Friday, November 18, 2016

Song #218: "Eternal Flame"--The Bangles (1988)

Their past radio success thanks mostly to mid-tempo and high-tempo hits like "Manic Monday" and "Walk Like An Egyptian", which was their first number one hit, the Bangles returned to the top of the charts during the snowy (at least in Richmond) late winter of 1989 with this haunting ballad.

Interestingly, it would be over a decade later before I discovered this song. By early 1989, as Operations Manager, and, about to become Music Director, of the former WDYL-FM and WGGM, my life was firmly ensconced in what's known as "CCM", or Contemporary Christian Music.

I played it five hours a day on my afternoon drive air shift and was now beginning to make the decisions on what to add, what to put in heavy rotation, when it was time to send a song to the "recurrent" category (raise your hand if you know what that means!), etc. So, my time listening to pop music became reduced to what few songs I would hear while throwing newspapers in the early, early morning, and, most of that time, I was listening to the news.

So, it was a pleasant addition to my musical tastes when I discovered this, and many other songs, in "catch up" mode in the early to mid 2000's.

The ladies return two more times in our musical journey.  :)


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