A Night to Remember (Cyndi Lauper album) explained

A Night to Remember
Type:studio
Artist:Cyndi Lauper
Cover:A Night to Remember (album cover).jpg
Alt:Cyndi Lauper (seen wearing a colorful outfit) holding a microphone that is attached to a stand on a cobblestone street. The Stand is seen nearly leaning while Lauper is holding the stand. The Manhattan Bridge can be seen in the background. Near Lauper, a School Bus and another person doing a fire performance on the sidewalk.
Released:May 9, 1989
Recorded:January 1, 1988 – February 28, 1989
Studio:The Hit Factory (New York City)
Genre:Pop rock
Length:39:53
Label:Epic
Prev Title:The Best Remixes
Prev Year:1989
Next Title:Hat Full of Stars
Next Year:1993

A Night to Remember is the third studio album by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released on May 9, 1989, by Epic Records. The album was originally set to be released in 1988, under the name Kindred Spirit, but was delayed until 1989 and the songs from the initial project were reworked. Although the album managed to score a top-10 single, it did not enjoy the commercial success of her previous two albums, and was met with mixed-to-poor reviews and in interviews, Lauper refers to it as A Night to Forget. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 1.5 million copies.

Background and production

The album was originally conceptualized as a project called Kindred Spirit, due for release in October 1988, and was going to include the track "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)", but when that song and the film it was featured in, Vibes, were unsuccessful, the album was reworked.[1] The original Kindred Spirit tracklist included 10 songs, eight of which were eventually included on the final album.[1] The two songs that were removed were "Hole in My Heart," which would only appear on Japanese CD editions of A Night to Remember, and "Don't Look Back," written by Lauper and John Turi, which remains unreleased. The songs "A Night to Remember", "Dancing With a Stranger" and "I Don't Want to Be Your Friend" were added to the tracklist later on after the release date was pushed back to 1989, with the other songs being remixed some time between their original 1988 planned release date and their eventual release.[2] Some proof sheets of the original album artwork exist with the alternate title and track listing.

"Unabbreviated Love," penned by Lauper, Dusty Micale and Franke Previte, was recorded for the album but only appeared on the B-side of the "My First Night Without You" single.[3]

The photo used in the album's final cover artwork was taken at the intersection of Plymouth and Pearl Streets, just east of the Manhattan Bridge, in Brooklyn, New York.[4]

Critical reception

Critically, the album was met with mixed-to-poor reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic website retrospectively gave the album two out of five stars and wrote that with the album Lauper tried "becoming a self-consciously "mature" singer/songwriter" and that the album's songs didn't "always work" except for "I Drove All Night" which made "a lasting impression" and illustrated "what Lauper was attempting to achieve with the record". Chris Heim of the Chicago Tribune pointed out that the album bears the same name as the 1958 film about the Titanic; he gave the album two and a half stars out of five and wrote that the "crisp" and "spunky" production and the "appealing" vocals "can't quite keep this album and its predictable pop love song cargo afloat." Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times singled out Lauper's voice as a strong point, while noting the material was inconsistent. Other reviewers were more harsh: The New York Times criticized A Night to Remembers "anonymous vocals, songs full of submissive cliches and slapdash production",[5] while The Village Voice, in comparing the album to Lauper's previous work, declared "How embarrassing to have placed hope in this woman."

Billboard magazine gave the album a 'spotlight' in its album reviews section for the May 20 1989 issue. Despite this, the album was described as having "somewhat unchallenging settings", though the lead single "I Drove All Night" was marked out as a "solid" start to the album campaign and album track "Like a Cat" was also highlighted as of interest.[6]

In a review for Cyndi's 1997 album Sisters of Avalon, People magazine retrospectively described A Night to Remember as "joyless" and blamed the album for her decline in popularity, stating that the album caused "a large chunk of her considerable following" to move on.[7]

Commercial performance

The album sold moderately well but did not enjoy the same commercial success of her two previous albums,[8] despite the success of the album's lead single, "I Drove All Night", which became a Top 10 hit, her last in the U.S.A., earning Lauper a Grammy nomination. In the UK, however, A Night to Remember was Lauper's highest-charting album, peaking at No.9.[9] According to the book St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (Volume 3), the album sold half a million copies in the United States in 1989.[10]

Although the album is called A Night to Remember, Lauper jokingly preferred to call it A Night to Forget, given its poor reviews and disappointing sales, compounded by the problems she encountered with producer and boyfriend David Wolf⁠f during the production of the album.[11] Although not certified by RIAA, BPI and others trade associations according to Lauper's official website, the album was certified platinum in Australia and United Kingdom and gold in Germany, Italy and United States.[12] As of November 1989, the album had sold 1.3 million copies worldwide.[13]

Track listing

Notes

Personnel

Musicians

Technical

Artwork

Accolades

|-|rowspan="1"|1990|"I Drove All Night"|Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance|

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1989)! scope="col"
Peak
position
Canadian Albums (The Record)[16] 34
European Albums (Music & Media)[17] 20
French Albums (IFOP)[18] 15
Finland (Suomen virallinen albumlista)[19] 21
Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)[20] 18
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[21] 3
South African Albums (RISA)[22] 29
Zimbabwean Albums (ZIMA)[23] 10

Year-end charts

Chart (1989)! scope="col"
Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[24] 56
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[25] 75
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[26] 83

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kindred Spirit. www.cyndilauper.com. July 31, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20031206181954/http://www.cyndilauper.com/album_det.php?shname=ks. December 6, 2003. dead.
  2. Web site: Cyndi Lauper - Kindred Spirit. www.cyndilauper.com. July 31, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20031005121123/http://www.cyndilauper.com/album_det.php?id=27. October 5, 2003. dead.
  3. Web site: My First Night Without You (single) . discogs.com. September 18, 2014.
  4. Web site: Cyndi Lauper - A Night To Remember. Musical Maps. July 31, 2021.
  5. News: HOME ENTERTAINMENT/RECORDINGS; RECENT RELEASES. Pareles. Jon. Jon Pareles. May 14, 1989. 2012-01-11. The New York Times.
  6. Web site: Album reviews. Billboard. May 20, 1989. 68. 15 April 2022.
  7. Web site: Picks and Pans Review: Sisters of Avalon. People. May 19, 1997. 20 April 2022.
  8. Web site: Bat For Lashes Covers Cyndi Lauper's 'I Drove All Night' and Kate Bush's 'This Woman's Work'. Grech, Aaron. en-US. live. mxdwn.com. February 12, 2020. September 7, 2022. February 28, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210228093915/https://music.mxdwn.com/2020/02/12/news/bat-for-lashes-covers-cyndi-laupers-i-drove-all-night-and-kate-bushs-this-womans-work/.
  9. Book: The Rough Guide to Rock . 584 . 9781843531050 . 2013-05-15. Buckley . Peter . 2003 . Rough Guides .
  10. Tom & Sara Pendergast, (1999). St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Volume 3. St. James Press. (set) (v.3)
  11. Web site: Cyndi Lauper interview: She's still having fun . https://web.archive.org/web/20140408224310/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/cyndi-lauper-interview-shes-still-having-fun-9235643.html . 2014-04-08 . limited . live . April 4, 2014. Nick Duerden. . September 18, 2014.
  12. Web site: Cyndi Lauper - A Night To Remember. July 26, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20031206181942/http://www.cyndilauper.com/album_det.php?shname=antr. December 6, 2003. dead. www.cyndilauper.com.
  13. Lima. Irlam Rocha. November 4, 1989. Cyndi Lauper aterrissa em SP . . 3 . pt . March 30, 2020. In A Night to Remember (it's also the title of a romantic song) which has sold 1.3 million copies worldwide, Cyndi has two special guest stars: guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Bootsie Collin..
  14. Web site: Blu-spec CD – A Night to Remember . sonymusicshop.jp. September 18, 2014.
  15. Web site: Japan remastered Mini-LP version . sonymusicshop.jp. September 18, 2014.
  16. Book: Lwin, Nanda. Nanda Lwin. Top 40 Hits: The Essential Chart Guide. Music Data Canada. 1999. 1-896594-13-1.
  17. European Top 100 Albums. Music & Media. 6. 28. July 15, 1989. VIII. 29800226. World Radio History.
  18. Web site: Le Détail des Albums de chaque Artiste. InfoDisc. fr. July 27, 2022. Select "Cyndi LAUPER " from the drop-down menu and click "OK".
  19. Book: Pennanen, Timo. Sisältää hitin - 2. laitos Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla 1.1.1960–30.6.2021. 2021. Cyndi Lauper. 143. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. Helsinki. 5 September 2022. fi.
  20. Web site: Classifiche. Musica e dischi. it. July 27, 2022. Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "A night to remember" in the "Titolo" field and press "cerca".
  21. Web site: http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/79864/ranking/cd_album/. ja:シンディ・ローパーのアルバム売り上げランキング. Cyndi Lauper album sales ranking. ja. Oricon. May 8, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20121024044213/http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/79864/ranking/cd_album/. October 24, 2012.
  22. Web site: Divas of South Africa & America – Albums . South African Divas . May 19, 2019 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20190602135952/http://www.geocities.ws/sa_divas/albums.html . June 2, 2019 . GeoCities.
  23. Book: Kimberley, Christopher . 2000 . Zimbabwe Albums Chart Book: 1973–1998 . Harare.
  24. Web site: The 100 biggest selling albums in Australia for 1989 . . May 8, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120315044430/http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/pettruciani/232/albums-1989.html . March 15, 2012 . FortuneCity.
  25. Web site: Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts – 1989. de. GfK Entertainment. May 8, 2016.
  26. Web site: 1989年 アルバム年間TOP100. Oricon. ja. May 8, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20131231001220/http://www.geocities.jp/object_ori/1989a.html. December 31, 2013. GeoCities.

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