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

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.)

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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."