About The Song
American singer Cyndi Lauper recorded a version for her 1983 album She’s So Unusual. Shear said he was surprised that his “folk song” was interpreted by Lauper as “a drum machine and techno thing”. According to Lauper, she wanted it to be just like Shear’s version, with a bit more of an acoustic sound. However, she changed her mind, saying that she wanted to remake it in her own style.
For her cover version, Lauper transposed the key up a minor third to A-flat major, and kept the tempo at the same 96 beats per minute as the original.[failed verification] The song is set in common time. Lauper’s voice spans an octave and a fourth between G3 and D♭5. Jules Shear himself makes a guest appearance on Lauper’s version, singing a wordless falsetto melody near the end, as well as the lower harmony in the choruses. The chorus was unintentionally altered by Lauper from the Shear version when she sang the upper harmony vocal as the lead vocal. The song follows up “Time After Time”‘s love and its tug at heart-strings concept.
Reception for her version was mostly positive. Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times said that the song was the one that “showed her impressive range to best advantage.” Cash Box said that “Cyndi Lauper strikes again with a strong vocal performance” and praised the “hypnotic keyboard melody” and “emotion charged harmonies.” The Philadelphia Inquirer said that she had a “strong voice” in the song. However, another Philadelphia Inquirer review said that the song was “a not terribly good version of Jules Shear’s terribly good [song].” Richard Harrington of The Washington Post believed that it was her most reflective song. Kevin East of Sensible Sound said that the song was “a heavy, melancholy tune.” Leslie Gray Streeter of the Palm Beach Post said that the song was “lovely” and “delicate.”X Even Shear himself was a fan of Lauper’s version, saying “The Cyndi Lauper thing where she did ‘All Through the Night,’ that was great because she did it so differently than the way I did. I liked that, too.”However, the St. Petersburg Times did not like the song, saying that it was a “pedestrian filler number” on the album.
Video
Lyrics
All through the night
I’ll be awake and I’ll be with you
All through the night
This precious time when time is new
Oh
All through the night today
Knowin’ that we feel the same without sayin’
We have no past, we won’t reach back
Keep with me forward all through the night
And once we start, the meter clicks
And it goes running all through the night
Until it ends, there is no end
All through the night
Stray cat is crying so stray cat sings back
All through the night
They have forgotten, what bindin’ they lack
Oh
Under those white street lamps
There is a little chance they may see
We have no past, we won’t reach back
Keep with me forward all through the night
And once we start, the meter clicks
And it goes running all through the night
Until it ends, there is no end
Oh
The sleep in your eyes is enough
Let me be there, let me stay there awhile
We have no past, we won’t reach back
Keep with me forward all through the night
And once we start, the meter clicks
And it goes running all through the night
Until it ends, there is no end
Keep with me forward all through the night
And once we start, the meter clicks
And it goes running all through the night
Until it ends, there is no end