Blue Angel was a retro-rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 band that featured Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper

Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...

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

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

 and saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

, Arthur "Rockin' A" Neilson (guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

), Lee Brovitz

Shadows of Knight

The Shadows of Knight are an American rock band from the Chicago suburbs, formed in the 1960s, who play a form of British blues mixed with influences from their native city. At the time they first started recording, the band's self-description was as follows: "The Stones, Animals and Yardbirds...

 (bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

) and Johnny Morelli

Tuff Darts

Tuff Darts is an American punk rock band. They were one of the first bands to establish an audience at CBGB. They reached their greatest fame in the mid-late 1970s with such songs as "Slash", " Nuclear Waste" and their biggest hit single, "All For The Love of Rock and Roll." The band appeared at...

 (drums

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

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

Barry Mann

Barry Mann is an American songwriter, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil.-Career:...

/Weil

Cynthia Weil

Cynthia Weil is a prominent American songwriter. She is famous for having written many songs together with her husband Barry Mann....

's "I'm Gonna Be Strong

I'm Gonna Be Strong

"I'm Gonna Be Strong" is a song written by the famed songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It was first recorded by Frankie Laine in 1963 and released as a single on Columbia Records. However, the song did not become a major hit until 1964, when Gene Pitney released his version as a single...

" (which Lauper covered again in a 1994 album). Blue Angel was briefly popular on the New York club scene.

History

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

Lone Star Cafe

The Lone Star Cafe was a cafe and club in New York City at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 13th Street, from 1976 to 1989. The Texas-themed cafe opened in February 1976 and became the premier country music venue in New York and booked big names and especially acts from Texas, like Asleep at the...

. The band has since disbanded completely.

Discography

Their only album, the self-titled Blue Angel, was released in 1980. It featured a sparse punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 and New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

-styled cover in primary red and floating band member photos. The sales for the album were more successful overseas than in America. The only track to achieve high chart status was "I'm Gonna Be Strong", which reached #37 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. Another song from the album, "Maybe He'll Know", was rerecorded by Lauper on her second solo album, True Colors, in 1986.

In 1980 Blue Angel recorded a second album for Polydor that was never released due to a change in management at Polygram Germany; they, along with other artists, were dropped from the label. The band continued to gig around New York until 1982 with their final concert that fall at Studio 54

Studio 54

Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...

.

• 1980: Blue Angel

Singles

Year	Song	Album
1980	"I'm Gonna Be Strong I'm Gonna Be Strong "I'm Gonna Be Strong" is a song written by the famed songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It was first recorded by Frankie Laine in 1963 and released as a single on Columbia Records. However, the song did not become a major hit until 1964, when Gene Pitney released his version as a single... "	Blue Angel
	"I Had a Love I Had a Love "I Had a Love" was the second single released by the band Blue Angel from their 1980 album, also titled Blue Angel. Released either with the picture sleeve above or in a generic sleeve, it uniquely featured a different B-side in each country that saw its release... "
	"Late Late (song) "Late" was an obscure single released in very limited numbers by the band Blue Angel, taken from their 1980 album also called Blue Angel. Lee Brovitz was the primary songwriter, sharing co-writing credits with Lauper and Turi... "
	"Fade"

Re-releases

In 1984, after Lauper's solo success, Blue Angel was re-released, this time with a yellow cover. In 2005 a 5000 copy compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 pressing was released by Hip-O Select Records.

External links

• http://blueangelband.webs.com/
• http://www.cyndilaupernews.com/