At Last

Personnel includes: Cyndi Lauper (vocals); Tony Bennett (vocals); Kat Dyson, Gray Sargent (guitar, background vocals); Allison Cornell (violin, viola); Elena Barere, Jonathan Dinklage, Narciso Figueroa, Joyce Hammann, Ann Leathers, Katherine Livolsi-Stern, Nancy McAlhaney, Jan Mullen, Paul Woodiel (violin); Carol Emanuel (harp); Mark Stewart (cello); Aaron Heick (flute); Ronnie Cuber (bass clarinet); Steve Gaboury (accordion, melodica, piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards); Stevie Wonder (harmonica); Mitch Frohman (tenor & baritone saxophone); John Walsh (trumpet); Dan Reagan (trombone); Lee Musiker (piano); Rob Mathes (keyboards); Ben Street, Bill Wittman, Larry Glazner, Paul Langosch (bass); Sammy Merendino, Clayton Cameron, Steve Jordan (drums); Sheila E., Carlito Soto (percussion).
Recorded at Live Wire, Clinton Recording Studios and Avatar Studios, New York, New York; Bennett Studios, Englewood, New Jersey.
Beneath the kooky persona she has projected in the past, Cyndi Lauper is a nice New York City girl with quite a set of pipes. AT LAST finds her revisiting the music she heard growing up in Ozone Park section of Queens and paying tribute to these songs by way of unique arrangements. Going beyond the typical route of solely dipping into the great American standards songbook, Lauper casts her net far and wide, coming up with material associated with Dionne Warwick, the Animals, and Edith Piaf.
Among her more imaginative renditions are the ska-fueled run through "On the Sunny Side of the Street" and the Latin-flavored treatment of Maurice Williams' "Stay," featuring help from Sheila E. and a delightfully brassy horn section. Stevie Wonder also helps out, contributing harmonica to a jazzy "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)," a song originally recorded by Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett, the latter who duets with Lauper on a late-night lounge version of "Makin' Whoopee." Working with the kind of stripped-down arrangements sympathetic to her keen sense of range, AT LAST finds Cyndi Lauper finally coming home.