Cyndi Lauper on Her Iconic 'She's So Unusual' Album: The Songs 'Were About Empowering All Us Freaks' — billboard.com

Women didn't always rule the Hot 100. In 1984, female artists accounted for only four of the 20 songs to reach No. 1: Deniece Williams, Tina Turner, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, a Queens-born singer with a four-octave range and a Day-Glo sense of style. Lauper's 1983 solo debut, She's So Unusual, reaped material from eclectic sources -- Prince ("When You Were Mine") post-punks The Brains ("Money Changes Everything") and minor Philly new-waver Robert Hazard, whose song Lauper sex-changed to a female point of view and turned into the feminist bubble-gum anthem "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

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