Blue Angel was an American band, that featured

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper ( ; born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful four-octave vocal range;Jerome, ...

before her rise to fame as a solo singer. The lineup also included John Turi on keyboards and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, Arthur "Rockin' A" Neilson (

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

), Lee Brovitz (

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

) and Johnny Morelli (

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

). Lauper and Turi wrote the bulk of their material, and the group also covered pop standards, such as

Barry Mann Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman; February 9, 1939) is an American songwriter and musician, and was part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. He has written or co-written 53 hits in the UK and 98 in the US. Early ...

and

Cynthia Weil Cynthia Weil (October 18, 1940 – June 1, 2023) was an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Weil and Mann were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and in 2011, they jointly received the ...

's " I'm Gonna Be Strong" (which Lauper covered again on a 1994 album). Blue Angel were briefly popular on the New York club scene. The band reformed without Lauper in 1987, under the name Boppin' the Blues. Lauper joined them on stage for a one-time performance at New York's Lone Star Cafe, singing a

Big Mama Thornton Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter of blues and R&B. The ''Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul'' described Thornton by saying: "Her booming voice, sometimes 200-pound fra ...

song and " That's Alright Mama". They have since disbanded.

Discography

Their only album, '' Blue Angel'', was released in 1980. It featured a sparse

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

and new wave-styled cover in primary red, and floating band member photos. The album's sales were better overseas than in the United States. The only track to hit top 40 was "I'm Gonna Be Strong", which reached No. 37 in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Another song from the album, "Maybe He'll Know", was re-recorded by Lauper on her second solo album, '' True Colors'', in 1986. Blue Angel recorded a second album for Polydor in 1980; it was never released owing to a change in management at PolyGram Germany, and they, along with other artists, were dropped from the label. The band continued to gig around New York until 1982; their final concert took place that fall at

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street (Manhattan), 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served ...

Albums

*'' Blue Angel'' (1980)

Singles

Re-releases

After Lauper's solo success, ''Blue Angel'' was re-released in LP and cassette formats in multiple countries. The yellow-covered Australian re-release uses a larger photo of Cyndi and includes "Blue Angel featuring" in small print above "Cyndi Lauper" in large print. The Japanese re-release also includes "featuring Cyndi Lauper", though the rest of the cover remains unchanged from the original release. In 2005, a 5000-copy

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

pressing was released by Hip-O Select Records.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Angel Rock music groups from New York (state) Cyndi Lauper Musical groups from New York City Mixed-gender bands