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True Colors (Cyndi Lauper song)

"True Colors"
CyndiLTruecolor.jpg
Single by Cyndi Lauper
from the album True Colors
B-side "Heading for the Moon"
Released August 25, 1986
Format
Recorded March 3, 1986
Genre Pop
Length 3:46
Label Epic
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
Cyndi Lauper singles chronology
"The Goonies 'R' Good Enough"
(1985)
"True Colors"
(1986)
"Change of Heart"
(1986)
"True Colors"
True Colors Phil Collins.jpg
Single by Phil Collins
from the album ...Hits
B-side "Don't Lose My Number"
"Take Me Home"
Released 26 October 1998
Format CD
Genre Pop Rock, smooth jazz, R&B, blue-eyed soul
Length 4:34
Label Atlantic, Virgin, WEA
Writer(s) Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg
Producer(s) Babyface
Phil Collins singles chronology
"The Same Moon"
(1997)
"True Colors"
(1998)
"You'll Be in My Heart"
(1999)
"True Colours"
True Colours by Kasey Chambers.jpg
Single by Kasey Chambers
Released April 2003
Format CD
Genre Pop Rock, Country pop
Label EMI Music
Writer(s) Tom Kelly, Billy Steinberg
Producer(s) Nash Chambers
Kasey Chambers singles chronology
"If I Were You"
(2002)
"True Colours"
(2003)
"Hollywood"
(2004)

"True Colors" is a song written by American songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. It was both the title track and the first single released from American singer Cyndi Lauper's second album. It was the only original song on the album that Lauper did not help write.

"True Colors" spent two weeks in the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the last single from Lauper to occupy the top of the chart. It received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Billy Steinberg originally wrote "True Colors" about his own mother. Tom Kelly altered the first verse and the duo originally submitted the song to Anne Murray, who passed on recording it, and then to Cyndi Lauper. Their demo was in a form of piano based gospel ballad like "Bridge over Troubled Water". Steinberg told Songfacts that "Cyndi completely dismantled that sort of traditional arrangement and came up with something that was breathtaking and stark." Other songs they wrote for Lauper include "I Drove All Night" and "Unconditional Love", of which the former went on to be covered by Celine Dion, the latter by Susanna Hoffs.

It reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, 3 in Australia and New Zealand, and 12 on the UK Singles Chart.

"True Colors" also became a standard in the gay community. In various interviews, Lauper elaborated that the song had resonated with her because of the recent death of her friend, Gregory Natal, from HIV/AIDS. While not directly promoted as a song defending LGBT rights, Lauper is pleased that her song was adopted by that community. Years later, Lauper co-founded the True Colors Fund, a non-profit dedicated to eradicating LGBT youth homelessness.


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Wikipedia

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