"The Goonies Are Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper

It's not Cyndi Lauper's birthday or anything, but the earlier Glenn Frey video got me thinking about music videos tied to the promotion of movies and television; You Belong to the City was obviously tied to the TV show Miami Vice, and this one to the Steven Spielberg movie The Goonies.

In many ways (not all of them good), the film was a watershed for Cyndi; hired as its musical director she got to choose the music for the soundtrack from the bands she admired most, including a spot of early exposure for The Bangles. She worked so hard on the project though that she was hospitalized, although the reason for this was not entirely the movie's fault.

I love the song and its video to bits (even though Cyndi's continuing involvement with professional wrestling nearly spelled the death of her career). Old-school wrestlers such as The Iron Sheik, Captain Lou Albano, Roddy Piper, André the Giant, 'Classy' Freddie Blassie, The Fabulous Moolah & Nikolai Volkoff appear, along with the cast of the movie (including a cameo by Spielberg himself!), members of The Bangles, Cyndi's then-boyfriend and manager David Wolff, and Cyndi's mom Catrine, who also appeared in Girls Just Want to Have Fun with Albano.

She cut The Goonies 'R' Good Enough from her set list in 1987, but reinstated it in 2006, to much acclaim from her fans. It's enduring fame resides in the fact that it was the first two-part music video, although the second part is rarely seen these days.

Except, of course, on the Pop Culture Institute... Enjoy!
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"I Drove All Night" by Cyndi Lauper

I was so determined to find a video to include with this post, I spent more time searching YouTube for one than I did in actually writing the post; between the greedies who refuse to allow embedding (BOO!) and the super-greedies at the record label whose antiquated business models refuse to allow some provision for fair use (double BOO! with raspberries on top!!) some days it's all a poor blogger like me can do to bring enlightertainment to the masses.

And yet, somehow, I persevere... Now you might ask 'Why bother?', which is a comment I've received a few times; come to think of it, it's not usually been an expression of support... A n y w a y, the long and short answer is that Cyndi Lauper - born on this day in 1953 - is one of our favourite people here at the Pop Culture Institute and has been ever since bursting onto the music scene in 1983; this truly great lady of American pop has long been and remains a force for great good, valiantly defying misogyny and homophobia wherever she goes, and I will always back her up to the hilt because of it.

I Drove All Night first appeared on Lauper's 1989 album A Night To Remember; because there's some nudity in the video, it created some controversy You Know Where, where people obviously shower in the dark with their clothes on due to all the shaming and where body dysmorphia could be an Olympic event*. I actually like the song so much a subsequent cover version of it by Quebecois caterwauler Celine Dion remains among the only songs of hers I can listen to without mysteriously acquiring a mouthful of vomit at some point during the process.

*Sorry, but it only hurts because it's true.
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