Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper’s crazy hair, outrageous clothes, and Noo Yawk accent pegged her as a patron saint of goofballs, thrift-store queens, and misfits in the 1980s. But underneath her “she’s so unuuuuusual!” exterior lurks an understated pop balladeer and underrated singer who’s had a huge influence on many of modern music’s free-spirited, sexually liberated dudettes (and dudes). How big an impact? 2005’s The Body Acoustic found her reinventing “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Money Changes Everything,” “All Through the Night,” and “Time After Time” with J-pop stars Puffy AmiYumi, emo heartthrob Adam Lazzara, reggae stud Shaggy, and Sarah McLachlan, respectively.