Cyndi Lauper At Last 2003

Cyndi Lauper's solo career started with the one-two punch of She's So Unusual 1983 and True Colors 1986, both of which charted top ten, had multiple hit singles, and sold millions. Her third, A Night To Remember 1989 had her rocking harder and sold less well, even though it contained her last top ten single. Her next two recordings received critical praise but disappointing sales. So it was time for a covers record.

Ostensibly her jazz album, the record is a mix of jazz, standards, and pop and soul songs from the fifties and sixties. Lauper has the pipes to do anything, and her vocals are the star of the show. Some arrangements are straight covers, but most songs receive unique arrangements or significant tempo variations from their originals. Russ Titelman produced with Lauper, and the record has all the hallmarks of a highly professional production.

The title track kicks things off, and it is an instrumentally spare, relatively slow tempo version of the Etta James classic. Lauper sings the daylights out of it. That is followed by a slow, delicate Walk On By with small combo accompaniment, and again Lauper digs deep into the emotional core of the song. After two slow ones, Stay is presented in upbeat Latin mode, with Shiela E percussion and a horn section. It's hot, and fun. La Vie En Rose follows, and while it can't make you forget Edith Piaf, the slow, spare version here works fine. That is followed by another slow one, the beautiful Unchained Melody. There are a million versions of this song, and this is one of the good ones. If You Go Away is presented in a jazzy arrangement, and again Lauper invests herself in the lyric. 

About this time, the record could use some energy, and Stevie Wonder's (and Aretha Franklin's) Until You Come Back To Me has a backbeat and Stevie himself plays harmonica. The jazz standard My Baby Just Cares For Me swings nicely with electric keys from Steve Gaboury and a casual feel from Lauper. Next is a duet with Tony Bennett on Makin' Whoopie, and while it doesn't set a new standard, it's good. The slow returns with a smoldering version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, closer to Nina Simone's version than the Animals'. A super slow, super spare version of Smokey Robinson's You've Really Got A Hold On Me seems like an odd choice for the song, and could have added some pace to the record with a more upbeat version. Hymn To Love is an Edith Piaf song that continues the slow pace of the record, but it is a lovely song. On The Sunny Side Of The Street closes the show with a bang, a needed shot of adrenaline, and a good job on the old chestnut.

So the record could use a few less languid versions. With thirteen songs, only four get upbeat treatments. That is not to say that these slow versions don't work, most of them do. Cyndi Lauper sings everything from the heart, and really, it's a nice showcase for her impressive voice.

She wouldn't chart this high again until her next two covers records, Memphis Blues 2010 and Detour 2016 (country covers). In 2012 she wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, for which she won a Grammy in 2014 and a Tony in 2013. She stays in the public eye through tours, activism and guest spots, and she's opening for Rod Stewart on a nine date tour of Australia right now.