The Bangles were an early 80s female rock group who rose to fame in the wake of the popularity of the original all-girl rock group The Go Go's. As part of the Paisley Underground movement in LA in the early 80s, they incorporated the rich harmonies and vocal melodies inspired by the jangley folk-rock of The Byrds, the harmony-pop of The Beach Boys and garage-rock of bands like the Seeds, among numerous other west coast bands of the 60s. Primarily made-up of Susanna Hoffs (vocals, guitars) with sisters Vicki (guitars, vocals, bass) and Debbi (drums, vocals, bass) Peterson, The Bangles got their big break after the release of their debut album, All Over the Place. Although not commercially successful All Over the Place (1984) got the girls noticed and won them the chance to open for big name acts like Cyndi Lauper It also caught the attention of miniature rock star Prince, who contributed a song to the band's next album Different Light (1986).
It was this song, "Manic Monday", that would be The Bangles breakthrough hit, spending several weeks in the top ten in many countries around the world including the US, UK and Ireland, and eventually helping the album reach multi-platinum status. Different Light also produced several more top ten singles including the US smash hit "Walk Like an Egyptian", which spent more than four weeks in the top ten and was the first song by an all-girl group (who played their own instruments) to reach No.1 in the Billboard Top 100 chart. The Bangles third album Everything (1988) spawned several hits including "In Your Room" and the massive hit single "Eternal Flame" and would also reach multi-platinum status. The band split shortly after the release of Everything and each went on to other projects.
In 2000 the band re-formed as part of the early century 80s revival. They toured extensively at this time and found, not only an older fan-base familiar with their work, but also a growing audience of new listeners. With this new found popularity the band released a new studio album in 2003, Doll Revolution. The album didn't manage to recapture The Bangles previous single success, but it did manage to achieve modest commercial and critical success.
