Can you feel the love? I hope y’all had a beautiful Valentine’s Day with someone special. Ballads are excellent ways to express ones affections and I have a song stuck in my head. It has been for weeks now!
Let’s flashback to the 80s to learn about the inspiration behind today’s feature song.
The song was inspired by two eternal flames: one at the grave site of Elvis Presley that the Bangles saw when the band visited Graceland, and one at a local synagogue in Palm Springs which Steinberg attended as a child. Steinberg recalled to Songfacts: Susanna was talking about the Bangles having visited Graceland, and she said there was some type of shrine to Elvis that included some kind of eternal flame. As soon as those words were mentioned, I immediately thought of the synagogue in the town of Palm Springs, California where I grew up. I remember during our Sunday school class they would walk us through the sanctuary. There was one little red light and they told us it was called the eternal flame.~Wikipedia source
Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles wrote Eternal Flame and it topped the charts in nine countries in the late 80s.
The history of the lyrics don’t suggest a love song, but it’s interpreted by the listener as such. For your enjoyment and not part of the contest here are The Bangles.
After hearing Carolina Forbes a character from The Vampire Diaries sing this song is why it got stuck in my head. Her rendition is very close to the original. What I like about her cover is how breathy she sings. I just love that soft sound! Please listen to Candice Accola.
If you want to go straight to the song, jump to about the 1:15 mark.
What did you think of contender #1? Nice, right? Next on the grind is contender #2, a band who did the same cover on the same episode (season 2 episode 16), as Candice of the show. I don’t remember it, but that’s what the info says on YouTube. Anywho, here is Human Nature!
This cover is good. I enjoyed hearing male vocals covering it, but not well enough to give them my vote. I’m going with Candice Accola.
How about you, which artist did you favor, Candice Accola or Human Nature? Please leave your answer in comments; if you have time and want to share what makes your pick the “best” of the two, then I’d love to read your reasons.
Don’t forget, the polls close at midnight on the 21st and the results will post the following day, so mark your calendar and stop by to see if your pick gets named!
The fun continues with more epic battles underway. I invite you to visit, Stephen, who manages the ever-growing list of BoTB players. Thanks for doing a fine job, my friend, and a special thank you to the brain child of this cool meme, Fae.
Thanks for visiting today. The fun isn’t over quite yet. I’m dancing with the amazing 4M crew and hope you’ll come to the party with me. This is Curious as a Cathy signing off with have a bandtastic day!