On Oct. 25, 1986, Cyndi Lauper hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “True Colors.” She took the top spot from Janet Jackson’s “When I Think of You” and held it for two weeks, until Boston’s “Amanda” moved up, according to Billboard’s 1986 chart history .

It was her second No. 1 after “Time After Time,” and her last, per the song’s history . The songwriters had offered it to someone else first.

Anne Murray Passed on It

Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, the duo behind Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” pitched “True Colors” to Anne Murray before Lauper. Murray turned it down, Stereogum noted , and American Songwriter tells the same story.

Steinberg had written the first version about his mother. He later reworked the lyrics to fit anyone, and Kelly changed the first verse.

“The melody and the words really stuck,” Lauper told The A.V. Club in 2011, as American Songwriter quoted.

Lauper Changed the Sound

The demo Steinberg and Kelly sent was a fairly traditional ballad.…