Cyndi Lauper -- She Bop

 

Let me preface this regular Reminiscings of Youth entry by saying that I was never the sharpest billiard ball in the rack. And as I've mentioned in the past on the blog, I didn't pay much attention to lyrics as I did to the melody when it came to music. In the 1980s, I was enjoying the waves and waves of music that were crashing on my shore from both Japan and the West. Cyndi Lauper, the Unusual Girl, was one of the regulars that came onto land via radio and music video. 

A little over a year ago, I did a ROY on her 1983 classic "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" which I had discovered was a cover version of the original by Robert Hazard in 1979. I was a big fan of the song and then the melancholy ballad "Time After Time" came to our eyes and ears. That was OK but then I got really interested in her 3rd single from her debut album "She's So Unusual", "She Bop", which was released in July 1984.

For me, it was the fact that the original single already sounded like one of the coolest dance remixes before even getting the remix treatment, including those amazing rumbling deep synths. I guess "She Bop" can be considered to be one of my early aural earworms following the sight of the Ceti Alpha Eel on "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". So, it was always me trying to catch "She Bop" on the radio as often as I could and then when the official weird and wonderful music video came out, it was pretty much all hands on di...deck.

But then after reading some newspaper and magazine articles on the hit which peaked (climaxed?) at No. 3 in both Canada and the United States, I rather reacted "Say what now?!". I took another closer look at the music video, and I realized that "She Bop" was all about mastering one's domain (look up "Seinfeld"). Ahh, well. I was still looking long and hard for a remix version of the song and I was lucky to finally hear it on the Saturday all-night remix programs on the radio. Hey, nearly 40 years later, "She Bop" still gleefully explodes. 

Anyways, now that we're past the PG-rated double entendres, what was on Oricon's Top 10 list for July 1984? We have Nos. 2, 3 and 4.

2. Asami Kobayashi -- Ame Oto wa Chopin no Shirabe （雨音はショパンの調べ）

(with special guest star Yumi Matsutoya since all of Kobayashi's renditions have been scrubbed from YouTube)

3. Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Main Theme （メイン・テーマ）

4. Yuko Ishikawa & Chage -- Futari no Ai Land （ふたりの愛ランド）