Cyndi Lauper is one of the many artists whose image relied on cartoon character Betty Boop. With the other two being Madonna Ciccone and Alison Moira Clarkson.
Some of the information is Boop-Oop-a-Dooping full of SPOILERS. Boop-Oop-a-Doop!
Cyndi Lauper
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(A 1977 sketch of Betty Boop by Grim Natwick.) |
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(Cyndi Lauper's rival Madonna Ciccone. The rivalry was created by mainstream media.) |
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper[2] (born June 22, 1953) is an Italian-American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. Her career has spanned over 30 years.
Growing up she was a fan of Barbra Streisand, The Supremes and The Beatles.
Her debut solo album She's So Unusual was released in 1983. "He's So Unusual" is a song which is a reference to the 1929 Helen Kane hit song "He's So Unusual". It was the first debut female album to chart four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", and "All Through the Night" and earned Lauper the Best New Artist award at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the soundtrack for the motion picture The Goonies and her second record True Colors in 1986. This album included the number one single "True Colors" and "Change of Heart", which peaked at number 3. During the 1980s, Lauper was described as a "New Wave" Betty Boop.[3]
On a 1983 TV show to promote her album, Cyndi sang "her own version of He's So Unusual" live and finished it up with a "Bop-Bop-Be-Doh" routine. Lauper was once a proud owner of a Betty Boop alarm clock, one day David Wolff broke the clock by accident and he replaced it with his mother's louder alarm clock, this inspired a clock ticking verse in Cyndi's "Time After Time" song.
When Lauper opened for a rock group called The Kinks in 1983, the audience did not expect Lauper to do a Helen Kane imitation.[4]
At first Lauper was performing her hit rock songs and the crowd were satisfied. But when Lauper sang a cover of Kane's "He's So Unusual" the crowd became angry and booed and swore. They threw cigarettes, paper and quarters at her.
Crumpled paper, cups and lighters, empty plastic liquor and half-pint containers were thrown. They booed Lauper so badly that she cried. Lauper went through one more song but was pelted with garbage before having to run off the stage in tears.
Lauper also recorded the opening theme song for the 1980s comedy show Pee-wee's Playhouse imitating Helen Kane. For the Pee-Wee recording, she's credited as Ellen Shaw, as she thought it would affect her career and record sales. The name "Ellen" is a possible reference to "Helen" Kane or her sister Ellen Lauper.
She decided to conceal her identity because she had previously used her "Helen Kane" imitation on stage and was booed. However for a hit children's TV show, the audiences were kids. And the TV show was smash hit, and is today a cult classic. On the show, the character Lil' Punkin portrayed by Alisan Porter sang "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" songs.
According to a 1987 newspaper article Cyndi Lauper was first choice[5] to voice Betty Boop.[6] The Fleischer Studios were expected to receive word on the final casting and stated the following, "We will be delivering a major star, there's been talk about several different people playing the part. At one point we were considering Bernadette Peters, but that was quite some time ago. Cyndi was our first choice."
Lauper was not committed to the role and did not accept the offer. The role went to Melissa Fahn, who later said that she won the role against big talent.
Both Betty Boop and Cyndi Lauper were both originally redheads.[7]
A selection was made between Cyndi Lauper and Madonna Ciccone for the "We Are The World" 1985 charity single. Ken Kragen wanted Cyndi, but Harriet Sternberg wanted Madonna. Lauper was picked since she was very popular at the time.
After Lauper's success, a new upcoming star Madonna Ciccone[8] used a similar image and gimmick to Lauper for her persona. Lauper got a lot of comparisons between herself and Madonna. Lauper claims that the media invented a rivalry between her and Madonna, and that she and Madonna never knew one another in real life.
Lauper stated, "We both came out at the same time, we both were into fashion, we were both very opinionated and demanded to be heard. But our music wasn't and isn't similar."
What Lauper didn't realize what that people knew that both she and Madonna were using a Betty Boop[9] image to market themselves. People knew, and could see it. The general public say that Lauper was talented musically, whereas Madonna was more or less better at self-promotion. Some fans assumed that Lauper would be a superstar forever and outlast Madonna.
Madonna Ciccone[10] has never publicly responded to the rivalry drama that the media created between her and Lauper. Ciccone "later succeeded where Lauper failed." The Billboard wrote that Lauper would last, and that Madonna would be "old" news.
Teenagers could no longer relate to Lauper because Madonna is 5 years younger, which at the time was a major gap between the two.
At the height of her career, Lauper also chose to give up everything in order to concentrate on herself. By doing this, she was overlooked. People in the music industry had already moved on when she came back. Though known for her iconic songs, she was not as successful as she was during the early 1980s.
Madonna in comparison to Lauper was able to reinvent herself throughout the years. Madonna today she likes to stay relevant and young and her image is based on shock value. Whereas Lauper in comparison has aged gracefully, and has moved to Broadway.
In 1995, it was reported that Lauper had stopped over-exaggerating her Betty Boop speaking and singing voice.[11]
Mary Wickes, an actress, took Lauper's position after she was fired from her role in the Disney movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". Wickes was unable to complete her lines and passed away from complications after hip surgery. Former "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" girl Jane Withers took her place.
Lauper's look-a-like is Diana Rice from Boston. Rice was best known as Betty Boop.
Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper became great friends, and get on well together. They both later collaborated together on M.A.C.'s Viva Glam. Lauper has had success on Broadway with "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical" and "Kinky Boots".
As of 2024, she appeared in her documentary Cyndi Lauper: Let the Canary Sing and her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.
Quotes
- Cyndi Lauper: "I picked up my ukulele and I started playing 'He's So Unusual', and I did the Helen Kane voice... ...y'know? And they looked at me like... Immediately, I never heard 10,000 people that loud booing."
- Cyndi Lauper: "Helen Kane? See Helen Kane was the original Betty Boop, that they made the cartoon out of Helen." (1983)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Poor Helen... I don't where she is. I don't know if she's still around."[12] (1983)
- Cyndi Lauper: "But Helen Kane didn't do too good on that cartoon." (1983)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Because they had this other woman Mae Questel, she did the imitation of her, and it was in her likeness." (1983)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I think they went to court and Helen Kane didn't do too good." (1983)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I like unusual voices like George Burns, Gracie Allen and Fanny Brice." (1983)
- Cyndi Lauper: "He's So Unusual is about a bashful boy who rejects my advances are timeless." (1984)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Madonna's first album came out and my first album came out." (1986)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Madonna's album, she had a couple of hits off, and she went away and did her record." (1986)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Then my album kept going. And then when my album went, was going. Madonna's new album was going." (1986)
- Cyndi Lauper: "So it was always Madonna, me, me, her." (1986)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I was disappointed that they used me to put Madonna down. That's not fair." (1986)
- Cyndi Lauper: "What Madonna does is what she does, and what I do is what I do." (1986)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I don't think that Madonna thought about it. I think for her it was something that looked good that she wore." (1995)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Well yeah, Madonna copied me with the corset thing. A little annoying here or there. But I saw it and sometimes I would get excited and have other ideas for her." (2005)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Lady Gaga is so sweet." (2010)
- Cyndi Lauper: "A lot of times I would find myself going would Madonna do that? I don't think so." (2011)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I think Madonna is pretty awesome." (2011)
- Cyndi Lauper: "Madonna called me her evil cousin once, that's so sweet." (2011)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I was pelted with quarters and lit cigarettes, and, of course..." (2013)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I told them, If you liked that, you’re gonna love this, and I pulled out my ukulele." (2013)
- Cyndi Lauper: "And 10,000 people all at once booed me, and then I saw the value in it." (2013)
- Cyndi Lauper: "They wanted to hear The Kinks, and I guess I was challenging them." (2013)
- Cyndi Lauper: "And it is kind of strange for someone to pick up a ukulele and start singing He's So Unusual." (2013)
- Cyndi Lauper: "I would fool around and say Madonna was my evil cousin. But when she did 'Like A Prayer' my little Catholic school girl heart, she was a hero. She got everyone upset. That was so good right?" (2016)
Cyndi Lauper Inspiration
In 1983, Cyndi Lauper reflected Kane's style in her own cover of "He's So Unusual" on her album She's So Unusual. Kane's hit "I Wanna Be Loved By You". During the 1980s Cyndi would appear on live TV shows and give interviews.
In her interviews she would cite Helen Kane as her original inspiration including her recording of "He's So Unusual" which inspired her album "She's So Unusual", Lauper also stated she was inspired by several other performers.
On one TV show Cyndi referenced Helen Kane and Mae Questel. Cyndi stated that Mae Questel had based her voice on Helen Kane. The interviewer tried to cut Cyndi off from finishing her sentence, but she quickly finished what she had to say.
In 2014 when Cyndi went on tour she changed her story, instead she claimed her "He's So Unusual" solo was based on a friend called Rose who'd speak in a funny high-pitched Brooklyn accent and every time she would sing the song while out driving she would think of her friend.
Betty Boop (1985)
Cyndi Lauper is referenced in the 1980s comic strip Betty Boop and Felix as being unusual, that being a reference to the "He's So Unusual" album by Lauper. While attending a party, Betty and her friend Libby come across Cyndi, but they have trouble identifying her.
Gallery
Trivia
- Had Lauper accepted the role, she would have became the official voice of Betty Boop.
- In Cyndi's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" music video, the instrumental from "He's So Unusual" is featured in the intro.
- "She Bop" is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Betty Boop's "Bop" routine and or Helen Kane's "Bop" routine, it is also a reference to 18+ gratification.[13]
- Cyndi Lauper's song "Yeah Yeah" samples, "He's So Unusual," "I Wanna Be Loved By You," along with a few other "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" quotes.
- Cyndi Lauper is actually Helen Kane's doppelgänger, she and her mother Catrine Lauper were both said to "bear a strong" resemblance to Kane. Lauper is known for her colorful hairstyles, however if she were to change her hairstyle in reminiscence of Kane or Betty Boop, Lauper would be the spitting image.
- Lauper is of Swiss-German, and Sicilian Italian descent.
- Madonna Ciccone was her competitor in the 1980s, their looks relied on Betty Boop's image.
- Lauper often jokes about she and Madonna being cousins. In a 2024 video when asked by an E! News interviewer about her relationship with Madonna, Lauper said she felt that Madonna didn't like her very much.
Links
See Also
- ↑ Cyndi Lauper the Betty Boop of Pop
- ↑ Kooky Cyndi Lauper
- ↑ Cyndi Lauper: New Wave Betty Boop
- ↑ Cyndi Lauper Booed Off Stage For Singing Boop-Boop-a-Doop
- ↑ Film Producers Want Cyndi Lauper As Betty Boop
- ↑ Voices of Betty Boop
- ↑ What Color Is Betty Boop's Hair?
- ↑ Madonna Ciccone Is Cyndi Lauper's Most Visible Competition
- ↑ Madonna Ciccone vs. Cyndi Lauper
- ↑ Madonna (Shades of Cyndi Lauper)
- ↑ Cyndi Lauper's Betty Boop Accent Has Vanished
- ↑ Cyndi Lauper Talks Helen Kane and Mae Questel
- ↑ https://www.throwbacks.com/cyndi-laupers-she-bop/
- ↑ Cyndi Lauper Quotes