The song, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, was originally recorded by Robert Hazard in 1979.
“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was written and recorded by musician Robert Hazard (1941-2008) in 1979 and which featured on his eponymous debut album released in 1982. It was never released as a single and Robert enjoyed a relatively quiet career until his death at the age of 67 in 2008.
One person who did hear the song was then, rising singer Cyndi Lauper (b.1953), who loved it so much, she sought permission and recorded it for her debut album “She’s So Unusual” the following year (1983). The track was released as a single in September and it became her breakout single when it went to No.2 in both the US and the UK, as well as topping the charts in eight countries and reaching the top 10 in over twenty worldwide!
Not content with that, eleven years later, Cyndi re-worked the song for her greatest hits collection “Twelve Deadly Cyns, And Then Some”. The new, reggae enthused “Hey Now, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was again a big hit in the UK, where it made No.4 on the singles chart and went top ten in France, Japan and South Africa, although it could only make it as far as No.87 in America.
But which version is the best? HAZARD’s original, CYNDI’s cover or perhaps the re-boot of her own cover?
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