Tag Archives: The Bangles

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Song of the Day #6,317: ‘Walking Down Your Street’ – The Bangles

Continuing my look at the albums of 1986…

When I wrote the Decades posts about 1984, my happiest discovery was The Bangles’ debut album All Over the Place. So I shouldn’t be surprised that their follow-up, Different Light, holds the same designation for 1986.

This was the band’s triple-Platinum breakthrough, the album that featured #1 hit ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ and #2 hit ‘Manic Monday.’ It was more polished and poppy than the debut, more designed for commercial airplay, but still unpredictable and energetic.

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Song of the Day #4,948: ‘Dover Beach’ – The Bangles

Usually when I do a Decades series, I discover one album that was completely off my radar but immediately feels essential. I’m not even halfway through 1984 yet, but I think I might have found it in The Bangles’ All Over the Place.

When I saw this album listed on best-of lists for the year, I assumed it would feature the hits ‘Manic Monday,’ ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ and ‘Hazy Shade of Winter,’ or at least some combination of those staples. But All Over the Place, The Bangles’ debut, didn’t have a single hit. It’s also, by all accounts, the best record they ever released.

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Song of the Day #992: ‘Eternal Flame’ – The Bangles

My family stumbled upon an infomercial for Time/Life’s ‘Easy 80s’ CD collection recently and it quickly devoured nearly a half hour of our lives. Our daughters alternated between rolling their eyes and asking “Who sings this one?” as we belted out one cheesy 80s ballad after another.

Time/Life has a million of these things — ‘Romancing the 70s,’ ‘Pure Rhythm & Blues,’ ‘Golden Age of Country,’ ‘Pop Memories of the 60s.’ They’re worth their weight in gold, though not worth the $130 (plus shipping) they cost. Doesn’t Time/Life know that you can buy the 80 songs you really love (out of the 150 they’re offering) on iTunes for less than a hundred bucks?

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