Liner Notes · No. 027
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper: the B-side
Quick hall pass: a movie borrowed the title and got told no on the record, a Netflix karate show put it back on a chart, and Cher sang it at Cyndi's goodbye. Here's the B-side.
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
The movie that couldn't use it, and Cobra Kai
A 1985 movie bought the song but not Cyndi's recording, so nobody recognized it. In 2024, Cobra Kai sent hers to the top of Billboard's TV chart.
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The movie: In 1985, New World Pictures released Girls Just Want to Have Fun, directed by Alan Metter, starring Sarah Jessica Parker with Helen Hunt. Janey, the new girl in town, bonds with Lynne over dancing and a show called Dance TV. Leg warmers were not optional.
The catch: The producers bought the rights to the 1979 song from Robert Hazard's publishing company. Cyndi didn't own the song, but she refused to let them use her recording or the lyrics she rewrote, per a February 1985 Esquire article. So the soundtrack version is sung by Deborah Galli with Tami Holbrook and Meredith Marshall, with the original, pre-Cyndi lyrics. Buying a song called "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and getting the version nobody knew. Bold strategy.
The review: Cyndi has since made clear she was not a fan of the movie. Tough crowd. Accurate crowd. In 2023, Elizabeth Banks announced she would film a remake, and a jukebox musical was reported in the works too.
The comeback kid: In July 2024, after it showed up in Season 6 of Netflix's Cobra Kai, Cyndi's recording topped Billboard's Top TV Songs chart for the month. Forty years later, still beating karate kids to the top.
That's the screen. Now the stage that sent it off. Quiz time.
At the last show of Cyndi Lauper's farewell tour (Hollywood Bowl, August 2025), who closed the night singing "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- Live: an intimate Town Hall film, an airport singalong in Buenos Aires, the farewell tour's last night, and the Rock Hall.
- The covers: Weird Al wanted lunch, Cyndi remade her own hit as reggae, and Greg Laswell slowed it to a whisper.
- Where Cyndi is now: Kinky Boots in London and Paris, and a jazz night at Lincoln Center.
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▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
Town Hall, an airport, the farewell and the Rock Hall
An airport singalong, a sold-out Madison Square Garden, a farewell closed by Cher, and a Rock Hall night that ended with this song.
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2004, Town Hall: Live...At Last filmed an intimate show at New York's Town Hall, reworking her hits, this one included. Less neon, more mood lighting. Same voice.
2011, the airport: During her Memphis Blues Tour, Cyndi gave an impromptu performance of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, the Buenos Aires airport. Your last flight delay had a crying toddler. Theirs had Cyndi Lauper.
2024 to 2025, the farewell: The Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, named after this song, played four continents and gave her the first headlining show of her career at Madison Square Garden. She sold it out. Took a while. Worth it.
August 30, 2025, the last night: The tour ended at the Hollywood Bowl. As the quiz spoiled, Joni Mitchell sang "Carey" with her, John Legend joined for "Time After Time," SZA appeared, and Cher closed the show with this song. CBS aired it as A GRAMMY Salute to Cyndi Lauper: Live from the Hollywood Bowl on October 5, 2025. When your closing act is Cher, you've won the guest list.
November 8, 2025, the Hall: Chappell Roan inducted Cyndi into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Cyndi sang "True Colors" and "Time After Time" (with Raye), then closed with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," joined by Raye, Avril Lavigne and Salt-N-Pepa, per the Rock Hall's own post. The most crowded stage in Hall history? We didn't count. Felt like it.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
The covers (one of them is lunch)
Weird Al made it about lunch, Cyndi remade herself in reggae, and Greg Laswell added rain on the window. Play them, then vote.
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- 1985 · "Weird Al" Yankovic. "Girls Just Want to Have Lunch," on Dare to Be Stupid. Years later he said it was never one of his favorites, because he was basically made to do it. Even Weird Al has a song he skips.
- 1994 · Cyndi Lauper. She covered herself: "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun," a reggae-flavored remake sampling Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love," on Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some. It turned up a year later in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Nobody remixes Cyndi better than Cyndi.
- 2007 · Greg Laswell. A slowed-down, hushed version that landed on the soundtracks of Confessions of a Shopaholic and My Sister's Keeper in 2009. The party anthem, now with rain on the window.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where Cyndi is now
The farewell tour wrapped, but she's still singing, and Kinky Boots keeps running. Edd Griles, who directed the video, died in 2024.
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The goodbye that kept going: The farewell tour was billed as her final major tour, and it wrapped at the Hollywood Bowl. Wikipedia's tour page also counts a June 20, 2026 concert at Atlantis Paradise Island. A farewell tour with an encore in the Bahamas. Very on brand for the decade that gave us the third farewell tour.
The boots: Kinky Boots, the musical she wrote the score for (she was the first woman to win the Tony for Best Original Score), ran in a West End revival at the London Coliseum from March 17 to July 11, 2026, and toured the US. A French-language production is booked at the Folies Bergère in Paris from February 12, 2027.
The jazz night: On October 9, 2026, she was the special guest at Catherine Russell and Friends at Jazz at Lincoln Center, per BroadwayWorld. Done with big tours, apparently not with singing.
The director: Edd Griles, who directed this video and "Time After Time," died on October 22, 2024, at 78, after a long battle with Alzheimer's, his daughter said. His two videos are still playing.
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