Like most 8 year old girls in the eighties, I didn’t just want to be a Bangle, oh no, I wanted to be Susanna Hoffs! I wanted to wake up one magical manic monday, walk like an Egyptian, while writhing in the sand holding my eternal flame with my beautiful, teased, curly, eighties hair. About two years ago when HMV had one of their mega sales and Bean asked me if there was anything she could add to her order for me, I had her pick up the Best Of The Bangles. I was so excited, but once I had it I never really listened to it.
I came across it again the other day and they are still as wonderfully poppy as ever, though I think this is not exactly an official greatest hits album. The booklet doesn’t give any information about the songs and it doesn’t have every hit of theirs, so no “Walking Down Your Street” or “Hazy Shade Of Winter”. The latter is probably excluded because it’s a Simon and Garfunkel original and that might have cost a pretty penny to put on there. It may not be perfect but it was cheap and it has all my favorite songs!
Here’s my top 5 of the Best Of The Bangles :
5. The Bangles – Eternal Flame
A bit played out, thanks to Atomic Kitten’s horrific rendition and Classic FM radio, but when it first came out I was memerized. This was the song that started the Susanna Hoffs fascination.
4. The Bangles – In Your Room
This was not a big hit, but it’s so catchy and perfectly eighties that I can practically smell the hairspray. Don’t ask me why, but I think Ryan Adams could do a killer version of this song.
3. The Bangles – Manic Monday
The astute Allen Lulu pointed out that Prince did not write Manic Monday especially for The Bangles. Siiiigh fine, I finally did my homework and learned that he had actually written it for a girl group he helped create, Apollonia 6. He lost interest in that group and presented the song to The Bangles because he was rumored to have had a big, fat, glamorous, eighties, pop crush on Susanna Hoffs. Psh, he recycles songs to pick up chicks. Isn’t that just typical.
2. The Bangles – James
This is definitely their most underrated song! I love the combination of fifties girl group vocals with their familiar eighties sound.
1. The Bangles – Walk Like An Egyptian
I can’t imagine any other song taking the lead, because I still get a flutter when I hear the opening rattle. They made walking like an Egyptian cool. Ok maybe not cool, but the move finally became a dance. Favorite line: When the buzzer rings (oh whey oh) they’re walking like an Egyp-sheean.
i love their version of “Hazy Shade of Winter” on the Less than Zero soundtrack!
I also love the Bangles, although I was about 16 when they hit big with Manic Monday. My list would differ somewhat from yours.
You may want to watch the sharing of full mp3 copyrighted tunes. Unless you have the express written permission from their record company, if they see this blog you could easily be sued.
I know some sites share samples of tunes, but the industry HATES people who give away full songs……they kinda see it as theft.
Hello Mr.Gently! Yes, we are aware of that, as explained under the ‘read me’ bit. I think it’s sweet that you think we have such a broad reach that we would even be a blip on the The Mighty Industry’s radar and that they would care about us sharing a couple of songs.
I might be wrong, but I think record companies have better things to do than worry about little ol’ us, since all the mp3s on 100b are only available for a week and, more importantly, I have no money or valuable property, other than an obscene collection of scarves and pleather bags.
If anything, the tens of readers we have will start talking about The Bangles more and that’s not a bad thing for them either. Everybody wins! Seriously though, I don’t think the few songs we put up will stop people from buying their favorite artist’s music. I’d like to think that we’re even helping to spread the word a little bit. If they do however object they can contact us and we’ll happily take down the songs. But thanks for caring enough to warn us.
Actually, I believe Manic Monday was originally slated to be a duet between Prince and Apollonia. At least that’s what one of them there 80′s blogs said when I got the track. Lemme know if you wanna hear the original demo.
Hey thanks for keeping me on my toes and the demo offer Allen!