It is no secret that I am both a Wikipedia and folk music junkie. I have spent many hours, probably days at this point, clicking from one Wiki link to another, just following a random flow of whatever information I find interesting. I look up everything from game shows to particle physics, unicycles to unicorns. These searches often lead to strange, procrastination-filled odysseys. One such search took place while reading the Wikipedia for Steve Forbert.

Steve is a singer-song writer perhaps most known for his 1979/’80 hit “Romeo’s Tune”:

Steve was one of the many singer-songwriters throughout the 70’s labeled as “the next Bob Dylan”, a list that includes Loudon Wainwright III and Bruce Springsteen. According to an interview with NPR, Steve never paid much mind to that label and saw it as a cliche:

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he says. “You can’t pay any attention to that. It was just a cliche back then, and it’s nothing I take seriously. I’m off the hook — I don’t have to be smarter than everybody else and know all the answers like Bob Dylan.” 

Over time, I’ve become a huge Steve Forbert fan. I own his first four records on vinyl, most of his CDs, and was able to meet him last summer in Bryn Mawr. It isn’t often you get to meet your favorite musician or even get to talk to him for a bit, so I really enjoyed the time we had. I was the last in line to get my CD signed and was able to talk with him for a few minutes. I must have asked him everything I could think of.

Except I didn’t know enough to ask him about this from Wikipedia:

“Forbert has a cameo appearance in Cyndi Lauper‘s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” video, playing her boyfriend. [He appears at 3:44 in the official Sony video]”

What?!

It’s true. If you seek out the video, Steve Forbert is, in fact, in “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. He plays Cyndi’s beau, in full tuxedo, with bouquet in hand. This was shocking. But you know what was more shocking to me? There is not a single web-page on the internet devoted to Steve Forbert appearing in Cyndi Lauper’s breakthrough music video. Nada. None. That is until now.

You’ll find below a series of screen grabs I’ve taken from the video. Good ending, too, for guys who are trigger-shy about their gal-pals going out and having fun: everything will be Ok, even if her father is Captain Lou Albano, she stays out until 4 in the morning every night, and invites half of Queens into her apartment, you’ll still be number one, just join in the party.