Post by erik on May 28, 2022 18:27:23 GMT -5
The first of two #1 hits for The Bangles, one of the most popular all-female rock outfits of all time, is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN (The Bangles; CBS; 1986)—With a sound that combines power-pop, new wave, and 1960’s-style folk-rock, The Bangles were arguably the most successful all-female rock band of the rock and roll era. Originally called The Bangs when formed in 1981, the group consisted of sisters Debbi and Vicki Peterson, Susanna Hoffs, and Annette Zilinskas; but after an initial 1982 single “The Real World”, Zilinskas departed the group to focus on her own project Blood In The Saddle. Michael Steele, who had been in numerous bands, including The Runaways (with Joan Jett), replaced Zilinskas on bass and vocals. The group’s first hit came in late 1984 with “Hero Takes A Fall”, from their album All Over The Place; another minor hit from that album, “Goin’ Down To Liverpool”, has a video that featured Leonard Nimoy (who played Mr. Spock on Star Trek). The group, however, really achieved superstardom in early 1986 with a jangly recording of Prince’s “Manic Monday”, which reached #2 on the Hot 100 that May, and also propped the album it was from, Different Light, up to #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart. The second major hit from that album was “Walk Like An Egyptian”, written by English songwriter Liam Steinberg. Steinberg had written that song two years before and first pitched it to actress/singer Toni Basil (she of “Mickey” fame), but she turned it down. In the hands of the Bangles, with three of the group’s four members (the exception being Debbi, who was chagrined about being axed by the song’s producer David Kahne), “Walk Like An Egyptian” got released as a single in September 1986, and spent six months on the Hot 100. It was #1 for four consecutive weeks, the final two weeks of 1986 and the first two weeks of 1987, making the group arguably the most successful one of the late 1980’s. But the media’s perception that Hoffs was the only true lead singer of the band (a perception that Hoffs herself tried to dissuade) caused friction inside the band; and after their big hit “Eternal Flame” in 1989, the group broke apart for nine years, before reforming in 1998. Hoffs, in the meantime, recorded numerous albums with, among others, the alt-country group The Continental Drifters. Steele left the group in 2005; and in 2018, original bass player/vocalist Zilinskas rejoined the group.
WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN (The Bangles; CBS; 1986)—With a sound that combines power-pop, new wave, and 1960’s-style folk-rock, The Bangles were arguably the most successful all-female rock band of the rock and roll era. Originally called The Bangs when formed in 1981, the group consisted of sisters Debbi and Vicki Peterson, Susanna Hoffs, and Annette Zilinskas; but after an initial 1982 single “The Real World”, Zilinskas departed the group to focus on her own project Blood In The Saddle. Michael Steele, who had been in numerous bands, including The Runaways (with Joan Jett), replaced Zilinskas on bass and vocals. The group’s first hit came in late 1984 with “Hero Takes A Fall”, from their album All Over The Place; another minor hit from that album, “Goin’ Down To Liverpool”, has a video that featured Leonard Nimoy (who played Mr. Spock on Star Trek). The group, however, really achieved superstardom in early 1986 with a jangly recording of Prince’s “Manic Monday”, which reached #2 on the Hot 100 that May, and also propped the album it was from, Different Light, up to #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart. The second major hit from that album was “Walk Like An Egyptian”, written by English songwriter Liam Steinberg. Steinberg had written that song two years before and first pitched it to actress/singer Toni Basil (she of “Mickey” fame), but she turned it down. In the hands of the Bangles, with three of the group’s four members (the exception being Debbi, who was chagrined about being axed by the song’s producer David Kahne), “Walk Like An Egyptian” got released as a single in September 1986, and spent six months on the Hot 100. It was #1 for four consecutive weeks, the final two weeks of 1986 and the first two weeks of 1987, making the group arguably the most successful one of the late 1980’s. But the media’s perception that Hoffs was the only true lead singer of the band (a perception that Hoffs herself tried to dissuade) caused friction inside the band; and after their big hit “Eternal Flame” in 1989, the group broke apart for nine years, before reforming in 1998. Hoffs, in the meantime, recorded numerous albums with, among others, the alt-country group The Continental Drifters. Steele left the group in 2005; and in 2018, original bass player/vocalist Zilinskas rejoined the group.