Cyndi Lauper was a Queen of the 80s music charts, beginning with her huge breakout hit, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in 1983. The song is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it is not her biggest chart hit as it peaked at #2. Lauper racked up two #1 singles during the 80s with the ballads "Time After Time" from 1984 and "True Colors" from 1986. The massive success of her 1984 album, "She's So Unusual," earned Lauper the Grammy for Best New Artist of that Year. After a string of additional hits, the momentum was wearing out by the end of the decade. Lauper did land a final top ten hit in 1989 when "I Drove All Night" peaked at #6, but that song remains her final top 40 appearance. Nevertheless, her chart achievements in the 80s makes her the 33rd most successful artist of the decade. "I Drove All Night" comes from Lauper's third album, "A Night To Remember," an underrated effort in her catalogue. Shedding most of the dated 80s sound, Lauper had more rock on this record, but it didn't translate into sustaining hits. "Insecurious" is one of those tracks that I thought deserved better. Lauper maintains an active recording career, dabbling in holiday music, the blues, and even country.
Led by vocalists Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, Philadelphia musicians The Hooters rose to fame in the mid-80s with their breakthrough smash record, "Nervous Night," which spawned two staples of 80s radio: "And We Danced" (#21) and "Day By Day" (#18). It always surprised me that The Hooters weren't bigger than they were. "Nervous Night" could have been mined for better singles than "All You Zombies" and "Where Do The Children Go," (that's Patty Smyth on backing vocals, by the way) which landed at #58 and #38, respectively. The title track, "Hanging On A Heartbeat," and "South Ferry Road" were favorites of mine. The band dropped the ball in a big way with their follow-up record, "One Way Home." I blame this record for why the band never saw the top 40 again. The record alienated fans and certainly failed to capture new ones with the lumbering songs that meandered on and on as if searching for a hook. But they went back to basics in 1989 and "Zig Zag" was filled with a bunch of great tunes that rival those on "Nervous Night." Day late, dollar short. And they released a stinker as a single. Despite backing vocals from Peter, Paul, & Mary, "500 Miles" couldn't get past #97, leaving greater tunes like "Brother Don't You Walk Away," "You Never Know Who Your Friends Are," and "Beat Up Guitar" to go unheard. I particularly love the prescient song, "Give The Music Back." Purists at their core, The Hooters prided themselves on raw talent and the use of authentic instruments over machines and processing. The song quite accurately predicted the demise of real talent in music. More trivia: they're not named after what you might think. Hooter is the nickname of Hyman's keyboard-harmonica. Bazilian and Hyman collaborated on some of Cyndi Lauper's big hits, and Bazilian wrote Joan Osborne's huge 1995 hit, "One Of Us."
