Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, celebrates the 35th anniversary of Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors with the release of a newly expanded digital edition of the album.
The True Colors 35th anniversary expanded digital edition includes the original album in its entirety plus two bonus tracks: Junior Vasquez’ Pride Remix of “True Colors” and “Heading for the Moon,” the original B-side of the “True Colors” single, released on DSPs.
Originally released October 14, 1986, on Portrait (Epic Records’ sister label), True Colors, Cyndi Lauper’s eagerly-awaited closely-watched second solo studio album, lived up to the promise of her Best New Artist Grammy-winning debut, She’s So Unusual, released three years earlier, also on October 14 (1983).
True Colors reached #4 on the Billboard 200 and has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. In the United States, the True Colors album has been certified 2x platinum by the RIAA. The RIAA has certified the “True Colors” single platinum as of October 14, 2021.
Two tracks from the album earned Grammy Award nominations: “True Colors” for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and “911” for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Centered around the moods and themes of its anthemic title track (first released as a 7″ single in late summer 1986, hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100), True Colors was produced by Cyndi Lauper, with Lennie Petze, confirming her status as a superstar with staying power while offering fans a tracklist of original new songs (most co-written by Cyndi including “Change of Heart,” which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100) and classic soul covers (Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and the Dixie Cups’ “Iko Iko”).
True Colors title track, co-authored by the 1980’s hit-minting songwriting team Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, became an immediate classic. Combining an unforgettable melody with a powerful universal message, the “True Colors” single hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 25, 1986 and has been embraced for the past three decades as an anthem of liberation in the LGBTQ community across the globe.
With Cyndi Lauper providing lead vocals and arrangements, True Colors features contributions from guest artists including Nile Rodgers (guitars: “Change of Heart”); Rick Derringer (guitars: “Calm Inside the Storm,” which he cowrote with Cyndi, and “The Faraway Nearby”); Adrian Belew (guitars and arrangements: “What’s Going On”); The Bangles (backing vocals: “Change of Heart”); Billy Joel (backing vocals: “Maybe He’ll Know”); Ellie Greenwich (backing vocals: “Calm Inside the Storm”); Aimee Mann (backing vocals: “The Faraway Nearby”) and others.
Cyndi was also credited as an art director for True Colors, which featured cover photography by Annie Leibovitz.
In 2008, following the success of her multi-artist True Colors Tour for LGBTQ equality, Cyndi Lauper co-founded (formerly True Colors Fund), a nonprofit organization addressing the issue of youth homelessness. TCU focuses on the unique experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, who make up 40% of the homeless youth population in America.
Cyndi Lauper has been called “an iconoclastic vocalist who revolutionized the role of women in rock and roll” by AllMusic’s Lindsay Planer. Cyndi’s sold more than 50 million records worldwide and won awards at the Grammys, Emmys, Tonys, the New York’s Outer Critics Circle, MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Billboard Awards, Billboard’s Women In Music Icon Award, the 2019 High Note Global Prize issued by United Nations Human Rights, and American Music Awards (AMAs). She’s been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April 2016.
