Bonnie Hayes
Encyclopedia
Bonnie Hayes is an American
singer/songwriter/keyboardist from California
, USA.
band called The Punts, who released a 45 RPM single, "Shelly's Boyfriend" (a song inspired by her sister), b/w "Rochambeau," which received considerable airplay in the SF market. In 1982, the band changed their name to "Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo" and released their first album entitled Good Clean Fun, a New Wave
/rock offering. The Good Clean Fun album was finally released on CD in September 2007. The song "Girls Like Me" from that album was used in the opening credits for the 1983 movie Valley Girl
. Perhaps because of the label's (Slash) limited muscle, the record was only regionally successful.
1982 brought the release of Brave New Girl, on Hayes's and producer Steve Savage's Bondage Records. This sophomore effort expands even further the broad musical range of Good Clean Fun, ratcheting up the sophistication of the earlier release, in the material as well as the production. "After Hours" is a soaring ballad, while "Night Baseball" and "Brave New Girl" bring a distinctive power pop tilt to its new wave core and hint at things to come in Hayes' writing.
In 1988, Hayes and Savage, having signed a deal with Muscle Records and Miles Copeland, went into Soma Studios in San Francisco. The duo was joined by Bonnie's brother Chris (HLN) and Wild Combo member Paul Davis on guitars, Benny Reitveld (Santana, Miles Davis) on bass and Dennis Chambers (Parliament, John Scofield, Santana) on drums. Due to difficulties between Muscle and Copeland, the album was never released.
Later that year Hayes joined the traveling band of former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle for a world tour. She has also toured with Billy Idol (1991-2) and Bruce Springsteen (2000).
In 1989, Bonnie Raitt heard Hayes' catalog through the auspices of their publisher, Bob Brown of Bob-A-Lew music, and chose "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart"for her comeback release Nick of Time. The album was a smash hit, selling over 6 million copies in the US alone, and winning the Grammy for Record of the Year. The Hayes-penned "Have a Heart" was the top charting song on the album, rising to number 3 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. Although this gave Hayes her first commercial success, she was known in the business from that point on as a songwriter, to the detriment of her career as a performer. Hayes went on to place many songs with other artists, including Bette Midler
, Natalie Cole
, Robert Cray
, David Crosby
, Adam Ant
and Booker T and the MGs.
In 1996, Hayes was signed to Fuel records and recorded Empty Sky in Los Angeles, with Savage again in the producer's chair. Drawing on session players Keith Brown (bass), Alvino Bennett (drums, brother Chris (guitar,) and a guest appearance by Huey Lewis playing harmonica on a version of Bobby Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe". This release is a toned-down, jazzier follow-up to the stillborn IRS project. Bottomless, written for Hayes' daughter was later covered by Bette Midler.
2004's "Love in the Ruins", written after Hayes learned to play the guitar, features a capricious rough-edged quality evocative of her first record with a rootsier, Americana sound.
Bonnie Hayes is the sister of Chris Hayes, former lead guitarist of Huey Lewis and the News
, and Kevin Hayes, drummer with the Robert Cray Band.
Robert Christgau
said that on Good Clean Fun, Hayes "comes off smarter, surer, and more sisterly than just about any new rock and roll woman I can think of."
Track Listing
Track Listing
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer/songwriter/keyboardist from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA.
Late 1970s and early 1980s
In the late 1970s, she founded a New WaveNew Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band called The Punts, who released a 45 RPM single, "Shelly's Boyfriend" (a song inspired by her sister), b/w "Rochambeau," which received considerable airplay in the SF market. In 1982, the band changed their name to "Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo" and released their first album entitled Good Clean Fun, a New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
/rock offering. The Good Clean Fun album was finally released on CD in September 2007. The song "Girls Like Me" from that album was used in the opening credits for the 1983 movie Valley Girl
Valley Girl (film)
Valley Girl is a 1983 romantic comedy film, starring Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily, Cameron Dye, and Joyce Heiser. The film was the directorial debut of Martha Coolidge, and was the first film in which Nicolas Coppola was billed as Nicolas Cage.The American release of Valley Girl...
. Perhaps because of the label's (Slash) limited muscle, the record was only regionally successful.
1982 brought the release of Brave New Girl, on Hayes's and producer Steve Savage's Bondage Records. This sophomore effort expands even further the broad musical range of Good Clean Fun, ratcheting up the sophistication of the earlier release, in the material as well as the production. "After Hours" is a soaring ballad, while "Night Baseball" and "Brave New Girl" bring a distinctive power pop tilt to its new wave core and hint at things to come in Hayes' writing.
Late 1980s and beyond
Hayes signed with Chrysalis Records and, in 1987 released Bonnie Hayes, produced by Stewart Levine (UB40). This album, recorded and mixed in Los Angeles, favors Bonnie's pop sensibility and, with layered horns, sheets of keyboards, dense backing vocals, and lots of processed reverb, the production colors of choice in the L.A. pop scene at the time. The record was not a commercial success. "Some Guys", the first single from the Chrysalis record, was later released by Cher, and was Hayes's first commercial cover.In 1988, Hayes and Savage, having signed a deal with Muscle Records and Miles Copeland, went into Soma Studios in San Francisco. The duo was joined by Bonnie's brother Chris (HLN) and Wild Combo member Paul Davis on guitars, Benny Reitveld (Santana, Miles Davis) on bass and Dennis Chambers (Parliament, John Scofield, Santana) on drums. Due to difficulties between Muscle and Copeland, the album was never released.
Later that year Hayes joined the traveling band of former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle for a world tour. She has also toured with Billy Idol (1991-2) and Bruce Springsteen (2000).
In 1989, Bonnie Raitt heard Hayes' catalog through the auspices of their publisher, Bob Brown of Bob-A-Lew music, and chose "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart"for her comeback release Nick of Time. The album was a smash hit, selling over 6 million copies in the US alone, and winning the Grammy for Record of the Year. The Hayes-penned "Have a Heart" was the top charting song on the album, rising to number 3 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. Although this gave Hayes her first commercial success, she was known in the business from that point on as a songwriter, to the detriment of her career as a performer. Hayes went on to place many songs with other artists, including Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
, Natalie Cole
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole , is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be ", "Inseparable" and "Our Love"...
, Robert Cray
Robert Cray
Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...
, David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Adam Ant
Adam Ant
Adam Ant is an English musician who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave/post-punk group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s...
and Booker T and the MGs.
In 1996, Hayes was signed to Fuel records and recorded Empty Sky in Los Angeles, with Savage again in the producer's chair. Drawing on session players Keith Brown (bass), Alvino Bennett (drums, brother Chris (guitar,) and a guest appearance by Huey Lewis playing harmonica on a version of Bobby Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe". This release is a toned-down, jazzier follow-up to the stillborn IRS project. Bottomless, written for Hayes' daughter was later covered by Bette Midler.
2004's "Love in the Ruins", written after Hayes learned to play the guitar, features a capricious rough-edged quality evocative of her first record with a rootsier, Americana sound.
Bonnie Hayes is the sister of Chris Hayes, former lead guitarist of Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...
, and Kevin Hayes, drummer with the Robert Cray Band.
Songwriting Teacher
Bonnie Hayes began her teaching career at the Blue Bear School of music on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco, where she began as a student in 1970. She went on to become an instructor in piano, music theory and band workshops. Blue Bear since moved to Fort Mason, and Hayes continues to teach songwriting there, as well as run the summer camp program and serve as a trustee on the board of directors. She has also worked as a keyboard instructor at Family Light Music School in Sausalito, CA, a small private school whose staff also included Michael Bloomfield (Electric Flag, Super Session), John Cippolina (Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Toni Brown (Joy of Cooking), the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the ASCAP workshops in Los Angeles, and at the WCS Conference at Foothill College. Students of hers have won various songwriting prizes, such as:- the John Lennon songwriting contestJohn Lennon Songwriting ContestThe John Lennon Songwriting Contest, named for the former member of The Beatles, is a songwriting competition for songwriters, open to amateurs and professionals. The contest accepts instrumental pieces as well as songs with a vocal component. Though all entries must include a CD, cassette, or...
- the WCSA songwriting contest
- the Soulmaking contest
Good Clean Fun (1982)
This album was released on CD on September 18, 2007.- Label: Slash Records
- Label record ID: SR-112
Track listing
- "Girls Like Me" (B. Hayes)
- "Shelly's Boyfriend" (B. Hayes/Savage)
- "Separating" (B. Hayes/Savage)
- "Dum Fun" (B. Hayes/Savage)
- "Coverage (B. Hayes)
- "Inside Doubt" (B. Hayes/Savage)
- "Joyride (B. Hayes)
- "Loverboy (B. Hayes)
- "Raylene" (B. Hayes)
- "The Last Word" (B. Hayes)
Reviews
Allmusic said that Good Clean Fun is "probably the finest album of the entire early-'80s California girl pop scene... the songs on Good Clean Fun are almost embarrassingly catchy. The first two tracks... are three-minute classics with more vocal and musical hooks than many whole albums... Good Clean Fun works brilliantly on every level, and only Slash Records' limited distribution muscle -- and possibly the unfortunately cheesy cover art -- kept it from being a hit. As it stands, Good Clean Fun is a neglected '80s pop masterpiece."Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
said that on Good Clean Fun, Hayes "comes off smarter, surer, and more sisterly than just about any new rock and roll woman I can think of."
Bonnie Hayes (1987)
- Label: EMI Distribution
- ASIN: B00000EEA9
Track Listing
- Some Guys (Golde, Hayes) 3:40
- To See You Again (Davis, Golde, Hayes, Sitkin) 2:59
- The Real Thing (Hayes) 3:46
- Coax Me, Chad (Golde, Hayes) 4:04
- Time Stands Still (Hayes) 5:36
- Soul Love (Hayes, Hayes, Rietveld) 4:17
- Skeletons Dancing (Safan) 4:42
- Chance on You (Hayes) 3:45
- Whole Wide World (Davis, Hayes) 3:51
- Joyful Noise (Hayes) 4:23
Empty Sky (1996)
- Label: Beacon
- ASIN: B00000DPGU
Track Listing
- My Brave Face
- Hieroglyphics
- Too Far To Fall
- Things You Left Behind
- Ode To Billie Joe
- Love Letter
- Out Of The Loop
- Learning To Fly
- Bottomless
- Freedom Calling
- The Moment Of True Feeling
- Bed Of Roses
Track listing
- Beautiful Ideal
- I Can't Stop
- Greener Grass
- Keeping the Hum Going
- Still Wild
- Stealing Roses
- Everybody Wins
- Turn Down Love
- Vintage People
- Money Makes You Stupid