Blue Angel & Cyndi Lauper
One of my favorite bands playing the New York/New Jersey club circuit in the early 80's was Blue Angel. Their rockabilly inflected new wave touched on the music of the 50's and 60's in a way that appealed to my friends and I, but most of all the lead singer could really sing. Of course, the lead singer was Cyndi Lauper. Listening to their only album today (Polydor, 1980) brings nostalgia not for the 50's and 60's but for the early 80's and those drunken nights dancing to Blue Angel and yelling "Cyndi" from the dance floor. Rumor has it Cyndi hated the album. It as quietly and finally been reissued on Hip-O Select in a limited run of 5000 copies but there is another rumor floating around that there is a cease and desist order from one of the band members to have it stopped. It's still available on the Hip-O site and it's linked from Cyndi's too. Get it while you can.
Order the CD at Hip-O Select. I ordered mine and it's in transit.
Visit a Blue Angel Fan site and sign the petition to see Blue Angel reunited on VH-1's "Bands Reunited" show.
Visit Cyndi Lauper's site
Go to the download page to get a vinyl rip of Blue Angel - "Just The Other Day"
6 Comments:
The vocals on this album are incredible.
"I'm Gonna Be Strong" has to be heard to be believed!
saw Cyndi sing at the Bayou in Washington. Blue Angel's lead singer sat on a piano and whaled for about 1.5 hours. It was terrific and cost me a whopping 3 bucks. Who knew she would be so big?
Great album, too
Blue Angel holds a special place in my musical heart. If you lived in NYC in 1980-1981 you had to know of "Blue Angel". I remember listening to their record for the first time (probably sometime in 1980) and I was blown away. It was a fun, lively record that was very different than anything else coming out at that time.
I remember running into a few people on the streets of Manhattan in 1981 who were on their way to the Blue Angel "farewell" concert. It was going to be their last show, and I regreted that I was unable to go that night.
After that they dropped off the music radar for a couple of years. Around November of 1983 I heard a song playing over the radio while I was in a diner and I immediately recognized the voice. The ballad "Time After Time" was very different than anything Blue Angel did, but the voice was familar. They were back (or so I thought). Well it wasn't a new Blue Angel record, but a record from teh lead singer was close enough. I immediately went out and grabbed the record "She's So Unusual".
It was great to see Cyndi Lauper enjoy the sucess that I always thought Blue Angel deserved.
I always felt that Blue Angel was hurt by unfortunate timing. The punk movement hit in the mid seventies and opened the doors for many different bands and sounds. Many of the New Wave bands of the 1980's probably would not have gotten record contracts if not for the punk bands of the late 1970s.
Blue Angel was not a punk band and did not fit the mold for the type of band that was getting promoted in the early 1980s. How do you promote a band with a sixties, retro rockabilly sound in the middle of a punk and new wave explosion.
Blue Angel was big around town, but never reached a wider audience.
In summary: I love this record.
Cyndi didn't hate the album,
I read her biography,
what she hated was the photo on the cover (she said she thought it made her look like Big Bird).
but she loved Blue Angel,
and it's a great album!
When Blue Angel was going to do their second album
she was very unhappy about that the record label wanted
to turn them into a disco band,
that's why they split with the label, and the rest is history.
I became aware of Blue Angel in the early 80's. A very popular NY drag queen, Jesse Volt, did the most amazing rendition of "I'm gonna be strong". Of course then I discovered Blue Angel and Cyndi Lauper. I was thrilled to see she re-did the song, but prefer the original. Jesse Volt is still going strong, and is still the best!
Blue Angel made it all the way to Australia, but obviously after the split. I remember listening to it as a 15 year old (1984) growing up in Sydney - playing "Gonna Be Strong" over and over again with by best friend. We loved this more than anything Cyndi did solo, and would have given anything to see them live.
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