Hi! I’m Just John. Welcome to Just A Blog, a space on the Internet where I write about songs I’ve heard. The first song I’m tackling is “Girls Just Want To Have Fun.”
“Girls Just Want To Have Fun” is a song about girls and their desire to have fun. Contrary to popular belief, it is called “Girls Just WANT TO Have Fun,” not “Girls Just WANNA Have Fun,” which can be seen as confusing, since Cyndi Lauper definitely sings “wanna” and not “want to,” but I’m not here to overanalyze things. Oh, wait, I think I am.
What do I love about this song? I don’t know, can we start with the opening “note” thingy that goes “Wheeeee” before launching into the song? You know what I’m talking about? I don’t know what that “thingy” is called, so I asked my music expert co-worker Alex Schulte what the technical name of it was.
ME: Hey, Alex, what is this? (plays opening note of “Girls Just Want To Have Fun.”)
ALEX: Hmm.
(pause)
ALEX: Play it again.
ME: (plays it again.)
ALEX: It sounds like somebody just going “Whhrrrruuupp” on a keyboard.
Good enough! That “Whhrrruuupp” is one of my favorite introductions to a song ever. The moment you hear it, you know exactly what you are getting into.
“Girls Just Want To Have Fun” is one of the greatest girl anthems of all time, which is remarkable seeing as it was written by a dude named Robert Hazard. Isn’t that wild? Well, as a dude myself, I’m totally all about it. I imagine some manly men out there hear the song and scoff and say “hey man, this song ain’t for me.” OF COURSE it’s for you, embarrassed manly man. It’s catchy, it’s fun, it’s some of the purest ear candy 1983 had to offer us. The whole thing is just glorious. Mostly due to the fact that the beat loops and never stops the entire song. It’s just one giant hook. If you’ve heard this song, and I know you have, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
The production is so great I want to give a shoutout to co-producer Richard Chertoff for producing it. (Note: currently ordering thesaurus so I can come up with other words for “produce.”) I decided to see what other fun, girly, poppy masterpieces this guy has come up with, so I looked up his catalog and it turns out he was responsible for Joan Osborne’s “One Of Us” (a song that is neither poppy nor fun, though it is about God being one of us, a very real question in the minds of music consumers at one point… apparently?) and also a Sophie B. Hawkins song, though not the melancholy one that you used to listen to in the car with your mom in 1995.
Also, I just want to say that, as long as the hook is stellar, I love a repetitive pop song. And my, oh my, is “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” repetitive. So naturally, I adore it. Prime example of what I’m talking about – over a minute and a half of the song is literally Cyndi and her girlfriends singing these words:
They just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, girls just wanna have fun, girls just wanna have fun, they just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, girls just wanna have fun, girls just wanna have fun, when the workin, when the workin day is done, oh, when the workin day is done, oh girls, girls just wanna have fun, everybody! Ha! Ha! They just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, girls just wanna have fun, they just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, girls just wanna have fun, when the workin, when the workin day is done, oh, when the workin day is done, oh girls, girls just want to have fun, everybody! Ha! Ha! They just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, they just wanna, oh girls just wanna have fun…
Until it fades out, and the ear candy stops.
So, yeah. Girls Just Want To Have Fun? Iconic song. 5 out of 5 stars. NOTE: this is not a traditional “review” blog. I will not be assigning stars to the songs I talk about. But I just did, because I feel Cyndi Lauper deserves those stars. That is all.
ABOUT THIS BLOG:
You may be wondering what prompted me to start writing a blog. You may not be wondering. I am going to tell you anyway.
I didn’t just wake up one day and say, “I should write a blog.” It did not happen like that at all. No, what happened was, I woke up one day and said “I really need to go to the bathroom.” Ninety seconds later, as I was washing my hands, I looked in the mirror and said, “I should write a blog.” THAT’S how it happened.
But why? Why a blog? Well, based on my observations of nearly everyone around me, people like to read. Sure, they’re typically not reading a copy of Great Expectations or anything. But they do like to read… on their phones. What they are reading, I don’t know. Maybe the local news or 14 Reasons We Miss Our Giga Pets or maybe daily Facebook updates from Aunt Deborah about how her garden is failing her this year. I don’t really have any idea. There is a lot of material out there to read. I wanted to throw just a little bit more material out there in the world.
This is because I like to write. When people ask what my “hobbies and interests” are, I always say writing, but I also always throw in hiking, which is essentially more appealing than saying “I can and do walk sometimes.” Anyway, writing is something I like to do but don’t do enough of. Ah, what a dilemma. But not anymore, because I’ve taken it upon myself to write a song blog! As an avid radio consumer (21-23 hours a day) and lover of popular music, I feel this is a good project to take on, as I will never run out of material to write about; I don’t know exactly how many songs exist, but I know there are a lot. Like, at least a hundred songs. Kashmir, Tell It To My Heart, Free Fallin’, Cruel Summer, What I Like About You, um… there are others. I will think of them, and I will write about them. Stay tuned for more!
-Just John