Bangles “Hero Takes a Fall” charted

Hero Takes a Fall The Bangles

Writer(s): Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson (see lyrics here) First Charted: August 11, 1984 Peak: 59 AR, 10 CO, 96 UK, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1.3 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The all-girl group the Bangles formed in Los Angeles in 1981. They would reach massive commercial success in the mid-‘80s with the #1 songs “Walk Like an Egyptian” and “Eternal Flame” as well as the Prince-penned #2 song “Manic Monday.” However, they didn’t find fame immediately, getting started on an indie label and gaining an audience with college rock audiences before going mainstream. Originally known as the Bangs, they were formed by sisters Vicki (guitar) and Debbie Peterson (drums) with Susanna Hoffs (guitar) and Annette Zilinskas (bass). All four handled vocals. In 1982, they released an EP entitled The Real World. Annette left the band and was replaced by Michael Steele, from the all-female band the Runaways. It was this lineup which released All Over the Place, the band’s first full-length album, in 1984. The album “openly embraces the folk-rock and garage rock influences that fueled their earliest music” AMG although it also showed “some of their rough edges were already being buffed away.” AMG The lead single, “Hero Takes a Fall,” was written by Susanna and Vicki “about how arrogance can lead to downfall, especially in matters of the heart.” SF Vicki explained, “We were thinking along very classical lines of classical tragedies where there’s often a flaw to the hero…There’s often an Achilles heel, something that takes him down at some point, and we were interested in that concept.” SF Hoffs said, “When I look back on my writing relationship with Vicki I think that song was kind of a milestone in terms of our collaboration, where we just we sat down with an idea in mind to do something that had a good beat and would really be fun to play live. We ended up releasing it as a single and it got a lot of airplay on the college radio circuit. Having been playing on the club scene in LA, we started to kind of elevate from playing smaller venues up to small theaters.” SF Resources: AMG All Music Guide SF Songfacts Related Links: First posted 3/11/2023.