Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Background

With the inclusion of promotional releases, the single has seen about 40 individual versions of release. The most common is a 7" vinyl single (with varying cover artwork) released in 1983/1984 (depending on the country) and the second most common is a 12" vinyl single (also with varying cover artwork) released in 1983/1984.

The song was written by Robert Hazard, who recorded only a demo of it in 1979. He wrote it from a male point of view. For Lauper's version, she changed the lyrics with Hazard's approval. Her version appeared on her 1983 debut solo record, She's So Unusual. It is a synthesizer-backed anthem about the roles of women in society. Gillian G. Gaar, author of She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll (2002), described the single and corresponding video as a "strong feminist statement", an "anthem of female solidarity" and a "playful romp celebrating female camaraderie."

The variety of releases of the single includes an Austrian birthday card with a 3" CD of the song inside. The song has been heavily distributed in karaoke version as well. Lauper later went on to completely re-work the song in 1994 resulting in the new hit "Hey Now (Girls Just Want to Have Fun)". The song was remade by Lauper yet again in 2005 on her The Body Acoustic album, also produced by Chertoff and Wittman with Lauper, with guest support vocals from Japanese pop/rock duo Puffy AmiYumi.

Music video

The release of the single was accompanied by a quirky music video. It cost less than $35,000, largely due to a volunteer cast and the free loan of the most sophisticated video equipment available at the time. The cast included professional wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano in the role of Lauper's father while her real mother, Catrine, played herself. Lauper would later appear in World Wrestling Federation storylines opposite Albano and guest-star in an episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, in which Albano portrayed Mario (Albano also played himself in the episode). Lauper's attorney, Elliot Hoffman, appeared as her uptight dancing partner. Also in the cast were Lauper's manager, David Wolf, her brother, Butch Lauper, fellow musician Steve Forbert, and a bevy of secretaries borrowed from Portrait/CBS, Lauper's record label.

Lorne Michaels (Broadway Video, SNL), another of Hoffman's clients, agreed to give Lauper free run of his brand new million-dollar digital editing equipment, with which she and her producer created several first-time-ever computer generated images of Lauper dancing with her buttoned-up lawyer, leading the entire cast in a snake-dance through New York streets and ending up in Lauper's bedroom in her home. The bedroom scene is a homage to the famous stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers' film A Night at the Opera.

“The year 1983 makes a watershed in the history of female-address video. It is the year that certain issues and representations began to gain saliency and the textual strategies of female address began to coalesce.” In the video Lauper wanted to show in a more fun and light-hearted manner that girls want the same equality and recognition boys had in society.

Before the song starts, the beginning of her version of "He's So Unusual" plays.

The music video was directed by Edd Griles. The producer was Ken Walz while the cinematographer was Francis Kenny. The treatment for the video was co-written by Griles, Walz, and Cyndi Lauper. The video was shot in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in summer 1983 and premiered on television in December 1983. The choreography was by a New York dance and music troupe called XXY featuring Mary Ellen Strom, Cyndi Lee and Pierce Turner.

Chart performance

The song was released in late 1983 but much of the its success on the charts came during the first half of 1984. The single reached the Top 10 in over 25 countries and reached No. 1 in ten of those countries including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and Norway. It also reached No. 2 in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

In the United States, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 80 on December 17, 1983. It ultimately peaked at No. 2 on March 10, 1984 where it stayed for two weeks, behind Van Halen's "Jump". In the United Kingdom, the song entered the chart at No. 50 on January 14, 1984 and peaked at No. 2 on February 4, 1984 where it stayed for one week. In Ireland, the song entered the chart on January 29, 1984. It peaked at number one for two weeks and was on the chart for a total of seven weeks. In Belgium, the song debut at No. 38 on February 18, 1984 and peaked at No. 4 on April 7, 1984. In the Netherlands, the song entered the chart at No. 38 on February 25, 1984 and peaked at No. 4 on March 31, 1984.

In Sweden, the song entered at No. 13 on March 6, 1984 and peaked at No. 5 on April 3, 1984, charting for six weeks. In Switzerland, the song entered the chart at No. 15 on April 1, 1984 and peaked at No. 6 on April 29, 1984. In New Zealand, the song debuted at No. 21 on April 1, 1984 and peaked at No. 1 on May 6, 1984 where it stayed for three weeks. In Austria, the single entered at No. 3 on May 1, 1984 which was its peak position.

Usage in media

The song is featured in the films Clueless, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, Riding in Cars with Boys, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Hysterical Blindness, Midnight Heat, The Other Woman, Housefull 3, Peter's Friends, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, Anomalisa and Baby Mama. It's also used in the television shows The Simpsons, Friends, Bones, Alvin and the Chipmunks (as performed by The Chipettes), Gilmore Girls, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Married with Children, Daria, Hinter Gittern – Der Frauenknast, The Comeback, Drawn Together, 90210, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, 20 to 1, Celebrity Big Brother, Two and a Half Men, Family Guy, Coronation Street, and Miami Vice among others.

Track listings

7" single

12" Vinyl Promo

Single A CD single was issued in 2007, known as a ringle, which included bonus interactive computer material as well as a code to download a free ringtone of the title track. It featured the title track and for the first time on CD, "Right Track Wrong Train". The ringle, as well as all other issued ringles, were recalled by Sony Music due to issues with the ringtone not working correctly. They have yet to be reissued.

1. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
2. "Right Track Wrong Train"
3. Computer media

Official versions

Official versions (Hey Now version)

1. Factory Dub version – 6:50
2. Junior Vasquez remix "Dancehall Main" – 5:46
3. Junior Vasquez remix "Harder Dancehall" – 5:46
4. Junior Vasquez remix "Lounge Dub" – 6:00
5. Junior Vasquez remix "Lounge Mix" – 6:12
6. Junior Vasquez remix "Pop Goes the Dancehall" – 4:58
7. Junior Vasquez Soundfactory mix – 7:40
8. Mikey Bennett's "Carnival" version – 6:04
9. Mikey Bennett's "Carnival" version edited – 4:09
10. Single edit – 3:39
11. Sly & Robbie's "Home Grown" version – 4:16
12. Sly & Robbie's "Home Grown" version – 6:15
13. Straight Up Pass version – 7:13
14. Techno dub – 3:55
15. Techno Main mix – 8:23

Credits and personnel

1. Lyrics: Robert Hazard. Production: Rick Chertoff.
2. Lyrics: Cyndi Lauper, Ellie Greenwich, Jeffrey B. Kent. Production: Rick Chertoff

(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun

"(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was the first single from Cyndi Lauper's Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some hits collection from 1994, and her first charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 since "My First Night Without You" in 1989.

This song is a new reggae-tinged arrangement of Lauper's own "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" standard, with a musical tip of the hat to Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love". The arrangement evolved as she experimented with the song's style over the course of the 1993–94 Hat Full of Stars Tour. The song was a big comeback hit for Lauper, landing in the top 10 and top 40 in many countries. It was also a big dance hit in the United States. It peaked at #4 in the UK and New Zealand, its highest position.

"Hey Now" plays over a pivotal closing sequence of the film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

The song was covered by Triple Image and Jamie Lynn Spears in 2002.

Track listing

US CD single

1. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (single edit)
2. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Mickey Bennett's version)
3. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Sly & Robbie's Home Grown version)
4. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Vasquez remix)
5. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (original version)

Japanese CD single

1. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (single edit)
2. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Mickey Bennett's version)
3. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Sly & Robbie's Home Grown version)
4. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Vasquez remix)

French CD Single

1. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
2. "Hat Full of Stars"
3. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (single edit) – 3:39
4. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Mickey Bennett's "Carnival" version featuring Patra)
5. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Sly & Robbie's "Home Grown" version featuring Snow)
6. "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Junior Vasquez Remix "Pop Goes the Dancehall" featuring Snow)
7. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (original version)

Race for Life version

In 2010, Cancer Research UK arranged for a charity record for their Race for Life campaign. It features many celebrities such as EastEnders actress Nina Wadia, Coronation Street actress Kym Marsh, Life of Riley actress Caroline Quentin, glamour girl Danielle Lloyd, X Factor finalist Lucie Jones, singer Sonique (herself a breast cancer survivor), former EastEnders actress Lucy Benjamin, and Celebrity Big Brother's Nicola T.