Susanna Hoffs

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

As a founding member of the iconic all-girl band The Bangles, Susanna Hoffs is perhaps most associated with 80s hits like “Manic Monday,” “Eternal Flame,” and “Walk Like An Egyptian.” After releasing three platinum-selling albums, in 1989 The Bangles broke up. Two years later, Susanna started to release solo material before reuniting with The Bangles at the end of the 90s.

Over the years Susanna has continued to release music and act in movies. She even appeared in all three Austin Powers films as part of a fictional Mod band.

This year Susanna has added another creative pursuit to her repertoire—she’s now a published novelist. Her first book, This Bird Has Flown, was released in April. And she put out her latest collection of cover songs on the album The Deep End produced by the great Peter Asher.

On today’s episode Justin Richmond talks to Susanna Hoffs about how Bruce Springsteen helped The Bangles secure a record deal after seeing them play at an amusement park in Southern California. She also tells the story of first listening to Prince’s demo of “Manic Monday.”

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Susanna Hoffs songs HERE.

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