Blue Angel (band)

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Blue Angel was the band that featured Cyndi Lauper before her rise to fame as a solo singer. The lineup also included John Turi on keyboard instrument and saxophone, Arthur "Rockin' A" Neilson (guitar), Lee Brovitz (bass guitar) and Johnny Morelli (drums). The sound engineer's name is Patrick P. Norton. Lauper and Turi wrote the bulk of their material, and the group also covered pop standards, such as Mann/Weil's "I'm Gonna Be Strong" (which Lauper covered again in a 1994 album). Blue Angel was briefly popular on the New York club scene, playing a kind of retro-rockabilly that was then hip (see X, some early The B-52's and The Cramps), but was far more accessible and romantic than many practitioners of the period.

Their only album, the self-titled Blue Angel, was released in 1980 to critical acclaim and moderate sales. It featured a sparse punk rock and New Wave-styled cover in primary red and floating band member photos. Like much of Lauper's later solo career, the sales for the album was more successful overseas than in America, but even so the only track to achieve high chart status was "I'm Gonna Be Strong", which reached #37 in the Netherlands. 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 (song list: "Shining Star," "Moments," "Magazine Cover," "Jim Jim Jive," "No One's At Home," "Oh What A Thrill," "I Don't Know," "Witness" and "Magazine Cover #2") that was never released as there was a hierarchy change at Polygram Germany at that time and 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 the famed nightclub Studio 54.

In 1984, after Lauper's subsequent success, the Blue Angel record was re-released, this time with a yellow cover, and finally in an exclusive 5,000 copy limited compact disc pressing in 2005 from Hip-O Select Records. 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 now defunct Lone Star Cafe. The band has since disbanded completely.