In September 1986 The Bangles released “Walk Like an Egyptian” from their second album Different Light. By December the single had held #1 Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and became the best-selling US single of 1987. But the authorship was unusual: it was written by Liam Sternberg, an American producer who saw the passengers of an English Channel ferry. And The Bangles got the song as a project that Toni Basil and Lene Lovich had already turned down.
Liam Sternberg and the Channel ferry
In early 1984 American producer Liam Sternberg (known for his work with Rachel Sweet and Bette Bright) was crossing the English Channel on a ferry from Dover to Calais. The sea was rough and the boat was rolling. Sternberg was watching the passengers.
In a 2008 Songfacts interview Sternberg recalled: “People were trying to stay on their feet. They held the handrails, leaned one way, then the other. Their movements turned slow and asymmetrical - one arm up, one down, as if they were walking like ancient Egyptians in old drawings. I laughed. Then I thought: „that's a song"”.
Sternberg wrote “Walk Like an Egyptian” in a week. The lyric plays with the idea that people in various situations start to “walk like Egyptians”: traffic cops (arm up, palm forward), blues singers (“the blonde waitresses take their trays”), shop clerks, even government members.
Toni Basil and Lene Lovich turned it down
Sternberg first offered “Walk Like an Egyptian” to Toni Basil - singer/choreographer, known for the hit “Mickey” (1982). Basil said no. Per her 2013 interview: “The song seemed too silly. I missed the irony. I thought - it's just about Egyptians, and that's not appropriate. I didn't want to do another „Mickey"”.
Second candidate - Lene Lovich, English avant-garde singer. Lovich also declined. Third candidate - The Go-Go's. They passed in 1985 over internal band tensions.
In 1986 The Bangles' producer David Kahne heard the “Walk Like an Egyptian” demo and brought it to the band. The Bangles had just released “Manic Monday” and were looking for a follow-up. They agreed, on one condition - the song would be rewritten for female voices.
Recording: Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, summer 1986
The session took place at Sunset Sound - again with producer David Kahne. Concept: the song would be sung by all four band members, each taking one verse. That creates the effect of “different characters in one story”.
Verse structure:
- Susanna Hoffs - first verse (“All the old paintings on the tombs...”)
- Vicki Peterson - second verse (“The blonde waitresses take their trays...”)
- Debbi Peterson - third verse (“The bazaar man by the Nile...”) - did not make the final version
- Chorus by all four
Key detail: Michael Steele (bassist) doesn't sing her verse. Her verse was recorded but Kahne cut it. Steele in a 1987 interview: “I was going through a rough personal time and sang badly on the session day. Kahne suggested: „Let Debbi redo the verse". I agreed. But that left me without a vocal part - and from then on I felt I was outside the band”.
“Susanna, Vicki, and I sang. Michael stayed silent. That was the start of the end. In 1989 she left The Bangles. „Walk Like an Egyptian" is a beautiful song and a toxic moment in our history at the same time.”
- Debbi Peterson, Rolling Stone, 2014
Sound anatomy
- Key: G major, no modulations
- BPM: 120
- Length: 3:24 (single), 3:24 (album - same)
- Signature move - the bridge whistle, whistled by David Kahne himself (not an instrument, a real human whistle)
- Vicki Peterson on a Rickenbacker 360 - two chords (G and D) throughout
- Michael Steele on a Fender Jazz Bass - eighth notes
- Debbi Peterson on a Slingerland kit
- LinnDrum LM-1 alongside for hi-hat and electronic percussion
- Album: Different Light (January 1986, Columbia Records)
- US sales: 2 million singles (Platinum)
- Worldwide: over 6 million
Chart history: the best-selling US single of 1987
The single came out on 16 September 1986. By December - #1 Billboard Hot 100, four consecutive weeks. UK - #3. #1 in Canada. #2 in Australia and Netherlands.
At the end of 1987 Billboard announced: “Walk Like an Egyptian” was the best-selling US single of 1987 (beating George Michael's “Faith”, New Order's “True Faith”, and Bon Jovi's “Livin' on a Prayer”). It was the commercial peak of The Bangles.
The Different Light album also reached #2 Billboard 200 and was certified 4× Platinum in the US (4 million copies) and 8 million worldwide.
Video and the dance
The clip was directed by Sandra M. Seale. Concept - the band performs the song, intercut with shots of various people “walking like Egyptians” - a traffic cop, dock workers, a bar waiter, subway passengers. Budget $100,000. Six days of filming in Los Angeles and New York.
After the clip dropped, the “walk like an Egyptian” dance became a mass phenomenon in American schools. In 1987 at every US school dance someone would do the “Egyptian dance”. By 1988 it was a cliché.
The clip was nominated for MTV VMA 1987 for Best Group Video, losing to Beastie Boys' “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)”.
CNN and 9/11 censorship
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, CNN compiled a list of 164 songs radio stations were advised to consider inappropriate for airplay during the mourning period. “Walk Like an Egyptian” was on that list.
The reason - the line “all the cops in the doughnut shop, they walk like an Egyptian” - American police, like those who died on 9/11, get coffee at shops. In context the song read as mockery of dead officers.
Radio stations across the US pulled the song for 2-3 months after 9/11. Susanna Hoffs in a 2002 interview: “It was a strange time. A song we recorded in 1986 as light satire suddenly became inappropriate 15 years later. We didn't know what to do - apologise? But we hadn't meant anything bad”.
Legacy
By 2024 “Walk Like an Egyptian” had crossed 1 billion Spotify streams. The song has been cited in dozens of films including The Wedding Singer (1998), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Suicide Squad (2016).
A specific cultural legacy - the “Egypt-pop” micro-genre. In 1987-1988 dozens of pop artists released Egyptian-themed songs: Paula Abdul, Belinda Carlisle, Debbie Gibson. All followed The Bangles' formula.
What to listen to next
For 1986-87 “female pop-rock” context: The Bangles “Walk Like an Egyptian” → Belinda Carlisle “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” (1987) → Lita Ford “Kiss Me Deadly” (1988). Three different strategies of late-80s female rock bands and singers.
For The Bangles as a band, listen to all three major hits: “Manic Monday” (1986, Prince-written) → “Walk Like an Egyptian” (1986) → “Eternal Flame” (1989). Three stages, from “power-pop debutantes” through “dance hit” to “quiet ballad”.