the group.
Just the reaction from the people that heard us
was so inspiring and gave me chills at times.
FRED: They were a good band, you know?
I'm pretty sure she had some regrets that they were
never able to go where they wanted as a group.
But even I could tell that there was a point
when she needed to break and be on her own.
But she didn't. She was loyal.
And she wanted to bring everybody with her.
Unfortunately, she couldn't.
TV HOST: What was the band you were in before?
- Um, Blue Angel. - What happened to them?
Oh, it went lead.
You know how some bands go gold? Mine went lead.
You mean. It went down.
Yeah, yeah.
DAN: At the same time, there were also people
trying to convince her she should be a Streisand.
CYNDI: I was like "Well, that's already taken, isn't it?"
DAVE: Everybody had a thought
on what she should do with her life,
and sort of ignoring what she wanted to do with her life.
She would go to these meetings with managers and every night
she would come home crying.
"I can't believe these guys. Nobody wants me for who I am.
They want to make me into something."
CYNDI: They thought "Oh, we're not going to push it.
She'll come around. You'll see."
Just because I can sing whatever I freaking want,
doesn't mean I'm gonna sing what you would want to sing
if you could sing.
And Dave Wolff said, "Well, I'll manage you then."
I said "Sure, we'll start together.
I'll sing, you collect the money. How's that?"
DAVE: I had introduced her
to a great friend of mine named Lennie Petze,
and Lennie said "I will sign her."
And this was like "Wow! This is major!"
Her former manager, when he got wind of this,
initiated a lawsuit against Cyndi,
prohibiting her from signing a new recording contract.
CYNDI: But he had a bit of a vendetta.
He had it in his mind
that I wasn't going to sing.
And I went into the bathroom and closed the door and cried,
because I was like "Are you fucking kidding?"
What finally happened was we went to court.
KATIE: Cyndi knew what she wanted to be and do.
There was no Plan B.
Just said "Don't be a victim. Take control."
CYNDI: My lawyer said that if I went bankrupt
and I had nothing for him to come after,
that I would be free of him.
And I was like "Well, I'm gonna go bankrupt,
but what am I losing? I don't have anything to lose"
She had something to say and was gonna fight the fight.
Going to Catholic school, you're taught endurance.
You have to kneel on that marble floor
and say the Rosary.
It really built up how stubborn I could be
if I knew I was right.
So, finally, the judge just--
(Gavel thumping)
he took the gavel and said, "Let the canary sing."
And it was like "You won!"
(Belting)
(Audience cheering)
(Belting)
All of a sudden, things moved fast.
DAVE: When we signed to Epic through my buddy,
Lennie Petze, he was the one person that I believed
would understand Cyndi, and when he signed her,
we were obviously looking for a producer
and he said, "Rick Chertoff is the guy."
RICK: Lennie Petze and I took a flight back
from Los Angeles together and he asked me
what I was working on, and I said I had
a locked drawer full of songs
looking for the right singer.
♪ Something inside is erasing ♪
♪ The time back to the memory... ♪
He said "I might have that right singer."
And I thought "Wow, here's just
a great singer with real power."
I had learned about the currency of songs.
When I was at Columbia, Robert Hazard and the Heroes
sent me an audition tape, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".
So, I had this great idea to take Cyndi to Philly
and see Robert Hazard and the Heroes.
They were selling out these little clubs.
They had a giant local following.
*
♪ Phone rings in the middle of the night ♪
♪ My father says, "My son, what do you want from your life... ♪
The place was packed, people are singing,
and I'm thinking to myself. "Wow, fantastic."
♪ Girls just wanna have fun... ♪
In the middle of this adulation for him,
Cyndi pulls my ear down and says,
"I will never do that fucking song!"
No, not the way it was. It was wrong for me.
It was a masculine story.
I figured "Uh-oh, I'm now in really big trouble."
We started a debate.
"Oh, mama dear, we're not the fortunate ones.
Because girls wanna have fun."
And, every time we wanna have fun, what are we?
We're whores. We're this. We're that.
We're problematic.
This is an early version of "Girls..."
*
For "Girls..." we tried it this way, that way,
and I was like, "This is not...
It's not going to work. It's nothing special."
*
♪ Come home in the morning light... ♪
ROB: We worked for months and months. Many demos.
It's about fun, but it wasn't always fun.
(Laughing) It was a work song.
♪ Girls just wanna have fun ♪
♪ Phone rings in the mi-- ♪
I fucked up.
Heh, "I fucked up." (Laughing) Love that.
I realized that these songs are arranged a certain way.
We could create a sound to make them unique.
I could use my voice in different keys.
It would take on a different--
a totally different sound, different personality.
♪ I come home in the morning light... ♪
All I want to do is make a modern record.
I felt like we could arrange this thing
and make it sound like such fun.
♪ And girls they wanna have fun ♪
♪ Oh, girls just wanna have fun ♪
It's about fun. It sounds like fun.
It should have this sound.
It should be in a trumpet key,
because we are trumpeting an idea.
There is always both-- both an upfront message
and an underlying message in her music.
CYNDI: So, I did it with sound.
(Opening of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" playing)
Making it sound like every Summer, commercial,
vacation sound I ever heard.
There's certain sounds on there that were
like when I was little. Raceway Park.
Summertime comes. And you heard that organ.
Which is that glitz. You know, "Raceway Park!"
You know? (Laughing)
HIGH-PITCHED VOICE: (Laughing) Raceway Park!
And there was this new sound, a gated snare sound,
that was coming from the street.
Eventually, it was slowed down.
Added a little reggaeness.
Eric added-- (Humming) - that guitar line.
CYNDI: Rob knew every reggae thing in the whole wide world.
ROB: And Eric can play any guitar.
Cyndi added that hiccupping vocal to it.
(Vocalizing)
And those great background, kind of old girl group parts
were so fun to do.
And all of a sudden, we all heard it.
("Girls Just Want To Have Fun" playing)
♪ I come home in the mornin' light ♪
♪ My mother says, "When you gonna live your life right? ♪
♪ Oh, Momma dear, we're not the fortunate ones ♪
♪ And girls, they wanna have fun ♪
ROB: We were pretty beat up. Pretty exhausted.
We're just about done, and Rick did come in and say,
"You know, guys, we could use one more song."
At which point... (Imitating gun firing, laughing)
CYNDI: He was gonna have me cover a Hooters song,
and I told Dave Wolff "That ain't right."
'Cause I can arrange anything with them,
but we should write something.
Because then it's ours and that's for this album.
And so, it became a fight.
ROB: She was signed primarily as a singer.
I know there was pressure and Rick was just
"Let's find hit songs for this hit voice."
But she always wanted to write
and she always wanted to be part of the process.
She pushed to be the creative force.
I felt I was always penalized
because I had a bigger voice.
Remember those days?
People with big voices sing,
and people who don't have big voices write.
There's nothing like working with an artist
who has a point of view.
And you could see hers coming together.
She was galvanizing herself.
DAVE: She was never afraid to say what she thought.
I was oftentimes the buffer.
CYNDI: I really did love
my boyfriend-manager Dave Wolff,
but we fought all the time
because he thought I was just going too fast.
You have to just slow down.
And I said "I can't slow down,
"because what if I die before I even accomplish
"being the songwriter I want to be?"
And then I started writing with Rob and boom!
(Playing piano)
That was my favorite part.
*
What happened? We didn't...
What did we actually have?
We just said-- Did we even have them yet?
We had... (Singing "Time After Time")
I think the chorus was the last thing we wrote.
♪ Time after time ♪
That's all we had.
Everybody went out to dinner, we sat at the piano.
Next night little more. A little more.
We literally wrote it in the studio as the door
was closing on the project.
And the budget, I'm sure.
♪ Lying in my bed ♪
♪ I hear the clock tick ♪
♪ And think of you... ♪
CYNDI: I actually was listening to a conversation
and Rick was just standing there and his watch,
he kept looking at his watch going
"Hm, my watch is going backwards.
"I'm not kidding. Look at this.
The second hand's unwinding."
"The second hand unwinds."
And I'm thinking "The second-hand unwinds,
what a great lyric."
♪ The second hand unwinds ♪
♪ If you're lost you can look and you will find me ♪
♪ Time after time... ♪
ROB: Because it was the first song we wrote,
even though we spent many months together working on other songs,
we kind of opened up to each other
like you might to a stranger.
Cyndi and Dave were going through their own relationship
as we were making the record
and we just put it all out there in this song.
It's a bittersweet song.
It's up and it's positive,
and on the other hand, is it a breakup song?
I was struggling with my own anger.
And I was alone in my apartment,
but I felt a hand on my shoulder and I calmed down,
and I started thinking
"If you fall, I will catch you.
I will be waiting."
♪ Time after time ♪
♪ If you fall, I will catch you ♪
♪ I will be waiting ♪
♪ Time after time... ♪
DAVE: Cyndi comes up to me in the studio and she says,
"Hey, I want you to hear this song."
And I vividly remember my reaction.
It was like, "Whoa!"
♪ Time after... ♪
JANET PERR: When I met Cyndi, she came up to the office.
I didn't know who she was.
We were talking about what she wanted her cover
to look or feel like.
And usually when people come in,
they kind of don't have any idea.
Cyndi had very specific visions.
She was talking about layers of paint
and peeling paint, and colors,
And I was like "Oh my God, layers of paint, Okay."
So, Coney Island came into my head.
In those days, it was very dilapidated
and full of peeling paint and old signs.
Bring both arms in closer to your head.
I thought of Annie, because I thought
it would be a good collaboration.
CYNDI: I didn't know Annie Leibovitz.
I just knew of her work.
And I knew that her photographs, to me, looked like paintings.
And I wanted to make art.
I had an idea of doing this picture
that I saw on the book "A Study of Latin America."
And the outfits, just a skirt,
just kept hitting me,
and the sun and the shoes,
and what it would be like,
and who this woman in this painting was gonna be.
My hair wasn't big enough so tied crinoline under it.
And Cyndi comes with conviction
and she brings something to the table.
Like, she has her references.
You know, she knows how she wants to look.
CYNDI: And what Laura did was she brought this
Gingham bathing suit to wear under the skirt
with the crinoline and I wore the fishnet with the heels.
JANET: Well, she had all the bangles and all the hair
and the makeup.
That's the thing with Cyndi.
Like, sometimes I'd be like,
"Okay, you know, maybe we need to pull back a little."
And she'd be like "No!"
CYNDI: I was like "Where should I put the umbrella?
Here, right?" And then I threw the flowers down
and the shoes in front, and then I was the girl.
JANET: Her energy was really beyond.
She was dancing.
She was actually moving around and dancing.
CYNDI: If you wear color and underneath you have a color
and the garment moves, then, if you twirl,
it's a painting.
*
DAVE: The album cover was done, but we had to make a video
for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".
Making music videos in those days
was really new to most American record companies.
HOLLY: Cyndi used that new video medium
to really spread some of those crazy ideas
and her just really fresh, powerful persona.
It was made for her.
RICK: She sees beyond just the notes and the words.
Cyndi sees the visualization
of where that emotion wants to go.
*
RICK: The Girls video was a real family affair.
She asked me to walk her dog in her bathrobe.
CYNDI: I told my mother "If you do this,
it's going to bring mothers and daughters closer,"
and she said, "Let's do it."
Hello! I'm Cyndi Lauper's mother.
CYNDI: She was so great.
I mean, she's not a professional.
She never did anything like that.
She just wanted to spend time with me.
DAVE: We needed a father to be in the video.
In my mind, Captain Lou Albano came into my brain
and I couldn't stop thinking about that.
Cause I was such a wrestling fan.
I met Cyndi Lauper. In fact, I went to her concert.
I was so amazed! I was so happy!
I was so elated, that I said,
"Captain, you've got to be a part of that!"
♪ Oh, Daddy dear, you know you're still number one ♪
♪ But girls, they wanna have fun ♪
And Lou Albano is not our father. (Chuckling)
♪ That's all they really want ♪
BILLY PORTER: There was this unbridled joyful abandon.
The colors. The people.
The storytelling.
♪ Some boys take a beautiful girl ♪
♪ And hide her away from the rest of the world ♪
♪ I wanna be the one to walk in the sun ♪
♪ Oh, girls, they wanna have fun... ♪
CYNDI: I was so tired of watching videos
that were designated, Oh, this is R&B.
So, all Black people.
This is rock and roll. Oh, all white people.
It was just separate, separate, separate, separate.
KATIE: A lot of the videos then
were rock bands with sexy models,
but she was pushing to show women as women.
♪ Oh, girls, just wanna have fun ♪
♪ Girls, they wanna ♪
♪ Wanna have fun... ♪
And I also wanted every little girl to be able to see herself
no matter who she was or where she was from.
♪ They just wanna, they just wanna ♪
I wore red, because red is a power color.
♪ They just wanna, they just wanna... ♪
BOY GEORGE: It was also quite ahead of itself.
You know, you think about when girl power came along.
And there was this chick in the early '80s going,
"Yeah, girls wanna go out and party.
Girls wanna have fun."
It was a good message, you know, for, I think kids
and teenage girls particularly.
♪ Girls just wanna have fun ♪
♪ Everybody... ♪
DAVE: And this is the first reaction
that I got to Cyndi's music.
And it goes "I thought Cyndi Lauper was pretty decent,
but not great.
I can foresee some problems getting the song on AOR Radio,
which is adult-oriented radio,
and I'm not sure if it is strong enough
to make much of a top 40 impression."
So, this was the first opinion I got
on the record that we made.
That it's not good enough.
I was a little dismayed when they told me the first week
"Girls..." just got added by five radio stations
and that was it, and they were only looking at two
next week so why don't we move to "Time After Time?"
And I said no.
If you move to "Time After Time,"
you come out with that first,
that's what they did to the Motels.
I'll never forget.
They were such a great rock band
and they came out with a ballad first.
Then when they tried to come in with a rock song...
(Whistling, exploding) No more Motels.
When you do this, you gotta believe,
and Cyndi believed, and I believed,
and you can't let an opinion take you out of that.
I pleaded with them "Please, don't quit.
Give it a little more time," and he goes to me,
"Okay, I'm gonna give you two more weeks. Okay?
"If we don't make some noise in the next two weeks, it's done.
We're going on to the next single."
And I'm saying "Okay, great. I'll take the two weeks."
And, I remember, I go to Lou and I say,
"Could you imagine if you pretended to be Cyndi's manager
"and that I really wasn't involved with anything,
"and we just do what you guys do in wrestling
and we make our own soap opera?"
Cyndi, tell all these people out here how I took you, Cyndi,
and found you in New York City in Queens
and how made you a super star!
ROB: The wrestling was a surprise.
It was like, "Okay, that's an interesting detour."
But I looked at it differently.
I looked at it, we need something to draw attention
to her in a unique way.
The album is called She's So Unusual.
Tell 'em how you came off my reputation Cyndi!
What?!
(People shouting)
There were certain things I wouldn't stand for
and I just had to set Lou straight.
So I wound up managing
the Female World Wrestling Champ.
WENDI RICHTER: I was contacted by her manager out of the blue.
Would I represent her in a wrestling match?
I said, "Sure, I would."
That's what changed everything.
Her being on there mainstreamed it,
that's what made everyone think, "Oh, wow!"
(Bell dinging)
ANNOUNCER: Very intense at ring side. Wendi coming in!
- Now, The Fabulous Moolah-- - (Crowd cheering)
ELLEN: It was theatre.
Not quite Shakespeare, but kinda Shakespeare.
Without the big words.
'Shmoolah'! Lani Kai!
You better watch out, because these are powerful words
because this is a powerful woman
and I'm a powerful manager now!
BOY GEORGE: That's about creativity, isn't it?
It's about kind of, again, girls being strong.
Cyndi just doing what Cyndi does.
Kind of going out there and saying, "Women can do that."
CYNDI: And it was so weird and so funny, it kind of worked.
Two weeks later, the song is a hit.
♪ Girls just wanna have fun ♪
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever have any inkling
that "Girls..." would become such an anthem?
It had to. That's what we were doing.
You hoped.
You want me to start a revolution?
My favorite thing.
A year ago, her career was going nowhere.
Now, Cyndi Lauper in on top of the pop world.
And then, all of a sudden, this record is going crazy,
and she was everywhere.
CASEY KASEM: Not only is she talented, she's hot,
gosh, everybody in the world's talking about her,
but I think she is a sentimentalist
because on the back of this album,
now you may or may not know what this is.
That is the parachute jump at Coney Island.
LAURA: She was always very influenced by art.
That image of Starry Night just like really spoke to her.
In college, I...
I painted shoes.
I painted cans.
And my painting teacher was like,
"Why can't you just paint on a canvas like everybody else?
What is the matter with you?"
So, I took one of my old books that I had,
but it had a print of Starry night,
and I decided to outline the shoe,
and then cut it out and glue it on the shoe.
LAURA: She had explained it to me, so I know, like,
she did the thing with the soles and your soul
and the sole of the shoes and the shoes
are leading you someplace.
So, that was very Cyndi.
You are a kick in the head, you are.
(Laughing)
Carson was, at that time, the pinnacle.
Everyone watched it.
Don't you think you're somewhat different than,
say, the average gal your age?
No.
(Audience laughing)
When you're that different,
you view other people
as having a problem.
I think you dress unusual.
- Really? - (Audience laughing)
I know that people thought I was being dumb,
but I wasn't.
I was actually figuring out timing.
See, if I wasn't doing this, Johnny,
I might've been a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist.
JOHNNY: Could've been something like that.
CYNDI: I was having a good time.
I figured there's enough people talking about
how serious their work is.
Obviously, my work is serious.
Otherwise, it wouldn't sound like that.
♪ We have no past, we won't reach back ♪
♪ Keep with me forward ♪
♪ All through the night... ♪
HOST: As more and more talent seems to come out of America
every year, and with all that talent comes a selection
of what can only be termed as fairly outrageous people.
Most of them seem to be women.
And now there's a singer, Cyndi Lauper.
She found that she could thrive
by being unusual.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Cyndi Lauper.
(Audience cheering)
She was doing her version of Gracie Allen.
Now, Cyndi, we saw your video.
Now, who plays your mother in your video?
My mother.
I got to share my success with my mom.
What has your mom done normally before she got into this one?
Well, she's very creative.
Uh-huh.
She had a fish tank for a long time.
Took care of fish.
The fish story that my sister told is actually true.
One time a fish had an abscess and I saw she took it right out
of the bowl and put it down on the table.
I swear she cut the abscess away and the fish lived.
My mother is a real, like, she's a fish doctor.
DAN: She was very self-deprecating.
She'd make jokes about it, but she was dead serious
about where she was going.
I want my MTV.
(Honking)
Our feet were off the ground, but we didn't know for sure
are we going back down or are we going up?
But when "Time After Time" took off, we knew.
*
♪ Lying in my bed ♪
♪ I hear the clock tick ♪
♪ And think of you... ♪
DAVE: It's always difficult
when you bring everything home.
You get no escape from the business,
and, eventually, it takes its toll on the personal side
and on the business side
because there's no separation ever.
♪ Sometimes you picture me ♪
♪ I'm walking too far ahead ♪
♪ You're calling to me ♪
♪ I can't hear what you've said... ♪
She's very emotional and so am I.
So, it was... it was-- it was difficult.
♪ After my picture fades ♪
♪ And darkness has turned to grey... ♪
CYNDI: I didn't know we were in a tough time.
I was just working as hard as I could
and doing everything I could.
So, I just continued.
♪ You said, "Go slow" ♪
He said, "Go slow..."
♪ I fall behind ♪
...and I felt like I was falling behind.
But I refused to see it.
♪ The second hand unwinds ♪
♪ If you're lost you can look and you will find me ♪
♪ Time after time... ♪
DAN: Cyndi on her own came up with the signing.
She signs "Time after time."
It was Cyndi thinking, "I'm gonna reach people
who nobody's thought about reaching."
She was the first artist ever
to have her music videos closed captioned.
BILLY: You know, when gospel artists
start covering...
the white rock artists,
it's a good thing.
♪ Oh, sometimes you picture me ♪
♪ I'm walking too far ahead ♪
♪ You're calling to me ♪
♪ I can't hear what you've said... ♪
PATTI LABELLE: That's one of my favorite songs ever,
"Time After Time."
We turned it out.
It was just beautiful singing with her
because our voices complement each other.
♪ The second, the second, the second, second ♪
♪ The second hand unwinds ♪
CYNDI: I remember hearing her voice singing my song.
♪ Time after time ♪
And then we just got lost and sang together.
♪ If you fall I will catch you ♪
♪ I will be waiting ♪
♪ Time after time... ♪
BILLY: Patti LaBelle has a tendency
to scream all over you.
♪ You say, "Go slow" ♪
♪ "Go slow" ♪
♪ I fall, I fall, I fall ♪
♪ The second, the second, the second hand unwinds... ♪
And many recording artists just stop singing
when they're dueting with Patti LaBelle.
Then they did this duet...
♪ I will be waiting ♪
...and they were across the stage.
Then Patti started screaming,
and then Cyndi started screaming,
and then Patti started screaming and moving in closer,
and Cyndi started screaming and moving in closer.
♪ If you fall I will catch you I will be waiting ♪
♪ Time after time, I will be your friend... ♪
It was just one of those moments still to this day
where I was like, "Oh no, not Miss Cyndi Lauper.
"You are not going to scream her off the stage, honey.
She's gonna go toe to toe." She went toe to toe.
♪ (Both vocalizing) ♪
PATTI: Those moments are precious.
When you can go big, big, big, and then--
(Whispering) - time after time.
(Speaking) Almost just like a whisper.
From a scream to a whisper.
And that, ooh!
♪ Time after time ♪
(Audience cheering, applauding)
*
ROB: It's all about the emotion.
You can have a great singer and have great taste
and have great songs, but I think what everybody
keys on is the emotion of the singer.
You know, something connects with you and that voice.
♪ I said I'm sorry, baby ♪
♪ I'm leaving you tonight ♪
♪ I've found someone new ♪
♪ He's waiting in the car outside... ♪
FRED: With her on stage,
there's a connection between her and the audience.
She wants the audience to be a part of the show,
and she wants to be part of that audience.
Their soul, so to speak. I mean, she connects with them.
She just wants to.
♪ We think we know what we're doin' ♪
♪ We don't hold the strings... ♪
You keep your eyes on Cyndi when she's on stage.
CYNDI: I wanted the freaking aerial thing.
I saw Tina Turner and the Rolling Stones,
they use a cherry picker,
but they couldn't get that.
It's too much money.
So, they got a garbage pail. What? Like Oscar the Grouch?
I thought they had a pulley system.
It wasn't. It was ten guys and they were holding me.
And the minute I start going like this, it started to slip.
So, that's why I went out and I came right in.
♪ Money, money, money, money, money... ♪
And it was like "Wow! That was quick!"
They did have me sign a will before I went up.
♪ Money, money, money, money, money, money... ♪
And the Best New Artist is Cyndi Lauper!
- (Audience cheering) - ("Money Changes Everything")
It was like "Wow!" She had arrived.
There was no doubt about it,
and it was all unfolding right in front of our eyes
at The Grammys.
What do you think, Ma? (Laughing)
And the winner is...
Cyndi Lauper!
(Audience cheering)
KATIE: By the time she because famous,
she had been working for 15 years
to become an overnight success.
I want to thank EPA, who supported me
and allowed me to be myself, as opposed to a clone.
I think fame caught Cyndi at a good time in her life,
because she was in her thirties
and you're a different person in your thirties
than you are when you're younger.
Who discovered you?
Well, I discovered myself.
ELLEN: She allowed herself to thrive.
There's something in there that she will not be deterred.
She will climb that mountain.
*
WENDI: That was my first video with Cyndi,
where I blew the bubble.
I never knew what the song "She Bop" was about
till afterwards.
♪ Well, I see 'em every night in tight blue jeans... ♪
I led a sheltered life.
(Chuckling) And that was never discussed.
♪ She bop, he bop, we bop ♪
♪ I bop, you bop, they bop ♪
♪ Be bop, be bop, a-loo she bop... ♪
TV PRESENTER: It rocked!
ROB: "She Bop" is a primal rock and roll song.
TV PRESENTER: It was strange.
It was controversial and fun all at the same time.
TV PRESENTER: And it made you laugh.
So, what's the true spin behind "She Bop?"
♪ We bop, a-loo... ♪
What's all that bopping about?
I heard that song.
What is that "She Bops, he bops, we bop, you bop?"
- What's that? - But doesn't everybody bop?
I don't know what bopping is. What's bopping?
It's about down there of which we do not speak.
- Masturbating? - Yeah.
What?
I heard the song a lot,
but I never knew it was about that.
Just like I didn't know "Lady Marmalade"
was about hookers.
Rock music has been rolling against controversy
since its inception.
Lately that controversy has become more heated than ever.
TV PRESENTER: Close inspection of the video finds
several allusions to the taboo topic.
♪ Do I wanna go out with a lion's roar? ♪
She was the first pop star to ever mention
a porn magazine in a song lyric.
♪ In the pages of a Blueboy magazine ♪
All my friends from the "She Bop" video.
Carl and Gregory...
♪ He-he, I've been thinking...*
...they were magical.
Miss Diana.
One of the first transgender people that I became close with.
Aunt Gracie's in there. My mother.
I'm not sure that my mom actually knew what
the song "She Bop" was about when she starred in it.
Nor my other aunts.
No... no, they didn't.
♪ I hope he will understand ♪
♪ She bop, we bop... ♪
They did find out later.
HOLLY: "She Bop" was actually listed
on Tipper Gore's Filthy 15. Yes!
But, ironically, just a few months later,
Cyndi was named one of 12 women of the year.
Here it is, right on the cover of Ms. Magazine,
their Twelve Women of the Year.
You'll find one of them is wearing sequins on her eyes.
That's Cyndi Lauper, the rock star.
GLORIA STEINEM: Cyndi has become a great symbol to all of us,
but I think especially to younger feminists,
because there was this kind of dreadful notion
that you had to imitate and dress for success
and conform in order to be a feminist when,
in fact, the whole idea of feminism is to be free,
to have the power to make decisions for yourself,
and Cyndi said that.
"Girls Just Want To Have Fun" has become a kind of anthem
for young feminists.
What was very important to Cyndi was to infiltrate culture.
Here's to the rejects.
Kinda like us, Mike, The Goonies.
The Goonies, the movie,
became very much a part of the culture.
It meant a lot to people.
She had done the Goonies song for Spielberg.
Her lyrics always had to have meaning and be useful.
And really what it says is just
"What's good enough for you is good enough for me."
♪ It's good enough for me... ♪
Oh, The Goonies was incredible fun.
With all the wrestlers. Andre the Giant. Roddy.
Lou. They were all there.
My mom got to be in it.
Oh my God,
she was having trouble with the dialogue,
so the director told her to eat a cookie and say,
I'm gonna miss the smell of what
I've been baking all these years.
I'm always surprised at Goonies who come up to me.
"You know, I'm a big fan. I'm a Goonie."
♪ Goonies, Goonies, Goonies ♪
*
We did that project.
It was an interim project to kind of bridge the time gap
that we had anticipated between
She's So Unusual and her second album.
CYNDI: "True Colors" is a lovely song.
I knew that the melody was stunning
and the words were stunning.
And I asked my friend Peter Wood
"What if we do this song
with our kind of chords?"
So he said, "Okay," and he started playing.
And he started--
(singing opening notes to "True Colors")
And I was like...
I just started singing.
♪ You with the sad eyes ♪
♪ Don't be discouraged ♪
♪ Oh, I realize ♪
♪ It's hard to take courage ♪
The intimacy became...
♪ In a world full of people... ♪
...of paramount,
that the intimacy between the listener and the singer
were never lost.
♪ But I see your true colors ♪
♪ Shining through ♪
♪ I see your true colors ♪
♪ And that's why I love you... ♪
So that I could call
to the archaic part of a human being.
So, he comes up with ...(Imitating drum beat)
And then we started... (singing the opening melody)
*
I wanted my voice to be warm,
but have that sibilance so that it could sound like,
if you're singing really soft,
it would sound like you're whispering in someone's ear.
♪ In a world full of people ♪
♪ You can lose sight of it all ♪
♪ And the darkness inside you can make you feel so small... ♪
I wanted to speak to a human being
in the most tender spot.
♪ True colors ♪
♪ Your true colors ♪
♪ Are beautiful like a rainbow... ♪
I had to learn the power of a whisper.
♪ Can't remember when I last saw you laughing..*
When "True Colors" came to me,
it was when Gregory was dying of AIDS...
...which totally freaked me out, because in those days
that was a death sentence.
I went to the hospital to visit him.
My friends, they didn't want me near them,
because nobody knew about AIDS.
ELLEN: When he passed of AIDS, that almost killed her.
It struck deep in her soul when he passed.
Because she-- you know, she tried everything to help.
I dedicate it to my friend Gregory
and to Carl who survived him.
♪ You with the sad eyes ♪
♪ Don't be discouraged ♪
♪ Oh, I realize ♪
♪ It's hard to take courage... ♪
When I listen to that song...
(Exhaling)
♪ You can lose sight of it all ♪
♪ And the darkness inside you can make you feel so small ♪
♪ But I see your true colors ♪
♪ Shining through ♪
♪ I see your true colors ♪
♪ And that's why I love you ♪
♪ So, don't be afraid ♪
♪ To let them show ♪
♪ Your true colors... ♪
BILLY: "True Colors" had a resonance
with queer people because...
...so much of how we communicated was in code.
Because queer people weren't really allowed
to be queer and out.
So, it was our straight allies
who were having the conversations
that the actual queer people in the same industry
could not have, for fear of exposure and then rejection.
What I saw was so bad and so unjust.
♪ And I see your-- ♪
CROWD: ♪ True colors shining through ♪
DAN: Cyndi was there very, very early,
and really before people knew what AIDS was all about,
and Cyndi was a big part of bringing that message forward,
not just to the public, but I think also to people
in the music business
and getting people really involved.
♪ Are beautiful like a rainbow ♪
Thank you very much.
I love you. Take care.
(Audience cheering)
Have you ever thought of acting yourself?
Um... Well, yeah, we're looking for something.
- It's hard to find, you know? - Sure.
And action!
REPORTER: This is the first time on the big screen for Lauper,
and, like the star herself, her character is a bit offbeat.
Worse! She's playing bouncy-bouncy with another guy.
Trying to be as delicate as I can.
CYNDI: And I did Vibes
and it was... (Exhales) bad.
Then I went on Letterman.
What was the movie?
(Chuckling) Vibes.
Vibes? And what was the film about?
That was the problem.
(Audience laughing)
That was the problem. Everybody was asking that.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Uh-huh. And, but--
CYNDI: I think fame got in my way. I hated it.
I hated that I was labeled an icon.
I hated that people thought that it was manufactured.
I don't want to be an icon.
I'm a real person on this planet
and I always, always wanted to be an artist.
When you cease to become an artist,
and you're just a personality,
well, that's heartbreaking.
BOY GEORGE: I didn't ever feel like I had to change
who I was around her.
She was always just Cyndi.
Fame is a figment of other people's imaginations.
You never choose what fame you're going to get,
and it always kinda comes out of nowhere,
and if you don't have a sense of who you are and what you want
it can make you quite unhappy.
DAVE: With success comes a price,
because it steps on your privacy in so many ways.
When that fame hits to that extent,
everything is scrutinized.
I hear you are engaged to be married.
Are you looking forward to being married?
Um... yeah.
(All laughing)
I mean, he keeps saying, you know,
we gotta wait till I'm a bigger success.
- You're a huge success. - You see, Dave?
♪ I'm driving home from work ♪
♪ Knowing you're not there ♪
♪ I used to hurry home... ♪
DAVE: Our relationship started to deteriorate.
CYNDI: We made a promise that the business
would never come between us and, of course,
the business always comes between you.
But I kept on as her manager.
The least you could do is give is a shot!
CYNDI: I am giving it a shot!
Oh, you're doing a fine job!
Then it just got to the point where we had to say goodbye.
That was very, very difficult, but we had no--
we had no option.
♪ I drop my hat ♪
♪ To a restless wind ♪
♪ Ooh, this time I'm not gonna chase it again ♪
♪ In a jigsaw dream ♪
♪ With soft-spoken words ♪
♪ I woke up crying and no one heard... ♪
CYNDI: And I was so lonely
and I didn't mind sacrificing everything for the work,
because that's what we're supposed to do as artists.
You are lonely.
Too fucking bad.
The work comes first.
(Announcer speaking, audience cheering)
FRED: She had several years of problems
with the record companies after the She's So Unusual album
because they wanted to put her into this mold,
and she didn't want to go into that mold.
She wanted to make her music.
Cyndi needed control. She lost it as a child.
She was angry.
HOLLY: In 1989, her third album, A Night to Remember,
just didn't achieve the commercial success
of the first two.
She was not given the respect
and the creative freedom to evolve.
So, she stepped away from the limelight for a few years.
I had a struggle around 1990.
And I was walking away from music for a second.
That fire gives you momentum to change stuff.
MAN: 129, take one. (Clacking)
Here we go. Ready? And action!
*
CYNDI: Everything in my life fell apart.
So, I decided to do a movie.
I felt like, "Let me just live on the page."
And that didn't work.
But I lucked out.
I met somebody really extraordinary.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, what about when you actually met David?
You were working together, weren't you?
- CYNDI: We did a movie. - INTERVIEWER: But how did you
sort of become romantically entwined?
Well, he was the murderer in the movie
and I've always had a penchant for the bad guys.
INTERVIEWER: Mm.
Yeah, it was left over from wrestling I guess.
Hey, I met my husband.
That was good.
I was very lucky.
I met another artist
who I would like to share the rest of my life with.
♪ On the snow-lit trees ♪
I've been searching all my life to find myself.
When I left my house at 17,
it was the first time I thought about what it would be like
to consider the world differently.
ELLEN: Her life wasn't working
and she needed to get away.
To kind of reassess, she needed to start over.
CYNDI: I wound up in Vermont.
I had my dog.
I had never ever camped in my life.
The stars were so incredibly beautiful.
I felt like, "Wow, I wish I had someone to share this with.
There was this hat that I got.
I mean, I was poor as a church mouse,
but it was so beautiful.
One night, when the stars were really extraordinary...
...I lifted my hat up
and I imagined the sky in this hat
and filled the hat with the sky.
So that the next time I put it on, I could remember.
I had to go and follow my dreams.
You have to remember why you came to the form
in the first place.
For me, it was about that hat full of stars.
♪ From a long, long time ago ♪
♪ When all I had was ♪
♪ A hat full of stars... ♪
HOLLY: I thought it was such an ambitious album,
her voice never sounded better
and she was doing so many different things.
♪ The rent is due and the pockets are empty ♪
♪ People ask machines for the truth ♪
♪ No crystal ball to help see it all ♪
♪ But where we gonna find ♪
♪ The dreams to feed the babies? ♪
REPORTER: Cyndi Lauper, her new album,
Hat Full of Stars, addresses some heavy topics.
Themes include abortion, incest, and racism.
♪ On the dresser sits a frame ♪
♪ With a photograph ♪
♪ Two little girls in ponytails ♪
♪ Some 21 years back... ♪
The record company was like, "What are you doing?!
Why can't you just do a video like Madonna?!"
♪ Was lost from some back alley job ♪
♪ I close my eyes ♪
♪ And Sally's pigeons fly... ♪
I didn't just want to have a hit song.
I wanted to have a hit song that meant something.
♪ They brought her in in a new white dress ♪
♪ But the stain left an ache on her mother's breast ♪
♪ Now all that's left are the ghostly steps ♪
♪ From a distant corridor ♪
♪ Hey... ♪
My journey was painful,
because my career just didn't go like my peers.
My career was up and down and up and down and up and down.
♪ Shake your money maker, I will never be a faker now ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey... ♪
Now, you know, you're a pop star
and your last CD was a dance album.
- Yeah. - Now you have a blues album.
You keep changing it up, huh?
♪ Early in the morning ♪
♪ And I ain't got nothing, nothing ♪
♪ Nothing, nothing but the blues... ♪
PATTI: We pray that we have a record label
that's going to push us and push everything
that we record, because we believe in it,
but when you have some people who are stuck on wanting
to hear what you did back in the day,
they put you in a box.
Keep on doing a Lady Marmalade,
keep on doing a Girls Just Want To Have Fun.
When we have other things to talk about.
(Singing "Funnel of Love")
♪ Here I go going down, down, down ♪
♪ My head is blank, my head is spinning around ♪
♪ And around as I go deep into the funnel of love... ♪
Come 2000, I had my head in the dirt.
2002, they were asking me
"What the hell happened to you?"
*
And when I was pregnant with my son,
I was on the computer,
and it was the beginning of email.
♪ You with the sad eyes... ♪
Letter after letter was about
someone who was gay, lesbian,
a bisexual person, a transgender person,
anywhere where you don't fall into line.
ELLEN: Her fans would write her and talk about
being thrown out of the house
because their families rejected them.
♪ In a world full of people ♪
♪ You can lose sight of it all ♪
♪ And the darkness inside you... ♪
REPORTER: Now, Grammy Award winning singer Cyndi Lauper
is really fired up.
She's just launched the Forty to None Project.
It's a campaign to battle the growing number
of homeless gay youth.
ELLEN: She read the letters
so she had the personal experience,
but there's the part of her that's also the technician.
(Chuckling) And so, she wanted to get it right.
Only up to seven percent of American youth identify
as gay or transgender, right?
But yet, the homeless population has up to 40%.
She goes and talks in front of Congress!
So, you can see the disparity,
and you can see there's something bigger at play here.
We actually did help change the laws.
Places that had government funding
would not let LGBT kids in
because of their religious beliefs,
but if you're taking government money,
that has nothing to do with your religion.
It has to do with your service.
So, you can't mix religion and politics.
So, we went to work
on making an amendment to fix that.
I want to implore you
not to pray to God to change your kid.
I'm a mom.
Pray to God to change your heart
so you can love and help your kid.
Bam.
You know? You gotta-- You gotta respect that.
That's some... That's Italian moxie there.
BOY GEORGE: People are so still shocked by the same things.
And I think that it's really important that somebody
like Cyndi is out there talking about homelessness
and LGBTQ+ rights.
Happy Pride!
ELLEN: Going to these events by myself or with my friends
is one thing, but going with my family
adds a whole other level of meaning.
It was the first time that I got to have
that experience with my mom.
She'd never been to the parade.
♪ Don't be afraid ♪
(Audience cheering)
KATIE: There was a time where you'd think,
"Has my train passed?"
The train always stops for people with talent.
It's the talent.
I never planned it like this,
but all of a sudden, everything started happening at once.
Tell us what has happening. What kind of things?
Well, you know, Harvey Fierstein called me up
and said "What are you doing?"
And at that point, I had just finished the dishes.
And he said "Kinky Boots".
And I thought "Well, the shoes alone..."
I came for one thing and one thing only.
Adulation!
Kinky Boots was considered the underdog
because there was a pop writer coming to write a musical.
♪ Put your faith in me and I was challenged to be strong...*
It's about a shoe factory in England that's going under.
A drag queen named Lola decides
to save the factory,
making high heeled shoes for men.
♪ Light you up... ♪
SAMMY JAMES JR: I was surprised at the story-telling instinct
that she did have, but we know plenty
of jukebox musicals
by some of the greatest
songwriters of all time
that did not connect
with an audience.
Why? Cause the songs weren't good.
No, the songs were songs that defined generations,
but that doesn't necessarily tell a theatrical story
in a satisfying, you know, musical theatre.
♪ When I was just a kid ♪
♪ Everything I did ♪
♪ Was to be like him... ♪
BILLY: Cyndi Lauper is the perfect writer for Kinky Boots.
She understood, instinctively,
the whole play, the whole piece, was about forgiveness.
♪ Look at me ♪
♪ Powerless and holding my breath... ♪
Inside of the character
I got to practice what forgiveness looked like
and then apply it to my own life,
and I think that's a revolutionary act unto itself.
And the Tony Award goes to...
"Girl, You're Gonna Have Fun Tonight!" Cyndi Lauper!
(Audience cheering)
That's why she was the first woman to win the Tony Award
for Music and Lyrics in a Musical.
All right, I gotta thank my mom
for sharing all that wonderful music.
I wrecked all her Broadway musicals when I was a kid,
the cast albums.
That's how I learned how to sing.
I wanna thank Harvey Fierstein for calling me up.
I'm so glad I was done with the dishes.
I'm so happy I answered the phone.
We're conditioned in our society.
"What is the success? What is the success?
The graph. The graph."
But it's not the graph.
It's a journey.
The desire to hit that freaking moment.
You know, I feel like I've forgotten it now
in this time in my life,
and I started to see it again when I saw the signs
at the women's demonstration,
"Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights".
I thought "Wow. You heard me."
ELLEN: We are in a time right now
where women are being told
that the '50s was a good place to be.
And that we need to go back there.
She is not afraid to speak her mind.
And so, Cyndi's at it again.
PRODUCER: You ready? Here we go.
♪ When I was eight I had a friend ♪
♪ With a pirate smile... ♪
When I wrote "Sally's Pigeons",
I wrote with Mary Chapin Carpenter.
♪ We were innocent and wild... ♪
At that time, in 1998, we were being challenged again.
Our rights. Our civil rights.
And we can't go back to this.
Know what I mean?
No more hangers!
Women died. Lots of women died.
Young girls died.
♪ I had a fool's confidence ♪
♪ That the world had no boundaries... ♪
That's why I've redone it.
INTERVIEWER: And what did you change about it?
There's one line though, right?
CYNDI: Yeah, I-- Unfortunately. "51 years back."
♪ Two little girls in ponytails ♪
♪ Some 51 years back ♪
♪ She left one night with just a nod ♪
♪ Was lost from some back alley job... ♪
A lot of us never felt we'd have to fight this again,
but sometimes you gotta stand up
and let your voice be heard.
♪ I close my eyes ♪
♪ And Sally's pigeons ♪
♪ Fly ♪
♪ Ooh... ♪
You know, as you get older,
you just keep learning and learning,
and I started to do different things in different areas
of creativity so that the gatekeepers
start to get a little confused,
'cause they don't know where you're coming from.
You know, "Oh, she's over there!
Now she's over there! Oh, my God."
♪ You steal the-- ♪
No, no, that's it.
♪ Dirty dealing ♪
Right.
♪ Hiding behind the facade ♪
♪ But you can't conceal-- Reveal-- ♪
♪ The truth will reveal you can't trust nobody ♪
Okay, again. Okay. Who wants to get it right?
Two, three, go!
SAMMY: Working Girl, as a musical,
is supposed to transport you to the '80s,
and then you turn and six feet away
is Cyndi Lauper's larynx, right?
And I was like "Oh, yeah, I think we'll be all right
in getting an '80s sound here.
♪ The truth will reveal ♪
♪ You can't trust nobody... ♪
CYNDI: I've been working on Working Girl for a long time,
and I'm going to get this done because I lived it, I know it.
♪ Singing the blues, I'm spreading the news... ♪
INTERVIEWER: Working Girl's been in development for a while.
It's still not greenlit for Broadway.
Are you worried at all about it living up to the success
of Kinky Boots?
It's different.
It's a different story,
but it's one that I believe in.
♪ Here have some speed ♪
♪ Welcome to Wall Street dreams ♪
♪ No one's ever who they seem ♪
The bridge, wrong chords.
Fucking wrong chords! I don't care who wrote it!
Jesus could've wrote that! It's wrong!
BOY GEORGE: You know, initially you go through
the door and, if you're lucky to be let in,
and then you have your spell in the lime light
and then you kind of-- then you have to keep proving yourself.
♪ Break in ♪
It's a big end! A big end!
(Vocalizing)
♪ New ♪
Yeah!
(Strumming)
- Wham! Yeah! - Whoo!
The reason you pick yourself up, dust yourself off,
and start all over again
is because I want in again, you know?
It doesn't last long enough
and you always want to go back in to that spot,
that place where it just opens up and it happens.
*
♪ Here I am ♪
♪ Just like I said I would be ♪
♪ I'm your friend ♪
♪ Just like you think it should be ♪
♪ Did you think I would stand here and lie? ♪
♪ While our moment was passing us by? ♪
♪ Oh, while I am here ♪
♪ Waiting for your change of heart ♪
♪ It just takes a beat to turn it around... ♪
It was difficult, but I got to here,
and I'm still creating,
and I've had extraordinary moments in my life
where I got to be places and do things
and see things and sing with people
that were extraordinary,
and that is the penultimate for me.
Hit it!
*
So, that's all I want to say. Long and short.
Mostly long. Always long.
*
♪ Just when everything's in order and good ♪
♪ Things fall apart ♪
♪ Just when life should be resolving ♪
♪ I'm back at the beginning ♪
♪ And it comes back to the heart ♪
♪ I'm not really sad ♪
♪ I'm not running ♪
♪ I'm looking ♪
♪ Did I tell you ♪
♪ I kept all your letters ♪
♪ And cards? ♪
Hi. I just, um...
I just wanna tell you I came here
because we can rest easy tonight.
(Cheering)
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Today I sign
the Respect For Marriage Act into law!
(Cheering)
CYNDI: Our families are validated.
Now, we're allowed to love who we love.
♪ Do you remember ♪
♪ When I told you ♪
♪ All that I could ♪
♪ And it seemed like too much? ♪
♪ I was living your life ♪
♪ Hoping you'd never fall ♪
♪ If I held on tight enough ♪
♪ And letting go now ♪
♪ Is like a passport to anywhere ♪
♪ With time on my hands ♪
♪ I can make a new start ♪
♪ I just didn't wanna stay here ♪
♪ And unhook the stars ♪
♪ I just didn't wanna stay here ♪
♪ And unhook the stars ♪
♪ Don't worry for me ♪
♪ It's just I'm inspired ♪
♪ Waiting in the wings ♪
♪ Made me drunk with possibilities ♪
♪ Rivals my memories ♪
♪ I didn't wanna stay here ♪
♪ And unhook the stars ♪
♪ I just didn't wanna stay here ♪
♪ And unhook the stars ♪
♪ Everything's in order and good ♪
♪ Things fall apart ♪
♪ Just when life should be resolving ♪
♪ And I'm back at the beginning ♪
♪ And it comes back to the heart ♪
♪ I'm not really sad ♪
♪ I'm not running, I'm looking ♪
♪ Did I tell you I kept ♪
♪ All your letters and cards? ♪
♪ There's just nothing left for me to do here ♪
♪ But unhook the stars ♪
♪ There's just nothing left for me to do here ♪
♪ But unhook the stars ♪
♪ Mm ♪
♪ Didn't wanna stay here ♪
♪ And unhook the stars ♪