#2: "She's So Unusual" by Cyndi Lauper

#2—They say I better stop,
or I'll go blind.

Favorite songs: Money Changes Everything, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, When You Were Mine, Time After Time, She Bop, All Through the Night
Other tracks: Witness, I'll Kiss You, He's So Unusual, Yeah Yeah
Released: 1983
Chart peak: #4 (U.S. Billboard 200)
Popularity: 6 million copies sold in U.S., 22 million sold worldwide

Cyndi Lauper makes me happy. From her first manic appearance on MTV with her breakthrough song and video for "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" to her recent success on Broadway, she has consistently defied expectations for both appearance and artistry, always remaining true to her own quirky, creative vision.

Most guys in the early eighties would have picked Madonna—sexy clothes, alluring makeup, provocative dancer, center of everyone's attention. Not me. I always picked the weird girl in the corner with half of her bright red hair shaved into a checkerboard and the mismatched thrift store outfit. I wasn't kidding when I put an "I Love Cyndi Lauper" bumper sticker on my car in 1984.

You'll notice a deviation from my previous pattern with the song listings. I can't pick just one favorite song off this album, because they're all my favorites. "Girls" and "Time After Time" still get most of the airplay on retro-80s stations, but her riot-grrl howling on the rock anthem "Money Changes Everything" is a great way to start the album.

She nails plaintive heartbreak in the Prince-penned "When You Were Mine," sings like a music box angel on "All Through the Night," then just gets downright freaky in "She Bop," the catchiest pop anthem about (how can I say this politely?) touching yourself in that special place that ever got past MTV and radio censors.

While Madonna has been largely absent from the public eye for several years (and as far as I'm concerned, musically irrelevant since 1998's "Ray of LIght"), Cyndi has continued to expand her reach into new musical areas, culminating this year with a Tony Award win for Best Original Score for the musical Kinky Boots.

My wait for her second album felt as long as my wait for Def Leppard to finally come out with a follow-up to Pyromania (see #3 on the countdown!). Her follow-up, True Colors, is a wonderful work, with hardly a throw-away track to be found. (I highly recommend it—it's a close second in terms of quality.) Her third album, 1989's A Night to Remember is also solid, but nowhere as good as her first two works.

Okay, if you force me to pick one favorite song, it's "All Through the NIght." I just love everything about it, from her soprano voice to the tinkly melody of the keyboards. Sadly for me, she never made a video for that song. She did make three memorable videos for the three other top five singles, and I've included all those videos below. She was the first female singer in rock/pop history to have four top five singles from the same album. "She's So Unusual?" More like "She's So Wonderful."

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Time After Time

She Bop