Celebrity crush: Susanna Hoffs

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As proof that Ye Olde Podcaster's interests don't entirely skew toward actresses, or people born when he was in high school, here's a musician who was already a crush when said Olde Podcaster was in high school.

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Name: Susanna Hoffs (images | Bangles Web site | Facebook | MySpace | Twitter)
Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif., according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Susanna's an established solo artist and collaborator with Matthew Sweet on two albums of power-pop classic rock covers (one album of '60s songs, one album of '70s songs so far), but she's best known as a singer and multi-instrumentalist in the all-female rock band The Bangles, which you might not realize reunited with the Doll Revolution album in 2003. Sweetheart of the Sun, the new album by The Bangles, will arrive in late September.

In the 1987 film The Allnighter.

She and Matthew Sweet appeared together with Austin Powers series star Mike Myers in short bits in that film series as the fictitious rock band Ming Tea, even recording tracks for the film soundtracks. That presumably helped launch the Under the Covers albums with Sweet; some of their outtakes have popped up elsewhere, on film soundtracks and compilation albums listed below. (In listing the albums, I've skipped some soundtracks or anthologies that have songs collected on the Greatest Hits and Essential Bangles compilations -- each of which has non-album tracks that the other might not, so an OCD completist would want both of them.)

Vintage Bangles photo.

The Bangles hit during the height of MTV and so of course did music videos -- and she's done some as a solo artist, probably some in her collaborative efforts -- but iTunes doesn't seem to have any of them for sale, so I didn't list them on this entry. Should I revise it later and find some of them have become available, I'll do so then, keeping an eye out on her singles releases as a solo artist or Bangle.

Bangles circa 2003's Doll Revolution.

(Lots of those videos are up at YouTube, though as with any other musician it's a mix of official videos and fan-made productions of varying quality. Just listing the singles with no sales lengths would only add words to the entry, when the list of recordings is pretty lengthy as is. No point blinding you with even more text, devoid of links.)
Humble Beginnings: The Bangles started out as a band called The Bangs, but the existence of another band by that name necessitated a name change. She's also done a very small bit of acting, going back to a 1978 film and the 1987 cult classic The Allnighter with Deedee Pfeiffer, Joan Cusack, and Pam Grier. (That film was directed by Susanna's mom, Tamar Simon Hoffs -- for whose films Susanna has contributed some soundtrack songs over the years, including a cover of Donovan's "Catch the Wind" for her 2003 Red Roses and Petrol.)

The band hit it big in the early 1980s with a mix of original songs and covers (the Prince-penned "Manic Monday," the Jules Shear-written "If She Knew What She Wants," and a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter" featured in the film Less Than Zero and its powerful, eclectic soundtrack). They parted ways before the decade was over, with Susanna focusing on solo albums and non-album tracks (songs on the Now and Then and Buffy the Vampire Slayer film soundtracks), marrying and becoming a mother in the 1990s, then reunited in the new millennium.

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: In addition to still being a beautiful woman, Hoffs has one of the sexiest and yet sweetest voices in rock music. I'll be buying that Bangles album with no shame or irony whatsoever.
TV and Film Credits: My First Guitar (2011 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * Beatles Stories (2010 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Wrecking Crew (2008 documentary -- producer) (Amazon | iTunes) * Stars and Their Guitars: The History of the Electric Guitar (Amazon | iTunes) * The Bangles: Return to Bangleonia - Live in Concert (Amazon | iTunes) * Be My Baby: The Girl Group Story (2006 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * Red Roses and Petrol (2003 -- executive producer) (Amazon | iTunes) * Austin Powers in Goldmember (Amazon | iTunes) * Gilmore Girls, season 1: "Concert Interruptus" (Amazon | iTunes) * Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Amazon | iTunes) * Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Amazon | iTunes) * Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music (Amazon | iTunes) * The Bangles' Greatest Hits (music video compilation) (Amazon | iTunes) * Rock 'N' Read (1987 -- voice work) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Allnighter (Amazon | iTunes) * The Bangles Live at the Syria Mosque (1986) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Haircut (1982 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Stony Island (1978) (Amazon | iTunes)

Musical works: Sweetheart of the Sun (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * More Music from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * "My Crazy Afternoon" (with The Muffs) (Amazon | iTunes) * "I Know Every Raindrop" (with Sam Peters) (Amazon | iTunes) * "We Belong" (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Under the Covers, Vol. 2 (with Matthew Sweet) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Got to Get You Into My Life" (with Matthew Sweet) (Amazon | iTunes) * "On the Way Home" (with Matthew Sweet) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Sorry" (with Matthew Sweet) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Lies" (Abby Travis with the Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Light My Way" (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Essential Bangles (Amazon | iTunes) * Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (with Matthew Sweet) (Amazon | iTunes) * Glitter Years: Rarities & Gems (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Doll Revolution (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Red Roses and Petrol soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes) * Austin Powers in Goldmember soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes) * Austin Powers: Original Soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes) * Susanna Hoffs (Amazon | iTunes) * Now and Then soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes) * "We Close Our Eyes" (Amazon | iTunes) * When You're a Boy (Amazon | iTunes) * The Bangles' Greatest Hits (Amazon | iTunes) * "Bitchen Summer" (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Everything (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Different Light (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Belinda (backing vocals and co-writing with Belinda Carlisle) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Goonies soundtrack (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * All Over the Place (Bangles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Bangles (1982 EP) (Amazon | iTunes)