Day 0523 - She's So Unusual

Cyndi Lauper "She's so Unusual" (1983)

Lauper's band Blue Angel had been signed, flopped, dropped their manager and were then sued by him.  Lauper was forced into bankruptcy.  From there she set about singing in clubs in New York and essentially restarting her career.   She was spotted by a manager who took her on and got her signed to a label as a solo artist.

The resulting 'debut' album is "She's so unusual" which boasted 7 singles including hits like "Time after Time" and "Girls just want to have fun" saw Lauper for a while in close competition with Madonna for the "Queen of Pop" moniker.

Day 0018 - Sarah Vaughan at Mister Kelly's

Sarah Vaughan "Sarah Vaughan at Mister Kelly's" (1958) - got it

I LOVE Sarah Vaughan, she just has the most amazing vocal control and range of any jazz/popular singer I can think of.

I'm not usually a fan of live albums but Vaughan sounds note perfect, the recording quality is great, and you get the added charm of Vaughan's extra vocal gymnastics, her sassy banter with the crowd, and her quick-thinking ad-libs any time she happens to forget a lyric.

It's hard to tell, given that it's a sound recording, but at one point it sounds like she knocked over her lyric sheets.  Certainly at one point she ad-libs and scats the lyrics for an entire song ("how high the moon")