Search - Cyndi Lauper :: 12 Deadly Cyns... And Then Some

She's so unusual

JGC | 05/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Cyndi Lauper is such an odd creature. I don't know what it really is. It's like she's not all there but when you listen to her music or watch her perform you see this brilliant woman who comes alive. My favorite is "Money Changes Everything" because that is such a great song with really powerful lyrics. And I love "Time After Time" very much, too. All of the other tracks on this CD are very enjoyable. On all of the songs, Cyndi is so incredibly eager and almost loud and overwhelming. Listening to this CD feels like entering a Coconuts store in 1987 (remember how they used to always have the music blasting?) Lately, I have been listening to Cyndi Lauper and many other classic 80's pop artists because popular music in the year 2008 sucks. With today's disposable singers and "artists" right this very second we are suffering through a cultural famine that has no end in sight. Cyndi Lauper offers nourishment in an otherwise dark, dry and evaporated existence."

These Cyns Are Good For You

Jurai's Heir | Denham Springs, LA, USA | 05/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some" is the offical greatest hits of Cyndi Lauper. The album was released in 1994 and is the best greatest hits of Cyndi's to date. The album features Cyndi's number one hits of her career, the album also features at that time three new songs made specially for this compilation, they are "Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)", "I'm Gonna Be Strong" which is a re-recording of a song that Cyndi sang when she was with the group "Blue Angel" and "Come On Home". The album was released with similar packaging but track listings varyed based on which songs charted in various parts of the world. It's greatest sales success was in Japan where it went Platinum 5x. It's greatest chart success was in the United Kingdom where it reached #2 on the charts spending almost nine months on the chart, eventually going double platinum selling almost 900,000 copies. In the USA it reached Gold status. The album would go on to sell over four million copies worldwide. There was some issue with the division of royalties due to the wide array of co-writers on the various tracks that prevented Cyndi from releasing the longer version in the United States. The album was originally called "13 Deadly Cyns" and in fact a promotional cassette with this title (and an alternate track listing) was pressed and distributed in the United Kingdom in June of 1992. Out of all the Cyndi Lauper greatest hits compilations, this is the one to buy, it was released by Epic, where Cyndi still makes albums for.



P.S. - Better late, then never."

Not Cyn-ful Enough

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 09/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Cyndi Lauper is one of those eighties singers whose talent was modest but personality was overwhelming. It was what made "She's So Unusual" so brilliant; Cyndi was so totally outside the mold that everything on it quaked with the stellar portrayal of the artist as a young woman. From the classic anthem "Girls Just Wanna have Fun" to the emotional bulls-eye of "Time After Time," Cyndi and all her friends established the pattern that would follow for the rest of her career (and to win her a best new artist Grammy). Cyndi found songs to match her one-of-a-kind voice and would deliver them with style.



That she had a knack for plucking gems from obscurity also helped. The Brains' apocryphal "Money Changes Everything" is one such example, ditto for "True Colors's" rocking "Change of Heart." She was such a colorful fusion of styles and personality that the singles on this "Essential" collection still often sound buoyant and alive even now. It was around the time of "A Night to Remember" and "Hatful Of Stars" that Cyndi's efforts to sound serious got the better of her. On "Twelve Deadly Cyns and Then Some," Cyndi wisely chose to include "Sally's Pigeons" (co-written with Mary Chapin Carpenter, of all people), where the emotional heft matched the ambition, where the title track (which was chosen for her "Essential" collection) didn't.



That ambition also lead to Cyndi's activism. "True Colors" has become something of a gay anthem, a call to recognize yourself as the person you are. It became the Nom De'Tour of Cyndi's summer 2007 tour for the Human Rights Campaign (along with Indigo Girls, Debbie Harry and Erasure, among others), and her tireless work on behalf of the Matthew Sheppard Foundation and other causes. Her timeless music couples with her work for the future.



I'm not sure what merited a remake of "Girls Just Want To have Fun," other than it was a British hit. This CD is also prior to "Sisters of Avalon" and "Shine," so all songs from these CD's are not to be found. Unforgiven however, is excluding "The Goonies R Good Enough" on a Best of Cyndi Lauper CD. A quickie knock-off to a Steven Spielberg screaming kids movie, it is all the things great about Cyndi's hits; melodic, energetic and sing-along-quirky. It makes "The Essential Cyndi Lauper" the best single disc collection of Cyndi you can get without shelling out for pricey double-disc imports."