Song of the Day 10/13: Cyndi Lauper, “Money Changes Everything”

What makes so many politicians succumb to the lure of lucre? I think Cyndi Lauper summed it up. Actually, a guy named Tom Gray, who led an Atlanta new wave band in the late ’70s, summed it up first on an indie label in 1978, and did it so well that it got the Brains a major-label contract. The Brains rerecorded it for their eponymous LP in 1980, when it made some year’s best lists.

Greil Marcus liked the Brains’ version, but gushed over Lauper’s: “Cyndi Lauper’s version makes the original sound compromised. She makes you wonder if Brains composer and singer Tom Gray even knew what he was talking about.” As the fifth single from “She’s So Unusual” it reached No. 27 on the Hot 100. If it sounds Hooterized, that’s because Rob Hyman plays keyboards and Eric Bazilian plays guitar and harmonium.

The Brains broke up in the early ’80s. Gray eventually hooked up with a blues band, Delta Moon, who recorded an Americana version in 2007.