If She POLLED What She Wants: The Bangles "Greatest Hits" Poll

Aw, any chance to listen to all these songs again. And I'm going to just go and vote for In Your Room again, partly for the Indian strings, partly for the KEY CHANGE but most of all because I want my fucking life to be just like that video.

yeah yeah we loved In Your Room so much we ripped it off and then we got to support the Bangles on tour and it was all so awesome that I never ever get tired of telling that story so sorry you're all sick of it.

Wow! That video brought back memories. I used to go over to my neighbor's house to watch MTV every day before school. Great idea, right? When "In Your Room" came on though, he would turn it off every time. I think that was one of the reasons why I used to get so ashamed for liking music by female musicians.

Love all these songs unequivocally, but voting for "If She Knew What She Wants" narrowly beating all the others. Just the way it's constructed as a song, with the dramatic pauses, the dense harmonies and maybe Vicki Peterson's best guitar solo, gives it that little something extra. (Second place for me is "Walking Down Your Street," although I think "Angels Don't Fall In Love" would have been a better single from that album.)

voting for "If She Knew What She Wants" narrowly beating all the others. Just the way it's constructed as a song, with the dramatic pauses, the dense harmonies and maybe Vicki Peterson's best guitar solo, gives it that little something extra.

Exactly why I voted for it – love her solo. Also: in a few verses I don't think I've figured out what the hell Hoffs is singing.

does it even have a verse? it sounds like all chorus to me (which is, in a way, another plus point)

I think I'll go with Hero cause it's about the hunk I once interviewed, namely STEVE WYNN. YUMMY. lol

The first album has so many good songs, most of which approach boys and relationships from novel angles. It's probably worth polling.

does it even have a verse? it sounds like all chorus to me (which is, in a way, another plus point)

there's a middle 8, or a biridge, that gets repeated and is veh purty

did Jules Shear ever perform it, and if so, how does it compare?

I've got a different greatest hits CD (We Are The '80s on VH1 Classic Records), and it's real good, but the Bangles are one of those groups who I basically think peaked at the beginning and went downhill from there. Going with "Going Down To Liverpool"; second choice might be "Hero Takes A Fall." Of their actual hits, I like "Egyptian" best.

Jules's version is on YouTube. The backing vocals are a little more girl-groupy (ironically), and the male pronouns are all first-person rather than third-person. Arrangement is the same, but the Bangles version is really a lot better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YecRaF8922k

Listening to that, now I understand why people hate 80s production so much.

Actually quite a bit of the Bangles production sounds a bit wincey to me, but then again, I love the songs so much that it doesn't bother me that much.

Re the Jules Shear version: ew, gross.

I mean, no wonder he doesn't know what he wants.

jules shear's original version of "all through the night" is even worse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gXSJ8LGwrM

dude was not a good interpreter of his own songs. he greatly improved on both of those, and several others, however, on a cd called unplug this that he released shortly after he lost his mtv unplugged gig.

Voted In Your Room, but only narrowly over Hazy Shade oF Winter.

dude was not a good interpreter of his own songs

He was actually pretty good on the first two (maybe only two?) Jules and the Polar Bears albums, and maybe the Funky Kings one before that. But yeah, his '80s solo stuff always sounded like mush to me.

A lot of great songwriters in the 80s were ill-served by terrible trendy production. He actually acquitted himself quite nicely on the album The Great Puzzle, which dispensed with all the tech whackeroo that pretty much did in his previous few albums. (Also Jules was kind enough to send me back a postcard when I wrote to him once. Nice guy!)

That said, voted "Hazy Shade of Winter" again here.

Impossible vote.

When they toured in 2003, they all stood in a row at the front of the stage and performed a stripped-down (possibly even a cappella iirc) Eternal Flame in four-part harmony. It was amazing. Significant too - the label's decision to foreground Hoffs on the original single and video led to them breaking up first time around. I like seeing albatross-like big hits being reclaimed like that.

I love pretty much all these songs but Hazy takes it.

how familiar were you guys with the S&G original? I was in the car with my mom when she frowned at the radio tuned to the Top 40 station and said, witheringly, "THAT'S supposed to be a Simon and Garfunkel song?" She did like The Bangles though.

He was actually pretty good on the first two (maybe only two?) Jules and the Polar Bears albums

There was a third, but it was only released long after the fact (and it's not on par with the first two).

if no one else is voting eternal flame i sure am

I sure did.

how familiar were you guys with the S&G original?

Reasonably so - was never a S&G fanatic so when I heard the Bangles version there was no sense of betrayal or heresy or anything like that for me. At that point I only knew the Bangles as being a very sweet-sounding pop group (with a touch of novelty thrown in of course) so my first listen on this was less about how they had changed it from the way S&G had done it and more about confounding my preconceived notions of what a BANGLES song should sound like. Either way, I liked it!

I didn't know the S&G original at the time. I still prefer this cover.

During their infamous "Behind the Music" episode, Michael Steele and Vicki said that "Hazy Shade of Winter" came closest to representing how they sounded live – even with George Drakoulias on guitar.

I've been listening to Hazy Shade of Winter obsessively lately but I'll have to listen to all these songs again to decide

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

LOOK AROUND

Gotta be "If She Knew What She Wants", even if "In Your Room" and "Following" are also really great songs.

Voted "In Your Room" because it is everything in the world, but so many great things here. My favorite NYC subway moment: two teenage girls, who I'm assuming were on their way to LaGuardia High School on the 1 train, busting out with a gospel version of "Eternal Flame" at 7:30 in the morning.

10 hours left and I still can't decide between "Liverpool" (which will get some votes, judging by this thread, but not enough) vs "Egyptian" (which has nobody repping for it as first choice on this thread, but maybe it will get the lurker vote)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"Walking Down Your Street" deserved a vote, esp. for its video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NjGAaQtRjc

Voted for "Egyptian" here -- didn't meant to lurk, just forgot to post. If you plotted every #1 hit of the 80s on the plane there would be giant clusters and then some small strands and then there would be "Walk Like an Egyptian," this sonic singularity, way off along the abcissa. An essentially perfect record.

But "Hazy Shade of Winter" would have been my second choice and I'm surprised and happy to see so many people are into it. I knew the S&G version first but the Bangles' cover is so much better that in my opinion it should now be considered the original.

My all-time fave now is the Todd Terje "Dub Like an Egyptian" deal.

winner deserves a video embed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG9PVucS9aw

hoffs is all-time smash material (still!) but i always had a thing for m. steele

Would vote in a poll of tracks off the first album.

Don't think I was around for this..."Where Were You..." is one of my all time favourite covers.

Where by "the first album" you mean the s/t EP on IRS of course

All Over the Place would make more of my all-time lists if I didn't forget its existence.

ok I don't know how it is that I'd never heard this track before today, but it is SO GOOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3NDyw7b5XU&feature=player_embedded#!

yeah i thought so too when i discovered it years after their 'hits' era.

yeah same, i first heard it on "poptopia 80's"

spock

Huh, never knew it was a Katrina and the Waves cover.

Me neither - was wondering how the Los Angeleno Bangles knew what a UB40 was though...

Technically it's a "Waves" cover -- song is written by K Rew and first recorded, with Rew on lead vocals, for the pre-Katrina version of the band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQRNy0AxL6U

"Eternal Flame" is cool but it's kinda dentist-office-core at this point.

Yeah, I never liked "Eternal Flame" either. That last album and Hoffs's solo work would have been a horrible end to the Bangles.

At least to me their best cuts towards the end (before the reunion) were primarily covers ("If She Knew What She Wants," "September Gurls," "Hazy Shade of Winter," Prince's "Manic Monday" if that counts, etc.). Even a great original like "In Your Room" sounds like a pastiche of more familiar music, albeit put together really well. I kind of feel like they burned through their best ideas really fast.

"Going Down to Liverpool" is another great, faithful cover. I discovered Katrina & the Waves through that track. (The original Canadian albums were amazing and put the re-recordings on their American debut to shame.)

Hoffs eventually covered "Unconditional Love" on her first album When You're a Boy and uh it is not awesome or even distinctive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYJ8lBYziJg

Not really into "Eternal Flame," not going to begrudge those that think it's great. However, I read Breihan's Number Ones column on it today (he gives it a 10), and found it curious that for as long as I was willing to scroll down not a single commenter (who often have interesting things to add or say) was posting a word about the song or even the Bangles in general.

Yeah. Have nothing to say about that song except meh.

Love the band, revile Eternal Flame.

not a single commenter (who often have interesting things to add or say) was posting a word about the song or even the Bangles in general.

Not true!

Love the band, revile Eternal Flame.

Same here. "In Your Room" is great, but it's the only thing on their third (and for a long while last) album that I'd want to hear. A shame because I saw an interview from that time where they collectively trashed David Kahne for a lot things and how they were allegedly much better without him. In all fairness, I have a slight preference for the stuff they recorded before Kahne came into the picture.

I'd also include include "I'll Set You Free" from 'Everything' as a keeper, but I prefer the single version that appears on the compilation the poll is based on.

xpost Alfred, I skimmed down like 300000 posts. Maybe they were in a different order?

Yeah, looks like newest to oldest, my bad.

Lousy sleeve art.

Anyway, I love Tom's column - his recent deep dives into Debbie Gibson were really informative - but between this song and "The Living Years" he's clearly hearing (or I guess more specifically feeling) things that I'm not. Especially "The Living Years," which to my ears is sentimental pap. Fair enough, I guess, there are definitely days when I, too, am susceptible to the powers of a children's chorus or trite symbols like an eternal flame.

"Eternal Flame" is kinda drecky, but it does have a very nice Susanna Hoffs vocal. (Recorded naked, apparently.)

.

Wait, it's a Billy Steinberg composition?

“eternal flame” isn’t my fav bangles song but it’s an exceedingly well-written power ballad and the hoffs vocal is sublime

re: breihan’s column on “the living years,” agree with josh that the song is nothing special, and think the writer’s assertion that rutherford’s guitar line was inspired by the edge to be off-base. if anything he was inspired by his own performance of “follow you, follow me” a decade earlier

Wait, it's a Billy Steinberg composition?

As is "In Your Room" (both co-written with Hoffs and Tom Kelly).

"The Living Years" entry was the only time I thought I was thru the looking glass.

A shout-out for their cover of Rundgren's "Open My Eyes," which is of course his masterpiece seed ov psych-pop-power-pop-jangle, and they were born to play it---also, Hoffs will be the only one I'll watch CNN's Fourh of July special for, but here's the whole roster, and how to watch if you've cut the cable:
https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2021/06/24/cnns-fourth-in-america-special/

Susanna Hoffs
@SusannaHoffs
Since it's July I figured, why not?
Spin Magazine, July 1987.
#ThrowbackThursday
First Annual Swimsuit Issue

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E5OwwoBUUAINQjO?format=jpg&name=medium

I still think Eternal Flame is a fantastic single. Hoffs' total comitment to the tune, the devotional nature of the lyrics and the dramatic change from the verses to the "say my name / Sunshine through the rain" make for a wonderfully grandiose and intense ballad.

“Under a Cloud” has a musical Supremes quote!

Backing vocals quote too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUu3VsxUMsw

"If She Knew What She Wants" should've been #2 for weeks, not "Manic Monday."

post-Bangles (the first time) Susanna Hoffs already had one solo album, When You’re a Boy, behind her and was starting to conceive her second when she got a call from David Baerwald, Dan Schwartz and some of the other musicians involved in Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club — and began a long path to The Lost Record, a collection of those songs and their subsequent recordings that comes out Oct. 18 on Baroque Folks Records.

Also, from RockCellar

Susanna Hoffs: Unreleased 1999 Album ‘The Lost Record’ Streaming Now; CD/LP to Follow on Oct. 25 (Listen/Pre-Order)

Today, Oct. 18, Susanna Hoffs has released The Lost Record, an album of songs originally recorded in 1999, but one that hadn’t yet received a full release.

Recorded “with a group of friends in her garage,” The Lost Record came together during a formative period for the singer/songwriter/Bangles star, who said in a statement that the era was “a sweet, special period of being home with a new baby, but also an exploration of identity, separate from the Bangles. It’s an immense thrill to finally be able to share rare recordings that have been near and dear to my heart.”

That first Hoffs album, which I bought at the time, is some weird bad shit.

Yeah, When You're a Boy was just an awful record. "Weird bad," for sure. Her self-titled solo record was far better and had some solid moments-- "Beekeeper's Blues," which was always a country song to my ears, and a Lightning Seeds cover that got some Adult Top 40 airplay. Have been at least somewhat on board with everything she's released since then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OSi22p6wew

An impeccable Greatest Hits collection; enjoyed blasting it in the car this afternoon. "Following" is the only dud for me (sorry, I like "Walk Like an Egyptian").

I love the space in "Following." I didn't discover it until 1995, well before I came out, and at the time I thought, "This is...queer?"