Second studio LP from Lauper, following the massively successful She’s So Unusual which had already gone four times platinum.

Covering “What’s Going On” was, well, a choice. But I love the “Iko Iko” and the originals: the title track still makes me have all the feels, and “Boy Blue” – which was released as a single, raised money for AIDS research. (The whole album is dedicated “with love to my beautiful boy blue” – Gregory Natal.

Lots of guests here, perhaps as a result of her stratospheric success on the first LP: Billy Joel, Aimee Mann, The Bangles, Pee Wee Herman, Anton Fig, Adrian Belew, Nile Rodgers, and Robert Holmes.

If you haven’t seen it I recommend Let the Canary Sing, a documentary on Lauper (currently on Paramount Plus).

My copy—via the Worcester Record Riot—is an early Pitman pressing on the Portrait labels with the original printed inner.