She Bop
Encyclopedia
"She Bop" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper
, released as the third single from her album She's So Unusual
. It reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
chart on June 9, 1984. Worldwide, the song is her most commercially successful single after "Time After Time
", and reached number 46 on the UK Singles Chart
and number 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart. "She Bop" was the third consecutive Top 10 on her Hot 100.
's "Filthy Fifteen
" list, due to its sexual lyrics; this led to the creation of the Parental Advisory
sticker. (Other songs on the "Filthy Fifteen
" list included tracks by Madonna
, Prince
, and AC/DC
.) In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Lauper stated that she recorded the vocals of the song while nude.
Lauper said she wanted little kids to think the song was about dancing, and to understand the real meaning as they got older. She never directly stated in the song what the meaning of the song was, so it could receive airplay.
The single has been released in over 32 variations across the world, the most common being a two track 7" vinyl
single (with varying covers) and a two track 12" vinyl single (also with varying covers).
Lauper recorded a slow ballad version of the song for her album The Body Acoustic
.
at #52 in the issue dated July 21, 1984, and spent a total of twenty-five weeks on the chart, reaching a peak position of #3 in the issue dated September 8, 1984. It was the third single from Lauper's debut album to make the top 10 of the Hot 100. The single also reached number ten on the Hot Dance/Club Play Songs chart the week of September 15, 1984 and placed at 34 on the Billboard year-end chart of 1984. On April 17, 1989, the song was certified gold
by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) for the shipment of a million copies across United States.
aired heavily on MTV
and featured Lauper as a quirky sexual liberator leading the brainwashed masses to their own liberation. (This was done in metaphor showing teenagers as fast-food consuming zombies.) There were many double meanings indicating the song's true meaning, including a magazine that Lauper is staring at titled "Beefcake" and other sexual meanings such as the "self-service" sign and three gas pumps with the signs Good, Better and Nirvana in the cartoon part of the video, the vibrating motorcycle, the "masterbingo" part of the video with "Uncle Siggy" Sigmund Freud
as host, and Lauper wearing blackout glasses with a white cane in several scenes of the video. In fact, the video doesn't go as far as the lyrics, as the magazine referenced in the song ("...in the pages of a Blueboy magazine
") was a popular gay erotica magazine of the time, whereas the magazine Lauper holds represents the tamer — and somewhat closeted — erotica of an earlier era. Nor did the lyrical reference come out of the blue: Lauper has stated that finding a copy of Blueboy lying around in the recording studio provided the impetus for writing "She Bop."
US 12" Single
UK 12" Single
Nominations
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...
, released as the third single from her album She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual is the debut studio album by American pop singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper. Released in 1983 by Portrait Records, the album catapulted Lauper to stardom with such hits as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", "All Through the Night", and "Money Changes...
. It reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart on June 9, 1984. Worldwide, the song is her most commercially successful single after "Time After Time
Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper song)
"Time After Time" is a song by American singer Cyndi Lauper, released as the second single from her album She's So Unusual. It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 9, 1984, and remained there for two weeks...
", and reached number 46 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
and number 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart. "She Bop" was the third consecutive Top 10 on her Hot 100.
Song information
The song was considered controversial, as it dealt with the subject matter of masturbation. It was also included on the Parents Music Resource CenterParents Music Resource Center
The Parents Music Resource Center was an American committee formed in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual.The committee was founded by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice...
's "Filthy Fifteen
Parents Music Resource Center
The Parents Music Resource Center was an American committee formed in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual.The committee was founded by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice...
" list, due to its sexual lyrics; this led to the creation of the Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory
Parental Advisory is a message affixed by the Recording Industry Association of America to audio and recordings in the United States containing excessive use of profane language and/or sexual references. Albums began to be labeled for "explicit lyrics" in 1985, after pressure from the Parents...
sticker. (Other songs on the "Filthy Fifteen
Parents Music Resource Center
The Parents Music Resource Center was an American committee formed in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual.The committee was founded by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice...
" list included tracks by Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, and AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
.) In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Lauper stated that she recorded the vocals of the song while nude.
Lauper said she wanted little kids to think the song was about dancing, and to understand the real meaning as they got older. She never directly stated in the song what the meaning of the song was, so it could receive airplay.
The single has been released in over 32 variations across the world, the most common being a two track 7" vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
single (with varying covers) and a two track 12" vinyl single (also with varying covers).
Lauper recorded a slow ballad version of the song for her album The Body Acoustic
The Body Acoustic
The Body Acoustic is the ninth studio album released by Cyndi Lauper. It consists of ten previously released tracks which have been re-recorded and re-arranged acoustically, as well as two entirely new songs. The album title is a play on Walt Whitman's poem I Sing the Body Electric, with the word...
.
Chart performance
"She Bop" was released on February 17, 1984 and became a success. The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
at #52 in the issue dated July 21, 1984, and spent a total of twenty-five weeks on the chart, reaching a peak position of #3 in the issue dated September 8, 1984. It was the third single from Lauper's debut album to make the top 10 of the Hot 100. The single also reached number ten on the Hot Dance/Club Play Songs chart the week of September 15, 1984 and placed at 34 on the Billboard year-end chart of 1984. On April 17, 1989, the song was certified gold
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) for the shipment of a million copies across United States.
Music video
An accompanying music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
aired heavily on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and featured Lauper as a quirky sexual liberator leading the brainwashed masses to their own liberation. (This was done in metaphor showing teenagers as fast-food consuming zombies.) There were many double meanings indicating the song's true meaning, including a magazine that Lauper is staring at titled "Beefcake" and other sexual meanings such as the "self-service" sign and three gas pumps with the signs Good, Better and Nirvana in the cartoon part of the video, the vibrating motorcycle, the "masterbingo" part of the video with "Uncle Siggy" Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
as host, and Lauper wearing blackout glasses with a white cane in several scenes of the video. In fact, the video doesn't go as far as the lyrics, as the magazine referenced in the song ("...in the pages of a Blueboy magazine
Blueboy (magazine)
Blueboy is a gay pornographic magazine with pictures of men in various states of undress, first published in California in 1975.Originally featuring more "softcore" images Blueboy is a gay pornographic magazine (founded by Elisandro Patino) with pictures of men in various states of undress,...
") was a popular gay erotica magazine of the time, whereas the magazine Lauper holds represents the tamer — and somewhat closeted — erotica of an earlier era. Nor did the lyrical reference come out of the blue: Lauper has stated that finding a copy of Blueboy lying around in the recording studio provided the impetus for writing "She Bop."
Official versions
US/UK 7" Single- "She Bop" – 3:38
- "Witness" – 3:38
US 12" Single
- "She Bop" (Special Dance Mix) – 6:16
- "She Bop" (Instrumental) – 5:20
UK 12" Single
- "She Bop" (Special Dance Mix) – 6:18
- "She Bop" (Instrumental) – 5:20
- "Witness" – 3:38
Cover versions
- Indie band FrancineFrancine (band)-History:Francine was founded by Clayton Scoble, who previously performed with Til Tuesday and Aimee Mann, and was a member of Poundcake. He assembled the group toward the end of 1997 and soon after self-released a few solo demo tapes. The newly formed band then released an EP and a full-length on...
recorded a cover of the song. - GreekGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
band MatisseMatisse (band)Matisse is an English language-singing alternative rock band from Athens, Greece formed in 1999. They took their name from the famous French painter Henri Matisse.- Early history :...
covered the song for their 2007 album Toys UpToys UpToys Up is the third studio album by the Greek music band Matisse released in Greece in 2007.-Music style:Compared to the band's earlier albums, the style of Toys Up is unexpected. Not following the feeling and pop rock sound of their debut Cheap As Art, Toys Up introduces another side of the band...
. - In July 2008 J-popJ-pop, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
singer Nana KitadeNana KitadeNana Kitade , is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician. She has had success as a solo artist, model, actress, fashion designer, and the lead singer of the Germany based noise pop band, "Loveless"....
covered "She Bop" for the album We Love Cyndi - Tribute to Cyndi Lauper. - Korean pop singer Wax (singer)Wax (singer)- Career :Before her debut, Wax was the lead vocalist of a band called "Dog" in the year 1998.She made her debut in the professional music scene singing the song "Oppa", which is a cover version of Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop"...
recorded a cover of the song. Cover song is called Oppa. - UzbekUzbekistanUzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
singer Vicki Vaka recorded her own rendition of the song in 1993.
Charts
| Chart (1984) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
6 |
| Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... |
5 |
| Canadian Singles Chart Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
5 |
| Cash Box Top 100 Singles Cashbox Top 100 number-one singles of 1984 This is a list of singles that reached number one on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart in 1984, present in chronological order.-References:*http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/randypny3/cashbox/1984.html*http://www.cashboxmagazine.com/archives/80s_files/1984.html... |
3 |
| French Singles Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
34 |
| German Singles Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
19 |
| German Airplay Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
10 |
| Netherlands Singles Chart 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... |
34 |
| Oricon Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... Japan Hot 100 Japan Hot 100 The Japan Hot 100 is a music singles chart in Japan. It is compiled by Billboard and Hanshin Contents Link ever since February 2008. The chart is updated every Wednesday at billboard-japan.com and every Thursday at billboard.com .... |
3 |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... RIANZ Singles Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
6 |
| Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
9 |
| Swiss Singles Chart Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
10 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
46 |
| U.S. United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
3 |
| U.S. United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... Billboard Hot Dance Club Play |
10 |
| U.S. United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End charts are a cumulative measure of a single or album's performance in the United States, based upon the Billboard magazine charts during any given chart year. Billboard's "chart year" runs from the first week of December to the final week in November... |
34 |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... RPM Year-End RPM Year-End RPM Year-End charts are a cumulative measure of a single or album's performance in Canada, based upon the RPM magazine charts during any given chart year.-RPM year-end number ones:... |
25 |
Certifications
Awards and nominations
Won- 1985 - BMI Awards for Pop Award
Nominations
- 19851985 MTV Video Music AwardsThe 1985 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 13, 1985, honoring the best music videos from May 2, 1984, to May 1, 1985. The show was hosted by Eddie Murphy at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
- MTV Video Music Award for Best Female VideoMTV Video Music Award for Best Female VideoThe MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video is one of the original general awards that has been handed out every year since the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2007, however, the award was briefly renamed Female Artist of the Year, and it awarded the artist's whole body of work...
External links
- Official Cyndi Lauper website
- Video on VH1 ClassicVH1 ClassicVH1 Classic is a television network, launched on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom and primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...
website