It is truly impossible to not look silly trying to Walk Like An Egyptian. Just take a look at the 1986 video – the only people who look cool doing it are the four band members. Everyone else looks seriously silly – cute but daft – and I bet everyone of you has tried doing it too😁. I certainly remember trying it out at one of our dance evenings at Joka and being told by one of my dear D-Mid wingmates (take a guess who?!) that I was looking really dumb and should sit down immediately 😂 .  

Songwriter Liam Sternberg was inspired to write the song when crossing the English Channel on a ferry and seeing passengers trying to keep their balance as the ferry moved. Passengers put their hands out to stay stable and he thought they resembled hieroglyphs – inspiration can come randomly, right?! Anyway, it became a huge hit for the Bangles and has forever burned itself into our collective minds.

The Bangles, came together in 1980 by a common love of the Beatles. Yup – that’s right – the Beatles! As you can imagine, in the late 70s and early 80s in the US there really weren’t that many young Beatles fans, but somehow these four gorgeous girls – Susanna Hoffs (vocals/guitar), sisters Debbie Peterson (vocals/drums) and Vicki Peterson (vocals/guitar) and Annette Zilinskas (vocals/bass) – found each other and formed a band! Starting out playing covers and songs inspired by the 60s, it wasn’t until 1986 that The Bangles hit the big time, though they did open for Cyndi Lauper on her tour. Their second album had two smash hits – “Manic Monday” and “Walk Like An Egyptian” that became seriously big. I’m sure all of us saw the videos on MTV and the Grammy’s shows etc and had these songs playing at dance parties. For better or for worse, “Walk Like An Egyptian” has come to define the musical legacy of Bangles, thanks to MTV which just played the hell out of it. It’s sad though, because I think some of their other songs are truly wonderful. If She Knew What She Wants, or “Going Down To Liverpool” or even their cover of S&G’s Hazy Shade of Winter are all much better songs than WLAE

Personally, I prefer “Manic Monday” to “Walk Like An Egyptian”. While WLAE is a novelty song that’s infectious and fun, “Manic Monday” resonates deeply with me  – Monday mornings truly do suck (actually, the most depressing part of the week for me is Sunday late evening, knowing that Monday is coming!) and this song pretty much sums up every Monday of my working life. It does also help that “Manic Monday” was written by that musical genius, Prince (can’t wait to write about my favourite Prince songs !). The story is that Prince rather fancied Susanna Hoffs and gave the song to the Bangles to cosy up to her. It’s a brilliant song and the Bangles did a bang up job on it (😇 ) , getting it all the way to #2 on the Billboard charts. Incredibly, it was held off the #1 spot by Prince himself, with his amazing “Kiss”😁 ( what a song that is!)

The third Bangles song I remember is “Eternal Flame”. A very weepy ballad, that was inspired by a visit to Graceland, where an eternal flame is lit in remembrance of Elvis. The song, written in just one afternoon, was a huge hit and is probably their best song. Interestingly, Hoffs recorded the song completely naked in the studio – yup, starkers! 😱 Why, you ask? Well, their Producer Davitt Sigerson, who had also produced Olivia Newton John, played pranked Hoff into it. He told her that the reason Olivia’s songs were so soulful was that she recorded them naked. Hoffs fell for it, and proceeded to disrobe and recorded the song in the nude. And then, found the experience so liberating, she recorded all the songs on the album in that state of blissful undress😂. Anyway, despite that backstory, its not quite my style of song – don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a good ballad – and brilliant song that this is, guess it just doesn’t light my flame!