They arrived on the music scene in 1981 and were out in 1989 just as they were sitting comfortably on top of the music world with ‘Eternal Flame’ hitting No. 1 in six major music markets.

They were back in 1998 for the ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ soundtrack and in 2003 they released a new album and have been around ever since.

Interestingly, the band never had a No. 1 studio album out of the five they have made, they peaked at No. 2 with ‘Different Light’ in 1986.

Eternal Flame

Their second No. 1 hit in America and Australia, the song also peaked at No. 1 in another four countries and peaked at No. 2 in another two countries making it a massive hit around the world.

Susanna Hoffs wrote the song with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, the latter two wrote No. 1 songs for Madonna (Like A Virgin), Cyndi Lauper (True Colours), Heart (Alone) and Whitney Houston (So Emotional) between 1985 and 1988.

The music video is popular for Susanna Hoffs moving her eyes from side to side, it has quite an effect on those who grew up in the 1980s.

This song effectively sunk The Bangles as a band as tensions rose with the media making Susanna Hoffs the centre of attention and inadvertently making her fellow band members seem like her backing band.

Manic Monday

The Bangles had some charters in 1984, 1985 was the year that the band had taken off as ‘Manic Monday’ peaked at No. 2 in six different countries.

This song was written by Christopher, who was really music megastar Prince who was in the midst of a run of success which included 1999 and Purple Rain.

This is an enjoyable song to listen to, one of the meanings of manic is ‘hectic’, so that’s why they wish it was Sunday.

Walk Like An Egyptian

‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ was a No. 1 hit in both America and Australia and three other countries.

The song was written by Liam Sternberg and was inspired by the movement of passengers on a ferry he was on that was crossing the English Channel in choppy seas.

This song caused tension in the band as drummer Debbi Peterson didn’t get to sing a verse leaving her just doing backing vocals and her drumming was replaced by a drum machine which is why she is not behind the drums and is instead with the others with a Tambourine.

Hazy Shade Of Winter

The Bangles covered this Simon and Garfunkel hit (No. 13 in 1966 in America) in 1987 and in some minds, it is the superior version of the song, it is a pure rock music delight, you could say that the sound would be perfect for an action movie like explosions and car chases etc.

Music lovers in 1966 probably never thought that a band could turn a Simon and Garfunkel song into a rock song, but it happened and quite successfully.

It was one of two songs by The Bangles to peak at No. 2 in America, the other song was ‘Manic Monday’.

This may just be my favourite song from The Bangles, it is hard to say out of the five that are here but the sound is pretty good, perhaps unbeatable out of the five.

In Your Room

This song hit No. 5 in America, it wasn’t as much liked in Australia peaking at No. 41, maybe it was a little too late 1960s sounding for the average buyer or they were just saving up for ‘Eternal Flame’ which came right after this release.

It is good when a band releases something a little different to their usual output of music, the music video was well received, particularly by males but you got to love that 60s attire, giant peace symbols, white and all.