Before they walked like an Egyptian, the female group, Bangles, was All Over The Place. Though the 1984 recording is their first studio album, technically, they released a self titled EP in 1982.
The band started forming in December 1980, when Susanna Hoffs placed an add in a paper to form a group. While she received a reply from Annette Zilinskas, who would become the first bassist, she was more so finding common interest with her roommates, Vicki and Debbie Peterson. Together, they formed The Colours in 1981, but changed this shortly thereafter to The Bangs.
Right after recording and releasing their EP through Faulty Productions, the girls discovered that there was already a band named The Bangs, and they were prohibited from using the name without paying a fee. Rather than doing so, they dropped "The" from the name, and changed Bang to Bangles, and their EP was re-released in 1983 by I.R.S. Records under the new name.
More interested in her own project, Zilinskas left the band, and was replaced by Michael Steele. With the new lineup in place, the girls set to work recording their studio debut, All Over The Place. Though it peaked at eighty, the album spent thirty weeks on the U.S. Billboard Charts.
Even from the beginning, you can hear the harmonies capsuled in the power pop roots of each song. While you won't find the tracks that ate up the airways from their following album, Different Light (1986), what you will discover are a lot of hidden gems.
Personally, I grabbed six of the eleven tracks for my shuffle, but will still be honest and say the rest of the album isn't bad. In hindsight, it's a little odd that All Over The Place, or rather, the songs that encompass it, didn't make a bigger impact than they initially did. I suppose this is probably because there's really nothing "commercial" about it. The music is good, it's just not necessarily filled with mainstream hits. There's nothing that feels radio friendly.
Of course, that all changed for Bangles afterwards, and despite breaking up after their 1988 album, Everything, they did eventually come back together, thanks to Austin Powers. Hoffs, who married Jay Roach in 1993, and who just so happened to direct the film, The Spy Who Shagged Me, convinced his wife to reform the group, and provide a song for the soundtrack. Since then, the reunited quartet released 1993's Doll Revolution, and despite the departure of Michael Steele afterwards, followed that up with 2013's Sweetheart Of The Sun.
Though things have been relatively quite from the girls, perhaps we'll see yet another return one day. Hopefully with all four members returning.
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THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
January 15, 1983
