The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs and Elvis Costello are celebrating Keith Richards’ 81st birthday with a new cover of the (primarily) Keef-penned Rolling Stones cut “Connection.”
Hoffs and Costello’s rendition of the track retains the original 1967 song’s punchy energy, while imbuing it with some more ramshackle jangle, as well as a whole lot of tender, sweet harmonies. Hoffs tells Rolling Stone that she got to do the “Keith part” on the cover (ostensibly referring to the lead guitar riff and vocals), quipping she and Costello “both wanted to do the Keith part, but I won!”
She adds of working with Costello, “I had the great honor of singing with Elvis at a couple of his shows, and it was a dream to record a song together.”
And Costello says, “What a gas to sing with Sue again. I’d be the ‘Keith’ to her ‘Mick’ any day.”
In a press statement, Hoffs spoke about her admiration for Richards. “His smile, his swagger, his songwriting — the way he moves on stage, as if his guitar is a part of his body and together they meld with the music and the emotion of the song. He’s sung lead on three of my most favorite Rolling Stones songs: ‘Happy,’ ‘You Got the Silver,’ and ‘Connection.’”
Back in October, Hoffs released a new album, The Lost Record, which appropriately comprises a collection of songs she wrote and recorded in the late Nineties, but never actually released. Hoffs wrote a bunch of songs with David Baerwald and Dan Schwartz, who were just coming off Sheryl Crow’s hit 1993 album, Tuesday Night Music Club, while another was a co-write with the Go-Go’s Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Coffey. The songs were recorded in Hoffs’ garage with collaborators that included legendary session drummer Jim Keltner and producer-musician Brian MacLeod.
In an interview with Billboard, Hoffs said she wasn’t exactly sure why the album didn’t get released at the time. “I think it became a little bit fraught,” she said. “There was some discourse between some of the personalities, I think, and maybe it was because the Bangles wanted to get back together and I felt that I had to park this, somehow, for the greater good. It was so long ago. It was just, like the stars were not aligning or something, and I had to shelve it.
But, she continued, “I’ve always loved these sessions. I had such a fondness for the material and for these recordings because they were so honest and sort of basic and stripped down. It was so much the spirit of creativity in that garage. I’m so glad it’s coming out, finally.”
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