“Star power” is an intangible “something” –you got it or you don’t– and both these great women artists have it. When they sing about fun, it sounds like the most fun anyone ever had, and when they sing about a love gone wrong, it’s touching. Cyndi Lauper’s 1984 “Time After Time” and Gwen Stefani’s just out “Used to Love You” are both packed with a heavy dose of emotion.

Cyndi was 31 years old when “Time after Time” was a hit and the song has a bit of innocence, and hope, while Stefani’s  (she is 46, and has 3 kids) is more like the anguish of a shell-shocked woman.

For years, Stefani, and her husband, Gavin Rossdale, also a rocker, were practically the poster family for a successful music biz marriage. On Easter, and Christmas, there would be pictures in the L.A. Times of the Rossdale family going to church in Beverly Hills, often with a set of their own parents included.

And then, suddenly, a divorce, and now this song from Gwen, a mesmerizing ode about love lost. “Used To Love You” feels very real, and very personal.  It’s. Just. So. Sad.