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https://medium.com/micro-chop/prince-wrote-manic-monday-for-the-bangles-30955dd0ce9d
Gino Sorcinelli
Creator of @bookshelfbeats and Micro-Chop (https://medium.com/micro-chop). Writer for @cuepointmusic, HipHopDX, Passion of the Weiss, and @wearestillcrew.
Mar 7
Prince Wrote “Manic Monday’ For The Bangles
Prince’s catalog is so awe-inspiring in size, scope, and influence that it’s difficult to quantify in a meaningful way. After releasing 39 albums during his lifetime (not counting albums with New Power Generation and Madhouse), the Minnesota legend sold over 100 million records, won seven Grammy awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as soon as he was eligible. Prince’s accomplishments as a solo artist are so ridiculous that it’s easy to overlook classic records he wrote for other artists, sometimes under a pen name or in an uncredited songwriting role.
One such song was “Manic Monday”, a hit for the quintessential 80s band The Bangles. Before writing the song, Prince started as fan of the group, especially their song “Hero Takes a Fall” from their ’84 debut All Over The Place. He liked the song so much that he decided to learn it and surprise them on stage with a guitar solo at a show in San Francisco. “We were told he was in the audience, so of course we were very nervous. It turns out he had learned ‘Hero Takes a Fall’ and he just kind of jumped on stage with us and played this amazing solo. We’d never really met him ‘til that night,” Bangles member Susanna Hoffs told Songfacts.
“I have to look up that cassette. I know I have it. It’s in a box somewhere.”- Susanna Hoffs
After their surprise introduction, Prince went back to work on various projects, including the Apollonia 6 self-titled album. The all-female R & B trio Apollonia 6 were a later iteration of his group Vanity 6, who were renamed and rebranded after lead singer Vanity left the group. Prince wrote and recorded “Manic Monday” with the group in 1984 for their only studio album, but later withdrew it and decided to leave it in the vault until he found a better fit.
Not long after Prince pulled Manic Monday from Apollonia 6’s album, The Bangles went to work on their sophomore album Different Light. While they were working on the album one the group’s engineers told Hoffs that Prince had a demo tape of potential songs waiting for them at Sunset Sounds.
“It had two songs on it and one of them was ‘Manic Monday’. The other was called ‘Jealous Girl’. I have to look up that cassette. I know I have it. It’s in a box somewhere,” Hoffs told Songfacts.
Although it seemed like Prince had a very specific vision of how the song should sound, the band wanted to make sure they injected their own style and energy. “I think he was offering us the track so we’d sing it the same way. But we wanted to do the whole thing from the ground up,” Hoffs said.
“We sat until three in the morning just playing Bangles songs, and then he disappeared again, off into the sunset, and we haven’t heard from him since.”- Susanna Hoffs
Hoffs credits the group’s producer David Kahne for helping them maximize their talents and use their voices in ways they had never imagined before. “In the studio he would give us all sorts of new ideas that we never would have considered. We started to use our voices and our harmonies in a really, really interesting way,” she said.
The band admitted to being understandably nervous about recording a Prince song, but the decision to cut a record by one of the greatest musicians of all time paid dividends. “Manic Monday” served as a lead single and #2 Billboard hit for 1986’s Different Light, an album that would later boast five charting singles and three million copies sold. The #1 song at the time that prevented “Manic Monday” from reaching the very top of the charts was Prince’s “Kiss”. With his own song at the top, and The Bangles right behind, Billboard chart editor Paul Grein noted at the time that Prince was “one of only five songwriters in the past 30 years to hold down the top two positions simultaneously.”
“I think he was offering us the track so we’d sing it the same way. But we wanted to do the whole thing from the ground up.”- Susanna Hoffs
Adding a layer of intrigue to the story was Prince’s affections for Hoffs at the time, which she referred to as “very mysterious.” According to a 1987 article in Rolling Stone, “he called Susanna often and traveled to hear the Bangles perform several times, occasionally joining the band onstage,” around the time “Manic Monday” was released.
The brief courtship ended in typically legendary Prince fashion when he came to catch one of their shows right before the release of Different Light. After watching the band perform, he asked them to join him in an all Bangles music jam session at his studio. “He knew all our songs,” Susanna told Rolling Stone in 1987. “We sat until three in the morning just playing Bangles songs, and then he disappeared again, off into the sunset, and we haven’t heard from him since.”
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