Cover Story

Cyndi Lauper covers Prince

June 23, 2013 0 Comments

Cyndi Lauper, who turned 60 yesterday, is currently touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of She’s So Unusual, performing her 1983 multi-platinum debut in its entirety.

I caught Lauper’s stop in Saratoga, California on Wednesday night, and while it was some kind of wonderful novelty to hear those ten songs done live in order — as close to the original recordings as possible and with She’s So Unusual co-producer William Whitman in her band — Lauper’s entertainingly long-winded stories about making the album at The Record Plant in New York were the evening’s real highlight.

Five of the first six tracks on She’s So Unusual peaked inside the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100: “Money Changes Everything,” “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” and “All Through The Night” (the last four were all top 5 hits). Because She’s So Unusual is so front-loaded with familiar hits, the latter part of Lauper’s live set inevitably lost some steam, carried largely by her aforementioned tales.

PrinceDirtyMindBecause I hadn’t listened to She’s So Unusual in so long, I didn’t remember that Lauper’s cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine” was track 3 on the album, cozily situated in the company of smashes. Actually, with the passage of time, I’d completely forgotten that she’d covered the Dirty Mind ditty on her debut. (One story she didn’t share is how the cover came to be.)

Released as a promotional single in January 1985, Lauper performed “When You Were Mine” at the American Music Awards that same month. Prince was also in attendance that night, collecting trophies for Purple Rain, so I can only imagine that Lauper felt special pressure to do the Purple One proud. But watching the clip below, she must have.

“When You Were Mine” was one of three covers Lauper recorded for She’s So Unusual, alongside The Brains’ “Money Changes Everything” and Jules Shear’s “All Through The Night.” She co-wrote “I’ll Kiss You” with Shear for the album as well, a track that received a promotional release too.

Purchase Cyndi Lauper – “When You Were Mine” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.