Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly might not have had Gregory Natal in mind when they penned the song that would become a 1986 hit for Cyndi Lauper, “True Colors”. Nevertheless, Natal became the person whom the song was about, thanks to the emotions Lauper imbued in her performance. Even though Steinberg would later say he wrote the song with his mother in mind, something about the lyrics and the melody spoke to Lauper and her relationship to Natal.
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Natal, like far too many individuals in the late 1980s, was suffering from AIDS with little to no medical or social support. Lauper’s friend was in his early 20s when he succumbed to the disease, which was still heavily shrouded in stigma. Speaking to People in 2023, Lauper said Natal’s diagnosis “totally freaked me out because in those days, [AIDS] was a death sentence.” Natal’s friends were scared to get physically close to him—and that was through no fault of their own. With so little awareness about the disease, that was the standard reaction to most people’s diagnoses of the terminal illness.
When Lauper first heard Steinberg and Kelly’s track, she felt like the song was speaking directly to Natal’s memory, to her, to their friends, and to anyone else going through a similarly harrowing experience. “I wanted to speak to a human being in the most tender spot,” Lauper said of the chart-topping song. “I had to learn the power of a whisper.”
“True Colors” Wasn’t the Only Tribute Cyndi Lauper Performed
“True Colors” became an international hit for Cyndi Lauper, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 in Canada, No. 3 in Australia and New Zealand, and No. 12 in the U.K. Lauper said she recorded “True Colors” for her and the rest of Gregory Natal’s surviving loved ones to “feel better.” But it proved to be a universally empowering and empathetic song. Interestingly, however, it wasn’t the only tribute to Natal that Lauper included on her 1986 album of the same name. Moreover, the other tribute was one that Lauper actually co-wrote herself: “Boy Blue”.
Lauper first discovered “True Colors” after Natal had already died. But before he passed, he had asked the songwriter to pen a track in tribute to him. “He was a kid,” Lauper told Rolling Stone in 2021. “He wanted me to sing a song like, ‘That’s What Friends Are For’. But that was written by Burt Bacharach. So, I was like, ‘Holy cow, what the heck? I am NOT Burt Bacharach.” Instead, Lauper wrote “Boy Blue”.
“But that one didn’t work out so well,” she explained. “Unfortunately, it turns out, pouring out your heart and your liver is not good for repetitive airplay.”
Despite the poor chart performance of “Boy Blue”, which Lauper released as the fourth single from True Colors, the album’s title track certainly made up for it. The song remains synonymous with Lauper’s career and an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community to this day.
Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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