| Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some | |
| Type: | greatest hits |
| Artist: | Cyndi Lauper |
| Cover: | 12DeadlyCyns.jpg |
| Released: | August 22, 1994 |
| Recorded: | 1983–1994 |
| Genre: | |
| Length: | 57:52 |
| Label: | Epic |
| Producer: | Cyndi Lauper |
| Prev Title: | Hat Full of Stars |
| Prev Year: | 1993 |
| Next Title: | Sisters of Avalon |
| Next Year: | 1996 |
Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some is a greatest hits album by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released in the UK on August 22, 1994, and in the US on July 18, 1995, through Epic Records.[1] It contains a collection of singles from the singer's first four studio albums. It also contains three new songs: "(Hey Now) Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "I'm Gonna Be Strong" and "Come On Home", all of which were released as singles. To promote the record, the singer embarked on a worldwide tour. A video album was simultaneously released and contained music videos of fourteen songs.
The album was a commercial success and has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.[2]
After the release of Cyndi Lauper's third album A Night to Remember, in 1989, Epic was disappointed by its poor reception and the singer's declining in popularity in the charts and record sales. Fearing another failure, Epic had the idea of releasing a compilation of the singer's greatest hits.[3]
A different greatest-hits album titled 13 Deadly Cyns was considered to be released in 1992 prior to the release of Cyndi's fourth album Hat Full of Stars, with a promo tape being released in the UK that year.[4] This version of the album included all singles (worldwide and regional) from Cyndi's first three albums (except "When You Were Mine", "Boy Blue" and "Primitive") as well as her 1992 single "The World Is Stone".[4] The shorter 7" studio edit of "Money Changes Everything" was included on this promotional release instead of the album version which would appear on the final release.
The idea was badly received by Lauper, who believed she had few albums and singles released. As a result, in agreement with the label, she decided that after her next album, which she was hopeful about, it would be the right time to release a greatest hits.[5]
The album's lead single was "Hey Now (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun)", which combines the original lyrics of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" with a new chorus based on the 1974 hit "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone.[6] A music video featuring drag queens was shot to accompany this single and it aired heavily on television. The song was also featured in the film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.[7]
The album's second single, "Come on Home", was written by Lauper and Jan Pulsford, who would work with Lauper on much of her next album, Sisters of Avalon. The final new recording on the album was "I'm Gonna Be Strong", which Lauper had previously recorded with the band Blue Angel in 1984. Lauper said that the album included new songs because she believes that "music is a living thing", so she didn't want to make an album with only old songs, since a new audience was consuming her music at that moment.[8]
"The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", from the soundtrack of The Goonies, was notably absent from the album despite having made the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.[9] Lauper omitted the song due to the fights that had marked its production; Lauper further said in an interview with Matthew Rettenmund that she despised the song. Similarly, "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)", which appeared in the 1988 film Vibes, in which Lauper starred,[10] was included only on the Japanese edition of the album.
The US and Canadian editions of the album omitted several tracks included elsewhere as Lauper was contractually prohibited from including more than 14 tracks on an album in the US, due to the division of songwriting royalties.[11]
A video album was released on VHS, LaserDisc and later DVD. In addition to all of Lauper's music videos to date, it included interview footage shot in and around Coney Island. The video peaked at #12 on Billboard Top Music Videos.[12]
In his review of AllMusic, music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four out of five stars and said that although she returned to success with a collection of greatest hits, with the exception of the songs "True Colors" and "Change of Heart", the only songs by Lauper that have really been successful are on She's So Unusual, which he said was "a more consistent and fun album".[13] Robert Christgau gave the album a "C" rating and, like Erlewine, felt that Lauper's subsequent material (after She's So Unusual) was inferior.[14] The album sold 565,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[15] As of 1997, the album has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.[2] [16]
| Chart (1994–95) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Chilean Albums[17] | 4 |
| European Albums (Top 100)[18] | 8 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen albumlista)[19] | 17 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[20] | 6 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[21] | 18 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[22] | 6 |
| Italian Albums (Hit Parade Italia) | 18 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[23] | 8 |
| South African Albums (RISA)[24] | 3 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[25] | 44 |
. Robert Christgau. 2000. 173. Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s. August 11, 2013. Macmillan. 0312245602.