Hear Shimmering Cyndi Lauper Outtake From ‘She’s So Unusual’ Era

Cyndi Lauper’s groundbreaking debut, She’s So Unusual, turned 30 in October, a milestone for an album defined by its timelessness. And that’s not just a “Time After Time” joke — flashes of its DNA of artists are in everyone from Santigold to Karen O to Miley Cyrus.

She’s So Unusual Makes Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums of the Eighties

The two-disc She’s So Unusual: A 30th Anniversary Celebration, due April 1st, teams the album with demos, rehearsals, B-sides, live tracks, and remixes. Featuring the iconic No. 2 smash “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Unusual was arguably the first time explicitly punk-influenced elements were front-and-center on the pop landscape, both musically and via Lauper’s Patrick Lucas-styled ensembles, dressing up the droll Reagan decade in feminist chutzpah.

“Rules & Regulations,” a song ultimately left off the album, is being excavated for the set via a rehearsal recording from 1983. “The recording we have from the rehearsal was done using an old Sony Walkman,” Lauper tells Rolling Stone. “In the end, the song didn’t make the record. You have to remember back in the Eighties, the main format for albums was vinyl. Each side of the album had to be under 30 minutes, so you had to decide what the best 60 minutes of music was. This song didn’t make the list, even though I thought it was a good song.” In the MP3 era, “Rules & Regulations” gets a second chance.

You can stream “Rules & Regulations” below and catch Lauper on tour with Cher in spring and summer. She’ll also be casting the national tour for the Broadway hit Kinky Boots and then working on a new album, her eleventh, projected to be out in 2015.

Cyndi Lauper – “Rules and Regulations”