Disco de Cyndi Lauper: “A Night To Remember”

If art is truly a method of self-expression, fewer albums I have listened come as close to this one to revealing the emotional state of an artist. Cyndi Lauper delivers up track after track of searing emotion with a voice that can be compared to few. She demonstrates a range and quality that is truly unique. Every song reveals a different state of love as it evolves and ends, ranging from excitement to resignation. "I Drove All Night" deals with anticipation, "My First Night Without You" the first realization that a relationship is over and will never be the same, and finally, "I Don't Want to Be Your Friend" says everything you wish you could say to someone about a one-sided conclusion to a relationship.

The Ultimate Breakup Album, anyone who has ever been dumped, heartbroken, insecure over a relationship or just down right bitter can sing along to all the tracks. This album has transcended the decades and can be enjoyed by listeners today just as well as in 1989 when it was first released.

As the decade drew to a close, Cyndi Lauper seemed more like a novelty act than anything else. Her previous album, yielded a #1 title track, a Top Five hit, and a Top 20. By the time A Night To Remember came out in 1989, the music, well--hoo boy! The music here defies categorization--it's as if she's found an undescribable sound all her own. A Night To Remember may not have sold as well as its predecessors, but the fact that two artists saw fit to cover songs from here shows the impact this album had.

Which leads me to "I Drove All Night", recently covered with a cheesy oontsa-oontsa technobeat by Celine Dion. The original boasts a strange cello-like synth and snarling punkish guitar, but the love devotion, ("this fever for you is just burning me up inside") is there enough, and any who drives all night to make love to someone dear has got to be special. Given that Tom Kelly and Bill Steinberg gave her a #1 hit, it seems she decided to utilize their services over and over, as they co-write with her or other writers throughout.

"Primitive" is one of those songs. She tries a lilting higher register in the verses and it works. When she sings "It's primitive/you got me/OH!" I'm reminded of the same rhythm in the refrain of "On the Radio" by Donna Summer. Some vibe-like keyboards pepper this song throughout.

A standout cut, the heartbreaking "My First Night Without You" has an opening bass and verse rhythm similar to "Stand By Me" before Cyndi launches into an emotional crescendo with the chorus. This attempt to leave the past behind is hampered by the protagonist's good memory. She even asks "Will I be able to sleep/will I lie in by bed and weep/What if I forget and reach for you?" A similar tone is adopted in the brand new start song "Heading West" also penned by Lauper/S/K: "And I'm heading west/without a sad goodbye/.../I'm like a letter with no address/just like a book I read/I'm heading west." Love the harp-synth-like solo in the bridge.

"Like A Cat" is another Steinberg/Kelly song, but this time, not with Cyndi but Christina Amphlett of the Divinyls! With the spirit of independence here, I can detect Amphlett's attitude: "Hey mister you can never own me/I only let you hold me like a cat." The bass and high-pitched keyboards mimicking the jerky back and forth movements of a violin.

With a guitar like the Edge opening the title track, Cyndi not only into tender voice mode, but shows she can write great lyrics without S/K. There's a coral sitar solo in the middle as well.

"Unconditional Love" is another Lauper/S/K ballad, opening with some string-like synths. This is to Cyndi what "Eternal Flame" was to the Bangles. Susanna Hoffs saw fit to cover this on her debut album, and seeing that the Bangles did some S/K songs, I can understand why she covered it, but Cyndi's emotional depth outdoes Miss Hoffs's.

Desmond Child and Diane Warren co-wrote "Insecurious" with Cyn, a wryly humorous take on interpersonal miscommunication and misperception: "You say I'm insecure/I say just I'm just curious/Oh oh oh oh/I guess I'm insecurious." Well, that's a compromise I suppose. However, "Dance With A Stranger" is a throwaway dance track.

If a girl sang this song to me, I'd be looking for the nearest cliff. The bitter and sad Diane Warren-penned heartbreaker "I Don't Want To Be Your Friend" is my favourite hands down: "I'll forget we ever met/I'll forget I ever let/ever let you into this heart of mine baby" and that chorus: "Don't call me in the middle of the night no more/Don't expect me to be there/Don't think that will ever be the way it was before/I'm not over you yet/And I don't think I care/And I don't want to be your friend." Cyndi's voice never sounded this emotionally burnt than before.

A more tender side of hers is heard in the ditty "Kindred Spirit": "If you feel a quiet longing, lift your heart into the wind/...there you'll meet me as a friend/it's just a kindred feeling and a song to let you in."

Her vocals and emotional range maturing considerably, Cyndi evolved, showing she can still do innovative music that isn't necessarily radio-friendly. An album to remember.

It takes a few listens but I love it! And it is a perfect break-up album; there is; "my first night without you" but even better for sore-hearts is; "I don't want to be your friend". For anyone who's ever been through heart-ache this song is perfect! Mind you there is also songs for those in-love; "Unconditional Love" took me a few listens but it's great. And on first listen to "Like A Cat" I thought is was the most ridiculous song ever written, but it's quite cat-chy and now I love it! Overall this album, while not being as good as 'She's So Unusual' or 'Hat Full of Stars' is way better than 'Sister's of Avalon' and has a carefree attitude to it, which is what we all love of Cyndi!

If people would just listen to Cyndi and stop looking at her, they'd hear one of the most talented voices of our time. Many still have the mind set she's a freak with orange hair and strange clothes. Rather, she has evolved and grown tremendously over the past 20 years.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER is an excellent example of her work as it grew between SHE'S SO UNUSUAL and today. I DROVE ALL NIGHT and A NIGHT TO REMEMBER were both released as singles, but never got the play they deserved on the air, and the album itself was not a big hit. It should have been. MY FIRST NIGHT WITHOUT YOU is a beautiful song and Cyndi's unique voice sings with such heartbreak that anyone can relate. Likewise, HEADING WEST and I DON'T WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND show Cyndi raw and vunerable and beautiful.

Like much of her earlier work, there are a few clunkers mixed in. LIKE A CAT and INSECURIOUS both have sort of goofy lyrics. But we forgive Cyndi because PRIMITIVE and DANCING WITH A STRANGER lift our spirits and make us want to hear more.

She's good, folks. She's really good. And she's gotten better with age.

Another example of surprising range, both vocal and emotional. Like her other CD's I didn't realize just how good it was until the second listening. Turn it up and Replay! The album is framed by a quiet, sentimental, little interlude (lift your heart into the wind...) Out of this tranquil spirit, she launches into a powerful accounting of a lover returning (I drove all night). She rolls from reminiscing over a haunting melody sounding vaguely like tires on pavement at 60 into the most impressive buildup of emotion over forgotton memories I have ever heard (Is that three octaves in 5 seconds?). Cycling between overly quick, pat explanations, powerful beseechings, and timid checkbacks (is that all right???), she moves her voice between deep, solid, steady, and sporatic, taut, and scratchy, and she moves her music from steady into a crescendo, and then halting, as if barely filling a lag. Here I think the ability that sets her apart, the ability to project the same e! motions in her words, melodies, rhythms (or syncopations), and her voice and weave them into an internally consistent storyline, is at its best. This song sets the stage well for it mates. My First Night Without You laments, Like a Cat paces, then springs, Heading West wanders expansively into unknown territories; Unconditional Love supports, Insecurious sidesteps, Dancing with a Stranger Trills and Thrills, and i don't want to be your friend cuts the line, but in a deep, sexy sultry voice that you so hate to let go of. As a final goodbye and a call to new friendship, she repeats the refrain from the beginning and expounds:

if you think you're hearing something, and you can't think what it is... if you feel a quiet longing, lift your heart into the wind.

there you'll find my kindred spirit, there you'll meet me as a friend... it is just a kindred feeling, and a song to let you in. --cyndi

thank you cyndi.

ps: A few lyrics... I lose faith and I lose grou! nd, Then I see you and remember... // You thought I belong! ed in your four walls. // Don't think that it will be the way it was before. I'm not over you yet, And I don't think I care. // I may come on just a little too strong, But I guess that's 'cause I'm shy