Cyndi Lauper

Pop music subversive Cyndi Lauper's outward persona may have reached clown-level goofiness at times (Captain Lou Albano in her videos, the intentionally ridiculous dance pose on the cover) yet her debut kicks off with the brilliant and pointed "Money Changes Everything" and one of her biggest hits ("She Bop") got banned from the radio for being about masturbation.

Initially, this blue angel won my heart by covering the two most profound pop songs of the past five years, "Money Changes Everything" and "When You Were Mine." Now, with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" the official pep song of the daughters of Ms. and Pepsi-Cola and "Time After Time" throbbing hearts by the millions, I've softened my strictures about her Betty Boop bimboism--if a kook who's loved, respected, and taken seriously by her sisters fools boys into believing she can be fooled with, more power to her. First side's an eternal classic. Second sneaks by on the one where she kisses me and the one where she diddles herself. (Grade - A)