Susanna Hoffs

Posted December 26, 201014 yr

Hoffs was born on the Westside of Los Angeles, California to a Jewish family.[1] Her mother, Tamar Simon Hoffs, played Beatles music for Hoffs when she was a child, and she began playing the guitar in her teens. Hoffs attended Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. In 1980, she graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art. She eventually joined Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson in what would later become the pop music group The Bangles.

The Bangles' first recorded release was a self-titled EP in 1982 on the Faulty Products Label. The Bangles released their first full album All Over the Place in 1984 on Columbia Records. They had a moderate hit with the single "Hero Takes A Fall", but their commercial breakthrough came with the album Different Light in 1986, which produced the hit singles "Manic Monday" and "Walk Like an Egyptian". Incidentally, it was Susanna's relationship with Prince which allowed the Bangles to perform and record "Manic Monday", which was originally written by Prince for Apollonia 6.

In 1986, Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the song "I Need a Disguise" for the album Belinda for Belinda Carlisle, formerly of the all-girl group The Go-Go's.

With increasing fame, Hoffs also appeared on the covers of numerous magazines, and the Rickenbacker guitar company issued a Susanna Hoffs model of the 350 (which she customized herself).

In 1987, Hoffs starred in the film The Allnighter, which was directed by her mother Tamar Simon Hoffs, and also featured Joan Cusack and Pam Grier.

The Bangles released their third album Everything in 1989, with their biggest-selling single "Eternal Flame", which was co-written and sung by Hoffs. The Bangles disbanded a year later in 1990.

In the late 1990s, Hoffs contacted the other members of The Bangles with the hope of reuniting. They recorded the single "Get the Girl" for the second Austin Powers movie in 1999. Subsequently, they announced their decision to reunite full-time in 2000. Their fourth album, Doll Revolution, was released in 2003.

Hoffs released a solo album, When You're a Boy, in 1991, which wasn't the commercial success that many people had imagined, although it did spawn a U.S Top 40 hit with "My Side of the Bed." In the UK the single landed at #44, for only 4 weeks on chart, and the album also landed decently in Europe. Hoffs recorded another album during 1993/1994, prior to leaving Columbia Records, but it went unreleased. In 1996, Hoffs released her second solo album, Susanna Hoffs. Although it received much praise in the media and yielded a minor U.S. hit and a UK hit at #33 for 2 weeks with a cover of the Lightning Seeds single "All I Want", but still it was not a big commercial success.

Hoffs is the subject of Freddy Blohm's "The Corner of Her Eye". N. N. Maddox released a song entitled "Susanna Hoffs" and she is mentioned in "I'd Love to Kiss the Bangles" by The Saw Doctors. Robbie Fulks wrote about her in "That Bangle Girl," which appears on his album The Very Best of Robbie Fulks.

Hoffs appeared in the first Austin Powers movie as a member of the fictitious 1960s rock group Ming Tea, fronted by the title character. In real life, Ming Tea consisted of actor Mike Myers, Hoffs, Canadian musician/producer Christopher Ward, and singer Matthew Sweet. This group made a number of television performances (with Myers in character as Powers) and had a minor hit with the song "BBC". Hoffs returned with the group in the second and third Austin Powers films. Hoffs also did a cover of "The Look of Love" for the soundtrack of the first Austin Powers movie.

Hoffs recorded a cover of the Oingo Boingo song "We Close Our Eyes" for the Buffy The Vampire Slayer soundtrack. She is also responsible for the song "Now and then", from the 1994 film of the same name.

Hoffs also contributed a song to the film Red Roses and Petrol (written and directed by Tamar Simon Hoffs) titled "The Water is Wide." The song can be heard in the closing credits and is available on the film's soundtrack.

In February 2009, Hoffs appeared on stage at the Key Club in Los Angeles, singing with thenewno2, the "post-Bristol" psychedelic blues band led by Dhani Harrison.

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