THE STORY OF A SONG: Bangles - Manic Monday

     The Bangles peak at No.2 on the UK singles chart with the Prince-penned Manic Monday. The song also made runners-up spot in the US singles chart, held off No.l by none other than Prince himself with Kiss.

Originally written in 1984, the Purple One had intended to record it as a duet for his protegee outfit Apollonia 6's eponymous debut album. When that idea was scrapped, Prince instead offered it to California pop rockers The Bangles under the pseudonym Christopher - a character he played in 1986 vanity project movie Under The Cherry Moon.

Impressed by The Bangles' 1984 debut LP All Over The Place (particularly the track Hero Takes A Fall), Prince gave the song to rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Susanna Hoffs, although it's also been reported that the songwriter's affection for Hoffs was not solely music-related.

Prince's first version has recently seen the light of day on his Originals album, a posthumous demo vault release of songs that he gave to other artists. On The Bangles version, Prince plays synthesizer and piano with frequent collaborator Jill Jones providing backing vocals.

In a 1989 interview with MTV, drummer Debbi Peterson explained: "[Ours] was a Banglefication of a Prince arrangement. He had a demo, that was very specifically him. It was a good song, but we didn't record it like, 'This is our first hit single! Oh my God! I can feel it in my veins!' We just did the song, and the album, and then sat back and thought about it."

Lyrically, the track tells the story of a woman waking up from a romantic dream ("I was kissin' Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream") at 6am one Monday only to face a hectic journey to work when she'd prefer to still be enjoying a relaxing Sunday - her Ί-don't-have-to-run day".