1984 saw the emergence of a new female anthem for the ages in Girls Just Want to Have Fun - sort of an I Am Woman without the Birkenstocks, and in its own way just as much of a manifesto-styled call to arms for those without dangly bits. And what a way to launch the career of Ms Cyndi Lauper, the flame-haired (at the time) ragamuffin Brooklynite whose ensuing debut album, She’s So Unusual, blitzed the world – and still stands up as a fabulous listen almost 20 years on.

Punkish sneer? Check...

Having hung out for a while with New York outfit Blue Angel, Cyndi’s solo foray saw her hook up with the unfortunately named Hooters to provide much of her musical support. After the out-and-out poppiness of her debut, the rather more introspective True Colors followed, pretty much setting the blueprint for the career which followed, dotted with the odd hit single, but nothing approaching five smashes like Unusual yielded.

All the singles which had clips (the enchanting All Through the Night sadly missed out) are here, all complete and many with intros in tact that were often severed from TV screenings. The notable and disappointing omission is Goonies R Good Enough, no doubt due to some piddly rights issue or the like. Anyway, we’re taken on a trip from the hyper-coloured bounce of Girls… and the not-veiled-at-all-really ode to self gratification She Bop, to the live take on Money Changes Everything headlong into the subtler, more grown-up, sometimes even black and white world of later singles such as the cover of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? and the little heard Sally’s Pigeons. Oh, that terrible remake of Girls… (Hey Now) is also here, which should at least please completists, if not those with working ears.

Dotted throughout is a mini-documentary thingy entitled Cyndi at Coney Island, which sees a bright yellow-headed Ms Lauper hanging out with her spookily omnipresent friend Aida, dispensing somewhat spaced-out musings on her career, songs, influences and life in general as she sees it.

AGH! Cartman in the buff!

Anybody who bopped about screeching into a hairbrush singing that song when it came out like they really meant it grrl will almost certainly get a buzz out of the first half of this release, the second, more adult half may not have such instant appeal, but give it some time and you’ll be treated to some missed-by-many little musical gems with often superb visual accompaniment, much of which was directed by Cyndi herself.

Track listing…

NTSC and full frame. Now, the latter’s understandable considering the age of what’s on offer here, but the former is both annoying and just plain dumb in what was, at least at last check, a PAL market. Thankfully at least I’m armed with a setup that’s able to show it, so I can actually write this bit of the review. So what’s it all look like? Well, perhaps not surprisingly very colourful, especially at the gloriously visual assault that is the outset. Many of the earlier clips featuring film show signs of age, with specks being the main icky things of note; however everything comes up pretty well for a collection of video clips, be it general vision, those dodgy special effects or brief excursions into animation land. A pleasant bonus is subtitles for both doco bits and all the clips, although their NTSC-ness sees their bottoms annoyingly absent, well at least on my screen.

Two options are served up for audio, Linear PCM stereo and a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The 5.1 has its fun moments, and utilises the subwoofwoof pleasingly at times, but more often than not sounds thin where it should be fat and fat where it should be thin. Anyway, it was designed to be heard in stereo, which is probably why the PCM mix sounds much better, despite it not making use of all those expensive extra speakers. All is synched well, and there are no noticeable glitches or such like to make us all pissy and stuff.

Don’t hold your breath awaiting anything in the way of extraordinary extras to pop up and go “boo!�, as you’ll go kind of blue and then most likely die – and at DVDnet we like to keep our viewers all alive and happy and stuff, OK? All that’s on offer is a frighteningly brief five mini-page Biography and a nigh on useless Discography which simply shows covers for seven albums – oh, and the one for the ‘home video’ version of this here very DVD. Now, as this discography thing was obviously made for the DVD, is it just me who thinks that just a little teensy bit strange?

Featuring some of the most gloriously carefree and downright fun American pop of the ‘80s, the punderfully titled Twelve Deadly Cyns... is a blast for those into such delightful frivolity. Available now in a double pack with the greatest hits CD of the same name happily sitting inside, as a part of Sony’s Now See Hear series, it represents sensational value – and with formats included that are suitable for playing just about anywhere you go it’s even more likely to ensure that everybody bops…