Monday, April 19, 2021

Musical Monday - Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper


#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: June 9, 1984 through June 16, 1984.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: The week of June 9, 1984.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was Lauper's first hit, and probably was her most comercially successful song, and was nominated for or won pretty much all of the awards, but the song I always associate with her is this one. The plaintive, melancholy mood of Time After Time is simply perfectly suited to Lauper's vocal delivery - when listening to the song it sounds like a confession taking place just before the singer breaks down in tears. The entire tenor of the song is both sad and hopeful at the same time.

Oddly, despite the fact that the lyrics of the song seem to suggest undying loyalty, the music video more or less shows a fractured relationship disintegrating into a final breakup. The overarching story is that Lauper's character is homesick and wants to return to her childhood home and care for her mother, but that's not incredibly well conveyed by the video (in fact, that portion completely escaped me until recently). But the sequences show Lauper's character and her seemingly contentious relationship with her boyfriend, played by Lauper's then real-life boyfriend and manager David Wolff. In the end, Lauper leaves Wolff behind, which is more or less what happened in real life, so the teras are not feigned.

Previous Musical Monday: Wake Me Up before You Go-Go by Wham!
Subsequent Musical Monday: Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Let's Hear It for the Boy by Denice Williams
Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: The Reflex by Duran Duran

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Let's Hear It for the Boy by Denice Williams
Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: The Reflex by Duran Duran

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Cyndi Lauper     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

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