And if you’re a dude, I’m sorry to say you will probably never put your finger on it.
Micki likes the ladies.
Steele wasn’t really featured as a songwriter until the third album.
On the first album she didn’t write any songs because she was the “new guy” having just replaced Annette Zilinkas who played in the early days and on the debut EP.
On the second album, Steele only wrote one song, the haunting “Following” (although, she had a second song doing lead vocals- the cover of Big Star’s “September Girls”, a highlight of the album).
She wrote three excellent songs on the third album.
On the 2003 reunion album, Doll Revolution, Michael Steele wrote the best songs. Overall Vicki Peterson is my favorite Bangle but on this particular album Steele really brings her A game in the songwriting department. It was very disappointing to me that she left after touring this album. She didn’t do the subsequent tours and she’s not on the 2011 album Sweetheart of the Sun.
If you like them that much, you’ll be rewarded to seek out the deeper cuts.
At the very least, check out All Over the Place. This album has not so much as a nanosecond of filler. The entire album is amazing from start to finish.
The other albums will also show you that some of their best songs were never released as singles. On Different Light, “Angels Don’t Fall In Love” totally kicks ass and is in no way stuck in the 80s. Vicki Peterson’s other two songs on the album also stand among her best work, the title track of the album and “Return Post”. And, as mentioned above, their cover of Big Star’s “September Girls” is awesome. On Everything, there’s the three wonderful Micki Steele songs, one of Vicki Peterson’s best songs ever: “Make a Play for Her Now”, and the Peterson Sisters’ collaborative “Bell Jar”, which is one of the highlights of the album.
Their post-reunion albums are very good as well.
At the very least, you should listen to All Over the Place all the way through.
You all call yourself fans, and NO ONE has mentioned her presence in the first Austin Powers movie? The knee-high gogo boots? The mini-dress? The really phony British “mod” songs? Here’s one now… .
If we’re calling each other out for not mentioning things, you’re mentioning her presence in the first Austin Powers movie and you’re not mentioning …
The band was called Ming Tea. Mike Myers put the band together to play small clubs around L.A. as he was developing the Austin Powers character. As the Ming Tea shows came to be well received and Myers felt like he really had a handle on the character, he began writing the movie. Ming Tea also features Matthew Sweet on bass going by the name Sid Belvedere (Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs’ further collaborative efforts have already been mentioned upthread, this is where it all began). Hoff’s played guitar in Ming Tea under the name Gillian Shagwell (sister to Felicity Shagwell, played by Heather Graham in the second Austin Powers movie).
The first Bangles reunion was for a one-off for the second Austin Powers movie. They wrote and recorded the song “Get the Girl” which was featured during the big celebration scene following the plot climax. This was the first new Bangles song in 10 years (at the time) and inspired the band to start working again on new material. Elvis Costello was also working on the second Austin Powers film and wrote the song “Doll Revolution” for The Bangles (it would be the title track for their first reunion album in 2003 but that album was delayed several times which resulted in Elvis Costello’s version of the song being released first).
The third Austin Powers movie saw the return of Gillian Shagwell and Ming Tea. In addition to the Ming Tea presence, Susanna Hoffs also sang a remake of “What’s It All About, Alfie?” (in tribute to Michael Caine, the original Alfie, major inspiration for the Austin Powers character. Caine played Powers’ father in this final Austin Powers movie.) The lyrics for the remake were changed to “What’s It All About, Austin?”
The Austin Powers movies were directed by Hoffs’ husband, Jay Roach. Roach also directed Meet The Parents which featured the Academy Award Nominated song “A Fool In Love” written by Randy Newman and sung by Susanna Hoffs. Hoffs and Newman performed the song live at the Academy Awards ceremony.
Ha! If I was meant to be one of the Hoffs fanboys, then I take umbrage!
I am actually a Vicki Peterson fanboy and therefore know some Hoffs trivia through proximity.
I was the superfanboy of Vicki Peterson’s 90’s band The Continental Drifters which also featured Peter Holsapple of The dBs, Susan Cowsill of The Cowsills, and Mark Walton of The Dream Syndicate (L.A. Paisley Underground scene-mates of The Bangles*). The Continental Drifters were based in New Orleans at the time and I was living in New Orleans. I saw almost every local gig they played for about 4 years. They even showed up at some of my gigs to show support. After four years of what I thought was charm on my part (in retrospect, it was begging) Vicki finally went on one date with me (it was a daytime date …for coffee …but I am COUNTING it goddamnit!).
Vicki Peterson and Susan Cowsill also have a duo act called The Psycho Sisters. That project is also from the 90s and I saw all their local gigs too, but it is only just this past summer that they finally released their debut album (and it’s awesome!).
The Runaways had about 87 different bass players. That’s why in the movie about the band the bass player was a single fictional person with very little dialog. To be historically accurate about Runaways bass players would have been a Sisyphusian task.
*The Bangles song “Hero Takes a Fall” is about Dream Syndicate frontman Steve Wynn.
