"She Bop" is a song by American singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper, released as the third single from her debut studio albumShe's So Unusual. It reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 1984. Worldwide, the song is her most commercially successful single after "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time", and reached number 46 on the UK Singles Chart and number 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart. "She Bop" was her third consecutive Top 5 on the Hot 100. The song is also featured in the film Never Been Kissed.
Song information
The song was considered controversial, as it dealt with the subject matter of female masturbation. It was also included on the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen" list, due to its sexual lyrics; this led to the creation of the Parental Advisory sticker. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Lauper stated that she recorded the vocals of the song while nude. Lauper said she wanted little kids to think the song was about dancing, and to understand the real meaning as they got older. It could receive airplay as she never directly stated in the song what the meaning was. The single has been released in over 32 variations across the world, the most common being a two-track 7" vinyl single and a two-track 12" vinyl single. Lauper recorded a slow ballad version of the song for her album The Body Acoustic. Lauper stated at a concert during her 2013 She's So Unusual anniversary tour that she recorded the song topless in a dark room, while tickling herself.
Chart performance
"She Bop" was released on July 2, 1984 and became a success. The single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 52 in the issue dated July 21, 1984, and spent a total of 18 weeks on the chart, reaching a peak position of No. 3 in the issue dated September 8, 1984. It was the third single from Lauper's debut album to make the top 10 of the Hot 100. The single also reached number 10 on the Hot Dance/Club Play Songs chart the week of September 15, 1984 and placed at 34 on the Billboard year-end chart of 1984. On April 17, 1989, the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for the shipment of half a million copies across the United States.
Music video
An accompanying music video aired heavily on MTV and featured Lauper as a quirky sexual liberator leading the brainwashed masses to their own liberation. There are many double entendres indicating the song's true meaning, including a magazine that Lauper is staring at titled "Beefcake" and other sexual meanings such as the "self-service" sign and three gas pumps with the signs Good, Better and Nirvana in the cartoon part of the video, the vibrating motorcycle, the "masterbingo" part of the video with "Uncle Siggy" Sigmund Freud as host, and Lauper wearing blackout glasses with a white cane in several scenes of the video. The video is highly suggestive that the term "She Bop" is referencing female masturbation. The video does not go as far as the lyrics, as the magazine referenced in the song was a popular gay erotica magazine of the time, whereas the magazine Lauper holds represents the tamer – and somewhat closeted – erotica of an earlier era. Nor did the lyrical reference come out of the blue: Lauper has stated that finding a copy of Blueboy lying around in the recording studio provided the impetus for writing "She Bop." The music video was directed by Edd Griles. Mark Marek designed the characters in the animated sections of this music video, which were produced and directed by Jerry Lieberman, of NYC's Jerry Lieberman Productions. and the cover of the US 12" version. Wendi Richter and Lou Albano appear in the video, with Richter lip-synching the first few lines of the song.
Hong Kong singer Aaron Kwok recorded a Cantonese and a Mandarin version of the song, both called 絕對美麗.
Greek band Matisse covered the song for their 2007 album, Toys Up.
In July 2008, J-pop singer Nana Kitade covered "She Bop" for the album We Love Cyndi – Tribute to Cyndi Lauper; another version of the cover was featured on her 2009 album Bondage.
South Korean pop singer Wax has covered the song. Her version of it is called "Oppa" which means Brother.
Uzbek singer Vicki Vaka recorded her own rendition of the song in 1993.
American heavy metal bandGWAR performed a version of the song in October 2015 for The A.V. Club A.V. Undercover series, in a medley with The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop".
Ex-Reuben frontman Jamie Lenman, covered the song for his 2019 album Shuffle.
