Girls Just Want to Have Fun

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
Single by Cyndi Lauper
from the album She's So Unusual
B-side	Right Track Wrong Train
Released	1983
Format	7", 12"
Genre	Pop, New Wave
Length	3:58
Label	Epic, Portrait, CBS
Writer(s)	Robert Hazard
Producer	Rick Chertoff, William Wittman
Certification	Platinum (RIAA) Silver (BPI)
Cyndi Lauper singles chronology
"Fade" (1980) "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (1983) "Time After Time" (1984)

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was the first major single released by singer Cyndi Lauper as a solo artist. It gained renown as a feminist anthem, an award-winning video and a worldwide smash hit.

Background

With the inclusion of promotional releases, the single has seen about 40 individual versions of release. The most common is a 7" vinyl single (with varying cover artwork) released in 1983/1984 (depending on the country) and the second most common is a 12" vinyl single (also with varying cover artwork) released in 1983/1984.

The song was written by Robert Hazard, who recorded it in 1979. He wrote it from a male point of view. For Lauper's version, she changed the lyrics slightly to allow it to be performed by a female and Hazard approved the minor changes. Her version appeared on her 1983 debut solo record, She's So Unusual. It is a synthesizer-backed anthem about the roles of women in society and is considered by many to be a feminist classic of the era. Gillian G. Gaar, author of She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll (2002), described the single and corresponding video as a "strong feminist statement", an "anthem of female solidarity" and a "playful romp celebrating female camaraderie."^[1]

It has been covered on either an album or in live concert by over 30 other artists including Zebrahead,Miley Cyrus, Pearl Jam, Greg Laswell, Miranda Cosgrove, John Mayer, Hoobastank, "Weird Al" Yankovic (as "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch"), Alvin and the Chipmunks, Cybill Shepherd, Lolly, Emilie Autumn, Triple Image, Dandy Warhols, Norman Palm, David Rawlings, The Ordinary Boys, Cam'ron, The Killers, and Aloha From Hell. Recently, the Mexican band Los Horoscopos de Durango released a Duranguense version of the song and a Spanish version, Sólo Quiero Bailar (I Just Want To Dance). A version was also recorded by The Cheetah Girls, but the single was cancelled and the track cut from their forthcoming album. In 2009 Keith Caputo (Life of Agony) did a acoustic version on his tour only Solo EP Cheat.

The variety of releases of the single includes an Austrian birthday card with a 3" CD of the song inside. The song has been heavily distributed in karaoke version as well. Lauper would later go on to completely re-work the song in 1994 resulting in the new hit "Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)". The song was remade by Lauper yet again in 2005 on her The Body Acoustic album, also produced by Chertoff and Wittman with Lauper, with guest support vocals from Japanese pop/rock duo Puffy AmiYumi.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun was used in MTV's Daria Episode #410 "Legends of the Mall" for a fantasy sequence.

Music video

Lauper and Albano in the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" music video, directed by Edd Griles.

The release of the single was accompanied by a quirky music video shot in the summer of 1983 and produced by Mother Studio in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It cost less than $35,000, largely due to a volunteer cast and the free loan of the most sophisticated video equipment available at the time. The cast included wrestler "Captain" Lou Albano in the role of Lauper's father while her real mother, Catrine, played herself. Lauper's attorney, Elliot Hoffman, appeared as her uptight dancing partner. Also in the cast were Lauper's manager, David Wolf, her brother, Butch Lauper, fellow musician Steve Forbert, and a bevy of secretaries borrowed from Portrait/CBS, Lauper's record label.

Lorne Michaels (Broadway Video, SNL), another of Hoffman's clients, agreed to give Lauper free run of his brand new million-dollar digital editing equipment, with which she and her producer created several first-time-ever computer generated images of Lauper dancing with her buttoned-up lawyer, leading the entire cast in a snake-dance through New York streets and ending up in Lauper's bedroom in her home. The bedroom scene is a homage to the famous stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers' film A Night at the Opera.

Certifications

Chart performance

The single reached number one in over ten countries, as well as reaching the Top 10 in over fifteen different countries. It reached number one in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and Norway, and number two in the United Kingdom and the United States.

End of year charts

Chart procession and succession

12" LP Single

1. Girls Just Want to Have Fun (12" Version) 3:55 (Robert Hazard)
2. Right Track Wrong Train (B Side) 4:40 (Cyndi Lauper; E. Greenwich; J. Kent)
3. Witness 3:40 (Cyndi Lauper; John Turi)

CD Single (Ringle)

A CD single was issued in 2007, known as a Ringle, which included bonus interactive computer material as well as a code to download a free ringtone of the title track. It featured the title track and for the first time on CD, Right Track Wrong Train. The Ringle, as well as all other issued Ringles, were recalled by Sony Music due to issues with the ringtone not working correctly. They have yet to be reissued.

1. Girls Just Want to Have Fun
2. Right Track Wrong Train
3. Computer Media

Official versions

1. Extended Version 6:08
2. Fun With V. Knutsn (Instrumental) 7:10
3. Xtra Fun 5:05
4. Remix 6:30
5. Radio Remix 3:39
6. Girls Just Want To Have Fun (ft. Puffy AmiYumi) 2:59
7. Extended Remix 7:24
8. More Fun Remix 5:07

Credits

1. Lyrics: Robert Hazard. Production: Rick Chertoff.
2. Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper, Ellie Greenwich, Jeffrey B. Kent. Production: Rick Chertoff

"Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)"

"(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
Single by Cyndi Lauper
from the album Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some
Released	1994
Format	CD single
Recorded	1994
Genre	Pop Reggae
Length	3:54
Label	Epic Records
Writer(s)	Robert Hazard Lolly Vegas
Producer	Cyndi Lauper Jimmy Bralower
Cyndi Lauper singles chronology
"Hat Full of Stars" (1993) "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (1994) "I'm Gonna Be Strong" (1994)

"Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)" was the first single from Cyndi Lauper's Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some hits collection from 1994.

Background

This song is a new reggae-tinged arrangement of Lauper's own "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" standard, with a musical tip of the hat to Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love".

Lauper performed various versions of "Hey Now" during her concerts before the Twelve Deadly Cyns tour. It is how she eventually came to the final version which appeared on Twelve Deadly Cyns. It all started when she was touring for Hat Full of Stars. She performed a version of it that was very different in the Singapore concert, and it changed a lot for the Toronto concert. These pre-versions were more like the original version but with the "Hey Now" chorus. However the Gay Games is probably the first time that actual version of "Hey Now" was performed complete with drag queens and all like the music video.

"Hey Now" plays over the closing sequence and credits of the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar starring John Leguizamo, Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze as drag queens.

The song was a big comeback hit for Lauper, as it hit the top 10 and top 40 in many countries and was a big dance hit in the United States. It peaked at number four in the UK and New Zealand, its highest position.

Track listing

US CD Single

1. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Single Edit)
2. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Mickey Bennett's Version)
3. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Sly & Robbie's Home Grown Version)
4. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Vasquez Remix)
5. Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Original Version)

Japanese CD Single

1. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Single Edit)
2. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Mickey Bennett's Version)
3. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Sly & Robbie's Home Grown Version)
4. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Vasquez Remix)

French CD Single

1. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)
2. Hat Full of Stars

1. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Single Edit) 3:39
2. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Mickey Bennett's "Carnival Version") Featuring Patra
3. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Sly & Robbie's "Home Grown" Version) Featuring Snow
4. Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun) (Junior Vasquez Remix "Pop Goes The Dancehall") Featuring Snow
5. Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Original Version)

Certifications

Chart performance

Official versions

1. Factory Dub Version 6:50
2. Junior Vasquez Remix "Dancehall Main" 5:46
3. Junior Vasquez Remix "Harder Dancehall" 5:46
4. Junior Vasquez Remix "Lounge Dub" 6:00
5. Junior Vasquez Remix "Lounge Mix" 6:12
6. Junior Vasquez Remix "Pop Goes The Dancehall" 4:58
7. Junior Vasquez Soundfactory Mix 7:40
8. Mikey Bennett's "Carnival" Version 6:04
9. Mikey Bennett's "Carnival" Version Edited 4:09
10. Single Edit 3:39
11. Sly & Robbie's "Home Grown" Version 4:16
12. Straight Up Pass Version 7:13
13. Techno Dub 3:55
14. Techno Main Mix 8:23

See also

• Number-one dance hits of 1984 (USA)

External links

• Official Cyndi Lauper website

Footnotes