The title of Alison Ellwood\u2019s new documentary Let The Canary Sing<\/i> refers to a judge\u2019s pithy comment when giving his judgment on a court case that saw Cyndi Lauper fight for her right to sing. She was vindicated after being chased by a former manager hoping to garnish some of her astonishing earnings after she hit it big as a solo pop star with her debut album, She\u2019s So Unusual<\/i>. The story is just one of many battles and obstacles the embattled songbird had to deal with on her journey. <\/p>\n
Both the documentary film Let the Canary Sing<\/i> and the accompanying soundtrack album reviewed here tell Lauper\u2019s story in a fairly straightforward and largely chronological fashion. Still, her path has been anything but a straight line. As Lauper says, \u201cMy journey was painful because my career just didn\u2019t go like my peers. My career was up and down, up and down, up and down.\u201d Like the film, this album traces that unusual and difficult trajectory.<\/p>\n
There have been several anthologies and compilations of Lauper’s work, starting with the excellent Twelve Deadly Cyns\u2026 And Then Some<\/i> (1994), followed by several attempts to encapsulate her odd career. She\u2019s So Unusual<\/i> is a near-perfect debut and is probably the most impactful entry in her varied discography, but the soundtrack to Let The Canary Sing<\/i> is a significant mark above the other \u201cgreatest hits\u201d albums because it doesn\u2019t just collect Lauper\u2019s biggest chart successes, but also tells her story in the best way possible: through her fantastic music. <\/p>\n
A prevailing narrative that has followed Lauper for the past 10-15 years or so is that she\u2019s one of the most underrated artists of her time. The film goes into the creative process of three of Lauper\u2019s biggest and most enduring hits: \u201cGirls Just Want to Have Fun,\u201d \u201cTime After Time,\u201d and \u201cTrue Colors.\u201d Interestingly, the last song, her second number-one hit, was written by \u201980s pop songwriting heavyweights Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, though Lauper\u2019s warm and definitive interpretation of the song\u2019s lyrics has blurred the borders of authorship. <\/p>\n
The film also does a fascinating deep dive into the origins and genesis of \u201cGirls Just Want to Have Fun,\u201d which is both career-defining for Lauper and also a fine, if slight, New Wave pop song written by Robert Hazard. When the song was suggested to Lauper, she balked, unhappy with the song\u2019s male point of view. Instead, she reworked some of the lyrics, changing the tune into an anthem of female empowerment. The song\u2019s enduring popularity would reappear when protestors co-opted its message during the Women’s March, declaring that \u201cGirls just want to have FUN-damental rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s Lauper’s activist leanings make for some of the most moving moments in Let The Canary Sing<\/i>. When the film turns to \u201cTrue Colors,\u201d Lauper recounts recording the tune at the time she was watching her best friend die of AIDS. Like many survivors of the AIDS crisis, Lauper seems somewhat traumatized by her memories (her sister quickly dissolves into tears when talking about that time). \u201cWhat I saw,\u201d she said of the early days of AIDS, \u201cwas so bad and so unjust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her activism around women\u2019s rights and choice both fueled and was fueled by \u201cSally\u2019s Pigeons,\u201d a single from her 1993 album Hat Full Of Stars<\/i>. Arriving years removed from her salad days, \u201cSally\u2019s Pigeons,\u201d written with Mary Chapin Carpenter, was a sad story of a childhood friend who died from a botched abortion. Lauper re-recorded the song for the film in time for renewed activism as states throughout the US have enacted near-total bans on abortion. <\/p>\n
The film does a lot of work to highlight Lauper as a toiler (her sister calls her a \u201ctechnician\u201d). Though not a famed instrumentalist, the background work that she and her co-writers do on classic tunes like \u201cTime After Time\u201d is impressive. As Lauper describes the writing process\u2014particularly zeroing in on the song’s ticking cadence resulting from Rob Hyman\u2019s ticking watch\u2014we see the singer light up: she\u2019s in her element describing the genesis of this beloved tune. <\/p>\n
Along with the above familiar and indelible hits, this 22-song collection includes a generous helping of less widely known but equally worthy tunes from across Lauper\u2019s remarkable career, with new edits of several tracks created specifically for this release, along with the re-recorded version of \u201cSally\u2019s Pigeons.\u201d<\/p>\n
While promoting Let The Canary Sing<\/i>, Lauper also announced that she\u2019s going on one final tour. Turning 70, she still feels physically up to the challenge of touring, but the uncertainty of the future has prompted her to do one last concert hurrah while she knows she can. The career-spanning Let The Canary Sing<\/i> is a fitting tribute to the end of an important chapter of her career as Cyndi Lauper looks forward to the future. <\/p>\n