Loved those 80’s girl bands. Bangles, Go-Gos, Bananarama. The 80’s had it all - great music, pub crawls…
And I concur with your assessment of Susanna Hoffs.
Didn’t Weird Al Yanckovic do a version called “Walk With an Erection”? Or did I just fantasize that?
Not Weird Al. It was The Swinging Erudites, who got hit with a cease and desist. At that time parody wasn’t clearly covered under fair use.
In “I’m Going Down to Liverpool” you can see Mr. Spock (well, Leonard Nimoy) with the Bangles!
Man, that side-eyes thing Hoff does is maybe the single sexiest moment in the history of rock n’ roll.
I know it’s a cover, but if we must leer over the lovely lady-group let’s at least have one of their better tunes:
Hazy Shade of Winter
Good on you, Sony, you lunatics.
Oh, yes. Yes, it most definitely is.
Don’t forget her mischievous smile, though.
And the way she slowly puts the tip of her tongue behind her top teeth. It’s just… Well, let’s say it makes it difficult to concentrate on… more… important… … things. Hmmmm.
On the various histories I have seen of them, they assert a couple of things:
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She had no clue she was being filmed close up. The eye thing was something she did as part of working an audience at a gig, and the camera was very far back so she had no sense it was on her. It was just one thing happening in the middle of a video shoot - absolutely no sense at the time that it was going to be All That.
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That look changed everything about the band. The video blew up, that look became infamous and Hoffs was featured as their breakout star. Hoffs…didn’t fight being made the star (some argued she pushed for it) and it led to dissent, radio-pop ballads like Eternal Flame and their breakup.
But, oh yeah, so freakin’ hot.
Oh yes, Susanna (swoon). I’ve had a crush on her since Manic Monday. I have a weakness for women with guitars in general, and I don’t know what I find sexier, her looks or her voice. No wonder that she always distracted from the ambitions of the Bangles to be viewed as a serious rock group and that they were marketed as a pop act, while their debut album was a fine example of jangly, Paisley underground rock. To everybody who likes her singing, I highly recommend the three cover albums she did with Matthew Sweet called Under The Covers (Vol. 1-3), where they interpret mostly songs with a power pop vibe from the sixties, seventies and eighties, respectively. For everyone who loves that style of music, it’s a pure pleasure with a very tasteful selection of songs.
As I read this I’m not seeing Walk Like An Egyptian but No Doubt’s Don’t Speak video.
Hoffs only gets better with age, for reals. I’m not just saying that. The woman is a stone cold fox.
I saw the Bangles at a small venue in Chicago this last August, and was very pleasantly surprised at how good they were. Everyone was in excellent voice, and Vicki Peterson is a much better guitarist than I realized.
And Suzannah Hoffs is still really freaking hot.
The rathskeller at our college had a big-screen projection TV that used to have MTV on most of the day, and when “Walk Like an Egyptian” came on everything would just grind to a momentary halt, and the place would get noticeably quieter. Did I mention that I went to a predominantly male engineering school? 
No argument. And she can play a Rickenbacker guitar (grr, super-narrow necks that big dudes like me can’t play…)
carlb - yeah, Vicki can play. Part of the dissent in the band was that Debbie and Vicki were solid players but treated more like a novelty. I think Debbie plays tambourine on the Egyptian video because she wasn’t allowed to play drums on the recording so she wouldn’t play them in the vid.
I totally agree. I love these albums.
If you squint just right, it looks like the taller and less-interesting one is working the audience with it at the first WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN – only, y’know, at range.
Agree, that is a much better song. I’ve liked ever since I saw Less Than Zero.
IMHO…best movie soundtrack EVER. Where else can you get Roy Orbison, Aerosmith, Public Enemy, Joan Jett, Slayer, The Bangles and LL Cool J all at once?