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She Bop

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"She Bop"
Song
B-side"Witness"

"She Bop" was the third commercially released solo single by American singer Cyndi Lauper.

Song information

The song was controversial, owing to lyrics that addressed masturbation. Part of the lyrics, "They say I better stop - or I'll go blind"'[1] is an allusion to a common myth about masturbation. It was also included on the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen" list, due to its sexual lyrics; this led to the creation of the parental advisory sticker. (Other songs on the "Filthy Fifteen" list included tracks by Madonna, Prince, and AC/DC.) In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Lauper stated that she recorded the vocals of the song naked.[2]

Lauper said she wanted little kids to think the song was about dancing, and to understand the real meaning as they got older. She never directly stated in the song what the meaning of the song was, so it could receive airplay.[citation needed]

The single has been released in over 32 variations across the world, the most common being a two track 7" vinyl single (with varying covers) and a two track 12" vinyl single (also with varying covers).

Lauper recorded a slow ballad version of the song for her album The Body Acoustic.

Music video

An accompanying music video aired heavily on MTV and featured Lauper as a quirky sexual liberator leading the brainwashed masses to their own liberation. (This was done in metaphor showing teenagers as disgusting fast-food consuming zombies.) There were many double meanings indicating the song's true meaning, including a magazine that Lauper is staring at titled "Beefcake" and other sexual meanings such as the "self-service" sign and three gas pumps with the signs Good, Better and Nirvana in the cartoon part of the video, the vibrating motorcycle, the "masterbingo" part of the video with "Uncle Siggy" Sigmund Freud as host, and Lauper wearing blackout glasses with a white cane in several scenes of the video. In fact, the video doesn't go as far as the lyrics, as the magazine referenced in the song ("...in the pages of a Blueboy magazine") was a popular gay erotica magazine of the time, whereas the magazine Lauper holds represents the tamer — and somewhat closeted — erotica of an earlier era. Nor did the lyrical reference come out of the blue: Lauper has stated that finding a copy of Blueboy lying around in the recording studio provided the impetus for writing "She Bop".[citation needed]

Chart performance

To date, 'She Bop' is Lauper's third-highest charting and third-most commercially successful single worldwide, after "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time". It charted in the Top 50 in 16 countries (going Top 10 in 12 of them), including: #3 in the U.S. and #6 in Australia and New Zealand. Inexplicably, it was not a success in the UK, only climbing to #46.

Chart (1984) Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 6
Ö3 Austria Top 40 5
Canadian Singles Chart 5
Casey's Top 40 Radio & Records 2
Cash Box Top 100 Singles 3
French Singles Chart 34
German Singles Chart 19
German Airplay 10
Netherlands Singles Chart 34
Oricon Japan Hot 100 3
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart 6
Swedish Singles Chart 9
Swiss Singles Chart 10
UK Singles Chart 46
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 3
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 10
U.S. Billboard Year-End 34

Certifications

Country Certification Sales
Canada Gold 10,000
Japan 38,040
United States Gold 500,000

12" LP single

  1. "She Bop" (Special Dance Mix) – 6:16 (Cyndi Lauper; Gary Corbett; Rick Chertoff; Stephen Broughton Lunt)
  2. "She Bop" (Instrumental) – 5:20 (Cyndi Lauper; Gary Corbett; Rick Chertoff; Stephen Broughton Lunt)

Official versions

  • Acoustic Version – 4:16
  • Instrumental Version – 5:20
  • Live Version – 5:10
  • Remix – 5:40
  • Special Dance Mix – 6:16
  • Special Version – 3:38

Cover versions

  • Indie band Francine recorded a cover of the song.
  • Greek band Matisse covered the song for their 2007 album Toys Up.
  • In July 2008 J-pop singer Nana Kitade covered "She Bop" for the album We Love Cyndi - Tribute to Cyndi Lauper.
  • Korean pop singer Wax (singer) recorded a cover of the song. Cover song is called Oppa.
  • Uzbek singer Vicki Vaka recorded her own rendition of the song in 1993.

References

  1. ^ "She Bop" lyrics on OldieLyrics.com.
  2. ^ "Cyndi Lauper Biography". Monsters and Critics.
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