Jeez, didn't meant to get those Bangles feathers all ruffled. I did say "seems to be". I liked their post-Prince career and wasn't trying to suggest anything like what you wrote. I'm the one who pointed out they were not a one-hit wonder and that MM wasn't their biggest hit.

Anyway, my personal recollection of interviews they did at the time and since is that they were hesitant to talk much about the Prince connection and regularly brushed those questions aside.

Here I'll be more politically correct and restate it. Their sound developed in their later hits in such a manner that they could not be seen as just another Prince project. Is that better?

Golden rule to get a hit for Radio and the masses is strong / catchy melody + easy to remember/simple lyrics + sing about stuff most can relate to = HIT!!!. This song has it all, I'd even put it above Kiss!.

funkyhead said:

Dude, please: Manic Monday is a thinly disguised rewrite of "1999".

funkyhead said:

Dude, please: Manic Monday is a thinly disguised rewrite of "1999".

dseann said:

I'm about the same age as you and I, too, remember hearing both songs on the radio when they came out. (I remember precisely where I was the first time I heard Kiss-I had never heard anything like it.) But I had no idea Manic Monday was a Prince song until much much later. (Same with Nothing Compares 2 U.) I guess it depends on where you grow up to some extent...I grew up in a cultural wasteland.

I don't know which song stayed at #1 longer. But if you played Manic Monday and Kiss for people our age today, I'd bet most people would know who *sings* each song, but they wouldn't necessarily know Prince wrote MM.

I guess my friend was bummed to find out Prince wrote it cause he's not really a P fan. (Not a hater, but just not into Prince.) He's into emo music so whateva.



ps. I just realized that you may have thought my first post was directed towards your post (directly above mine)--I actually intended mine to be in response to the thread topic as a whole.
[Edited 8/21/06 13:52pm]

funkyhead said:

Dude, please: Manic Monday is a thinly disguised rewrite of "1999".

I agree with the thread starter, it was his most blatantly, commercialy sounding song he ever has been involved with. A catchy composition with 'cheesy' (but not too cheesy) production resulting in a MOR-classic.

But remember that Prince wasnt the producer of the song. So i think a lot of its commercial appeal has to do with the 'cheesy' production of the song. I remember that Greil Marcus wrote that the song has one of the must purposely simple / 'familiar' sounding piano riffs that made it a hit by people from 8 - 88 (free interpretation, as i am recalling what he did wrote).

Its the kind of song that people who arent necessarily music-lovers, but who put on the radio during work, like to hum along with. Alltough songs like Purple Rain and Kiss might have been bigger hits (were they?) those still have and edge or lets say... authencity that doesnt really appeal to people who only listen to MOR, and own 10 or 20 CD's.

ElCapitan said:

I'm just saying that I don't think there was any effort to distance themselves from Manic Monday by purposely releasing different styles, it was purely a case of releasing the next song on their album they thought was best and might be a hit. I'm sure it hadn't entered their minds they were a 'Prince project' and I don't really recall that being made out in the media either. The media was interested in the link with Prince of course, but that was it. I don't think Manic Monday was an archetypal obvious Prince song, as shown by the many many people who never knew or still don't know Prince wrote it. It was a big hit as much because it perfectly suited The Bangles sound and sounded like one of their own-written songs, it didn't sound (like has often been the case) a Prince song sung by someone trying to put their own spin on the song but still ending up just sounding Prince-like.
[Edited 8/22/06 6:27am]

I really don't like Manic Monday.

IMO it's the only real hit he wrote for anybody other than himself, but I guess it depends on what you consider a hit.
[Edited 8/23/06 7:18am]

Adisa said:

How about Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You", Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares To You" or Malissa Morgan's "Do Me Baby"?

dseann said:

Remakes.

Adisa said:

So was Manic Monday, that's my point.

I would disagree for two reasons:

1. iirc, Manic Monday was displaced from #1 on the charts by Kiss itself, which pretty much nullifies any arguement you could make for it being more radio-friendly than Kiss.

2. A lot of people don't know Manic Monday is a Prince song. Just yesterday I was talking with someone about associates, etc. and said the Bangles Manic Monday was a Prince song. They said, "oh, Prince co-wrote that?" I said, "No co-wrote about it; that's all Prince." They were kinda bummed.

Golden rule to get a hit for Radio and the masses is strong / catchy melody + easy to remember/simple lyrics + sing about stuff most can relate to = HIT!!!. This song has it all, I'd even put it above Kiss!.

Anyone else think it's funny that people still think that he wrote the song FOR Sussanna Hoffs when it was clearly written for Apollonia 6. It seems like a popular pop culture misconceptation? Every time the song is mentioned, people seem to think he was inspired by Susanna Hoffs and was sitting around and wrote it for her.

dseann said:

Not really, since the Bangles released it FIRST.