“We tried it every which way - rocking it out, doing it ska - but she still hated it”: How a reshaped guitar riff ended up saving Cyndi Lauper’s breakthrough hit
How Come On Eileen helped to inspire Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
![Cyndi Lauper](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iCL3G8ZgXrpCkVqWHDHD9n-320-80.jpg)
Pity the lot of the session player. For their - often crucial - contributions to songs invariably go unnoticed. And unrewarded.
Take Eric Bazilian for example. The ex-Hooters guitarist has played with Mick Jagger and Joan Osborne – indeed, he wrote Osborne’s 1995 hit One Of Us. But his greatest contribution to pop music might be something he added to Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 breakthrough hit.
In the new issue of Guitar World, Bazilian reveals that he played a crucial role in shaping that soundtrack to a million and one hen nights, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Apparently, it was a song which she initially dismissed completely.
“She was on board with everything except Girls,” Bazilian says. “She hated it. (She said) ‘I will never sing that song!’”
So Bazilian tried to reshape the opening riff. And he was suitably inspired by an unlikely source.
“We tried it every which way - rocking it out, doing it ska - but she still hated it,” he continues. “One day, I heard Come On Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, so I started playing the opening lick of Girl with that feel.”
“Cyndi started singing to it, Rob played a keyboard pad on top, and (producer) Rick Chertoff’s eyes opened wide. It was like magic.”
Get the MusicRadar Newsletter
Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.
“By the end of the day, Cyndi was saying, 'I’ve always wanted to sing that song!' She thought it would be very empowering to women.”
Lauper did play her part, though. In a 2019 interview with ABC News Radio, she revealed that she tweaked the original lyrics, which were written by Robert Hazard, to make them less cringy.
Girls... would be the lead single from Lauper’s She’s So Unusual album and made Number Two in both the US and UK charts. It’s since gone on to become a modern standard and no doubt will still be played long after Lauper, Bazilian or indeed all of us are long gone.
Seeing how successful the song has gone on to become has been a bittersweet experience for Bazilian, who received nothing for his suggestions other than his session fee. “I saw the Barbie movie, and all they used was my guitar riff,” he says. “People hear those first three notes, and they know what the song is. I played that, but I didn’t get credit for myself because I was paid as a session musician.
“It just gets tiring because I’m not getting paid. But when I saw Barbie and I heard that riff, it’s like, I know what a sync like that is worth.”
Will Simpson is a freelance music expert whose work has appeared in Classic Rock, Classic Pop, Guitarist and Total Guitar magazine. He is the author of 'Freedom Through Football: Inside Britain's Most Intrepid Sports Club' and his second book 'An American Cricket Odyssey' is due out in 2025
“There is a line there that you cross where you are just spending money for the sake of the name or the label”: Slash says you don’t need to spend “an arm and a leg” to get a guitar that’s as good as you’ll ever need
“We feel really empowered with this new lineup and the vibrant and energised new music we’ve made together”: Linkin Park reunite, livestream a show, announce live arena dates and a comeback album, and share the video for its first single