"Walk Like an Egyptian" is a song made famous by American band The Bangles. It was released in 1986 as the third single from the album Different Light. It was a million-selling single and became Billboard's number-one song of 1987.
Video Walk Like an Egyptian
Origin
Music producer Liam Sternberg wrote the song after seeing people on a ferry walking awkwardly to keep their balance. Their poses reminded him of figures in some Ancient Egyptian paintings and reliefs.
Maps Walk Like an Egyptian
Recording
Sternberg had finished a demo version of the song by January 1984 with singer Marti Jones. He offered it to Toni Basil, who turned it down. Lene Lovich recorded the first version of the song, but it went unreleased when she decided to take a break from music to raise her family. David Kahne from Peer Southern Publishing was the producer of Different Light; he received a copy of the demo and liked it, especially Jones's "offhand quality".
Kahne took the song to the Bangles who agreed to record it. He had each member of the group sing the lyrics to determine who would sing each verse; Vicki Peterson, Michael Steele, and Susanna Hoffs sang lead vocals in the final version on the first, second, and third verses, respectively. Kahne did not like any of Debbi Peterson's leads, so she was relegated to backing vocals. This angered her and caused tension within the group. The situation was exacerbated by the use of a drum machine in place of her drumming, further diminishing her role in the song. She can be seen playing the tambourine during their 1986 performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Chart performances
"Walk Like an Egyptian" was released as the third single from Different Light. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1986. The song reached a peak of number three on the UK Singles Chart in November 1986 and reached number one in the US on December 20, staying at the top of the Hot 100 for four weeks, carrying it over into January 1987. The song is the first song by an all-female group playing their own instruments to top the Billboard singles chart. The success of the song and "Manic Monday" propelled Different Light to number two on the Billboard 200 chart, making it the group's most successful album.
Music video
The music video for "Walk Like an Egyptian" was nominated for Best Group Video at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. The street scenes were filmed in New York City. It featured people dancing in a pose similar to the pose depicted in the Ancient Egyptian reliefs that inspired songwriter Liam Sternberg; while most of them are ordinary people, some famous figures and objects were depicted dancing in that same pose through the use of simple special effects, including Princess Diana, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and the Statue of Liberty. In a popular scene from the video, Hoffs was filmed in a close-up where her eyes moved from side to side, looking left and right. When asked about the scene in an interview with online magazine PlanetOut.com, Hoffs explained that she was actually looking at individual audience members during the video shoot, which took place with a live audience. Looking directly at individual audience members was a technique she used to overcome stage fright, and she was unaware that the camera had a close-up on her while she was employing this technique, switching between one audience member on her left and one on her right.
1990 re-release
In 1990, "Walk Like an Egyptian" was re-issued as a single in the UK to promote the Bangles' Greatest Hits album. It featured new remixes for the song called Ozymandias Remix. It charted at number 73 in the UK.
Airplay restrictions
"Walk Like an Egyptian" was one of the songs which were claimed to have been banned by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Snopes in researching this found that the list was simply suggestions regarding songs to be sensitive in regards to when playing. It was also included in a "list of records to be avoided" drawn up by the BBC during the Gulf War.
Accolades
(*) indicates the list is unordered.
Track listings
Charts and sales
See also
- List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1986
- List of Billboard Year-End number-one singles and albums
- List of Hot 100 Airplay number-one singles of the 1980s
- List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1980s
- List of Cash Box Top 100 number-one singles of 1986
- List of Dutch Top 40 number-one singles of 1986
- List of number-one hits of 1986 (Flanders)
- List of number-one hits of 1986 (Germany)
- List of number-one singles of 1987 (Canada)
- List of number-one singles of 1987 (Spain)
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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