Blue Angel - Blue Angel - 1980

What was Cyndi Lauper doing before singing about girls wanting to have fun. She was fronting the new wave pop band Blue Angel. If you like Cyndi, then I think you'll like this as well. She sounds great, but has a little more rock and roll to her here.

Here she does the song "I'm Gonna Be Strong" which she re-recorded in 1994 as a solo artist. I love the later version which I have on her "12 Deadly Cyns" best of compilation, but I love this version too. Every note is perfect and when she gets to that big climactic finish, look out, we're talking shivers.

The song was written back in 1963 for Frankie Laine, but he didn't have a hit with it. The following year Gene Pitney did. But it was Cyndi who really made the song her own. Read more about the song here.

This album was re-released on CD in 2005 on some small label. I don't know how easy it is to find. I'm sure with the internet you can find it. The songs all sound and feel like early 80's New Wave pop for the most part. If you are into that, you'll like this. For more on the record and tha band go here.

"Maybe He'll Know" kicks off the record with a bang. Great Cyndiness and a bouncy fun beat. It's happy and has a fun little keyboard thing going on under the vocals.

I also like "Fade" which has a retro 60's vibe to it with an 80's new wave take. In fact I think that is a fair summation of the whole record. That shouldn't really be too much of a surprise. If you think about those early days of Cyndi Lauper her whole image had a sort of thrift store retro thing going on. Remember all those bracelets and thrift store dresses and skirts. She definitely had one foot in the past.

By the way if you ever have a chance to see Cyndi Lauper live these days, I highly recommend it. I never saw her in the 80's, so I have nothing to compare it to, but she really rocks the house down. I saw her a few years ago and was so completely blown away. He voice is I think stronger than ever before and she dances and runs around that stage like a mad woman. She came out into the audience and sang as well. She was great. And then of course the ballads live "Time After Time" and "True Colors" were amazing. I'm pretty sure "True Colors" brought tears to my eyes.

So if you can't see her (actually, I really don't even know if she is touring right now), but you need a Cyndi fix, check this early relic out.

Enjoy!

01 Maybe He'll Know.m4a
02 I Had A Love.m4a
03 Fade.m4a
04 Anna Blue.m4a
05 Can't Blame Me.m4a
06 Late.m4a
07 Cut-Out.m4a
08 Take A Chance.m4a
09 Just The Other Day.m4a
10 I'm Gonna Be Strong.m4a
11 Lorraine.m4a
12 Everybody's Got Angel.m4a

Here's the whole thing. Blue Angel.zip