Everything (CD - 1988)

The Bangles: Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson (vocals, guitar); Michael Steele (vocals, bass); Debbi Peterson (vocals, drums).

Additional personnel: Vinnie Vincent (guitar); David Lindley.

Personnel: Vicki Peterson (vocals, guitar, mandolin, percussion); Michael Steele (vocals, guitar, bass guitar, percussion); Susanna Hoffs (vocals, guitar, percussion); Debbi Peterson (vocals, drums, percussion); David Lindley (guitar, dobro, bouzouki, saxophone); Bobby Donati (guitar); Vinnie Vincent (12-string guitar); Tommy Morgan (harmonica); David White , Walker Igleheart, John Philip Shenale (keyboards, programming); Jim Snodgrass (tabla); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion).

Audio Mixer: Frank Filipetti.

Recording information: ocean way; Studio 55.

Unknown Contributor Role: Darryl Citizen.

When the Bangles' third and final album was released in 1988, a backlash had already begun against the popular Los Angeles power poppers. All four of the Bangles' previous Top 40 hits, excellent though they were, had been written by outside songwriters, and the fact that all four bandmembers were strong songwriters themselves was overlooked by cynics who charged that Susanna Hoffs' pouty beauty was the main reason for the band's commercial success. Unfortunately, corporate marketing decisions to showcase Hoffs by selecting the album's two weakest songs, the faceless "In Your Room" and the soppy "Eternal Flame," as singles, paired with a too-slick production job, doomed the album among the cognoscenti and the band quickly broke up. However, heard with fresh ears, EVERYTHING is a cohesive, mature album with many terrific songs, especially Vicky Peterson's "Glitter Years" and Michael Steele's magnificent "Complicated Girl." An underappreciated album crying out for artistic re-evaluation. minimize