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Cyndi Lauper revealed that she initially objected to “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” being included because the song was written by a man.
The 69-year-old singer’s iconic 1983 hit was originally written and recorded as a demo by musician Robert Hazard in 1979. In the new documentary “Let the Canary Sing,” which chronicles Lauper’s life and career, she recalled that her producer Rick Chertoff took her to see Hazard perform “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” live.
“I would never do that damn number,” Lauper recalled to Chertoff in the documentary, according to People magazine.
Cyndi Lauper revealed why she almost didn’t include her hit song “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” in the new documentary “Let the Canary Sing.” (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
The two-time Grammy Award winner explained that she was against recording a song about women written from a male point of view.
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“Anytime we want to have fun, we’re whores,” Lauper said, according to People.
The hitmaker said she decided to change the song so that it was told from a female perspective when she recorded it. Lauper recalled that she and Chertoff worked on “a lot of demos” of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, wanting the song to sound “more fun” and “like a vacation”.
In “Let the Canary Sing”, Lauper explained that she was inspired by commercials for Raceway Park in New Jersey. She said that she and Chertoff experimented with many different sounds before deciding on the song’s famous guitar riff.
“Suddenly we all heard it,” Lauper recalled.
Lauper recalled that he objected to including a song about women written from a male point of view. (Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images))
The New York native also shared the story behind the creation of the song’s music video. She recalled wanting the music video to feature a diverse cast of women. Lauper said she was “tired” of seeing only one race in music videos across genres at the time.
“It was especially a good message for children and teenage girls,” Boy George noted in “Let the Canary Sing.”
Lauper recalled enlisting her real mother Catrine to play her mother in the music video.
“I told my mom, ‘If you do this, it will bring mothers and daughters closer together,'” she recalls. “I have to share my success with my mother.”
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Catrine also played Lauper’s mother in her music videos for 1984’s “Time After Time” and 1985’s “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough.” Last June, Lauper announced on social media that Catrine had passed away at the age of 91 after a long battle with dementia.
The Grammy Award winner cast her mother Catrine to play her on-screen mother in the music video for the 1983 hit. (Steve Granitz/WireImage)
“My mom was with me, and I just feel like I was very lucky and privileged to be able to do that,” Lauper told People at the premiere of the documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday.
“Now my sister (Ellen) and my brother (Fred) came, and they were in (Let the canary sing), and they were talking,” she said. “Family, I think, is very important.”
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“Girls Just Want To Have Fun” became Lauper’s breakthrough song when it was released in 1983 as the lead single from her debut studio album “She’s So Unusual”. The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart and became a worldwide hit that launched Lauper to pop superstardom. Last year, the music video for the song was viewed more than 1 billion times on YouTube.
“I really tried my best to make an anthem that would inspire women and open the doors for all women,” Lauper told People of the enduring classic. “Not just one group of women, but every little girl could see herself and realize that she too could have a joyful experience in life.”
Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @ashleyhume
