Cyndi Lauper’s second album followed the extraordinary success of She’s So Unusual with a more measured collection that produced one of her defining songs and reached No. 1 in Australia.
by Paul Cashmere
Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors turns 40 on September 15, 2026, marking four decades since the album that followed her landmark debut She’s So Unusual established her as one of the major pop artists of the 1980s. Released by Portrait Records in 1986, True Colors reached No. 4 on the US Billboard 200 and spent four weeks at No. 1 in Australia, while selling an estimated seven million copies worldwide.
The album was released at a critical point in Cyndi Lauper’s career. She’s So Unusual had made her one of the world’s best-selling artists, leaving the second album under considerable commercial pressure. Rather than attempting to reproduce the formula of her debut, Cyndi Lauper took a greater role in the creative process, producing True Colors with Lennie Petze and writing or co-writing most of the material.
The title song became the album’s most enduring recording. Written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, “True Colors” gave Cyndi Lauper a No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single and eventually became associated with a much broader cultural life beyond its original release. The song was subsequently used in major sporting and commercial settings, including the 1988 Summer Olympics and 2003 Rugby World Cup, and later appeared in the 2010 film Sex and the City 2.
True Colors was not built entirely around new Lauper compositions. The album included Cyndi Lauper’s interpretations of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and the traditional song “Iko Iko”, while “Change of Heart”, written by Essra Mohawk with additional lyrics by Cyndi Lauper, became another major single.
The production brought together an unusually broad group of musicians. Nile Rodgers played guitar on “Change of Heart”, while Adrian Belew contributed guitar to “What’s Going On”. The Bangles provided backing vocals on “Change of Heart”, Billy Joel sang backing vocals on “Maybe He’ll Know”, and Aimee Mann contributed backing vocals to “The Faraway Nearby”. The album also featured Rick Derringer, Anton Fig and other established studio players.
Cyndi Lauper had originally expected Rick Chertoff, producer of She’s So Unusual, to work on the second album. According to Lauper’s later account, that relationship did not continue and the production responsibilities instead moved to Lauper and Lennie Petze. The change gave Lauper greater control over arrangements, performances and the overall direction of the record.
The resulting album was more varied than its singles might suggest. “Boy Blue” addressed the AIDS crisis and became an important part of Cyndi Lauper’s catalogue, while tracks such as “911”, “Calm Inside the Storm” and “One Track Mind” demonstrated a willingness to move beyond the straightforward pop structures that had driven her debut.
Critics were broadly positive, although the response was not unanimous. Reviews acknowledged Cyndi Lauper’s distinctive voice and the album’s range, while some felt that its production reflected the highly processed studio sound of the mid-1980s. That mixture of pop accessibility and stylistic experimentation became part of the album’s identity.
Commercially, True Colors confirmed that the success of She’s So Unusual was not a one-album phenomenon. “Change of Heart” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, “What’s Going On” reached No. 12 and “Boy Blue” reached No. 71. The album reached No. 2 in Japan and No. 3 in New Zealand, alongside Top 10 positions in Canada, Switzerland and Iceland.
In Australia, True Colors became a major success, reaching No. 1 on the albums chart. The achievement was particularly significant because the Australian market had already embraced She’s So Unusual, demonstrating the strength of Cyndi Lauper’s audience beyond the United States.
The album also earned Cyndi Lauper two Grammy nominations in 1987. “True Colors” was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, while “911” received a nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. “True Colors” and “What’s Going On” also received MTV Video Music Award nominations.
Four decades later, the album’s place in Cyndi Lauper’s catalogue is defined less by its attempt to follow a blockbuster debut than by the breadth of its material and the longevity of its title song. True Colors represents the point at which Cyndi Lauper moved from breakout pop phenomenon to an artist exercising greater creative control over her work.
Tracklisting
Change Of Heart
Maybe He’ll Know
Boy Blue
True Colors
Calm Inside The Storm
What’s Going On
Iko Iko
The Faraway Nearby
911
One Track Mind
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