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

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

Youtube just recommended this recent Susanna Hoffs show to me which I am enjoying right now. Check out the medley from about minute 11 to 14.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoAFzv-qEKQ

Always had a soft spot for "be with you" which is unusually eerie and unsettling for the Bangles. Also I think it's sung by Vicky.

Debbie actually

Yes, that's right. It was the blonde one.

Bunch of their albums on MySpace; really liked most of 2011's Sweethearts of the Sun---the cover of The Nazz' "Open My Eyes" sure seems like would've been Top Ten in their heyday http://www.myspace.com/thebangles/music/albums Think there's a prev 00s album not here?

On MySpace, you gotta hit Play All; try to choose tracks one by one, and MySpace Radio inserts itself--but can Pause the Play All whenever you get too excited.

Their last album was well liked 'round these parts.

Worth noting here that Susanna's album of this year is very nice too. It didn't hit me much at first, but has really grown on me.

Thread should be called Going Down To LiverPOLL

2012 album on her MySpace, but doesn't play, although 2009's When You're A Boy seems to be ready. Also, on the Music tab, lots of tracks from Under The Covers Vol.2 http://us.myspace.com/susannahoffs

That would be the best thread title!

ha -- I was such a Bangle fan that I swallowed a lot of disappointment in '91 when WYAB was released.

however "Boys Keep Swinging"!

John Entwistle plays bass on that song, oddly enough (and it's hard to tell, the way it was recorded).

You mean Bowie's or their version?? Although I imagine he'd do anything to get close to a Bangle (understandably so)

I'm still fond of "My Side of the Bed," which has those kittenish qualities that Hoffs could project so effortlessly.

xp Susanna Hoffs' solo version (on When You're A Boy). (and yeah, haha)

She's still O Susanna, yet doesn't seem *too* kiddie on Sweethearts..., nor does she get all autumn leaves broody or blearly like so many rockers past 40.

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."