"If She Knew What She Wants" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Jules Shear and introduced on his 1985 album The Eternal Return. The Bangles recorded the song for their 1986 album Different Light. That version, a call-and-response rendition with Susanna Hoffs as the main voice,Daily News-Journal (Murfreesboro TN) 2 February 1986 "Bangles' Four-Part Harmony Blends Well" by Tom Spigolin p.23 (Accent) was issued as a single and became a Top 40 hit. A mid-tempo ballad, it is sung from the viewpoint of someone, per songwriter Shear, "who wants to satisfy someone else but doesn't quite know how to do it because the other person is capricious."Palm Beach Post 21 September 1985 "Jules Shear Stands Tall: pop craftsman won't give up" by Jim Presnell p.28 (Section TGIF) The song, especially The Bangles' version, is typically described with such adjectives as "bittersweet", "plaintive" and "wistful".Desert Sun (Palm Springs) 1 February 1986 "Bangles Avoid Sophomore Slump on Their Second LP" by Eleni P. Auston p.F7Lafayette Journal & Courier11 April 1989 "Bangles Taunt, Tease But Slow to Please" by Edith Lee p.C1Los Angeles Times 7 May 1992 "Shear Talent: the name may not be familiar but Jules Shear is a sought-after songwriter"by Mike Boehm p.8 (Orange County Live!)Baltimore Sun 3 October 1996 "CD Reviews" by J.D. Considine p.14Chicago Tribune 10 June 1997 "Hoffs is Appealing, Despite Shortcomings" by Kevin McKeough p.2 (Tempo)Boston Globe 6 October 2011 "The Bangles Sparkle, Mixing New With the Old" by Mark Hirsch p.B16
Original version "If She Knew What She Wants" was released on February 8, 1985 on Jules Shear's second solo album, The Eternal Return, to critical acclaim.Montreal Gazette 9 May 1985 Record Roundup by John Griffin p.D-9Los Angeles Times 12 May 1985 "Record Rack" by Chris Willman p.57Newport News Daily Press 1 September 1985 "Record Bin" by Jory Farr p.I5Vancouver Province 1 September 1985 "Rock Records" by Tom Harrison p.13 (The Magazine) John Piekarski of The Atlanta Constitution lauded the song's "melody [as] dreamy and vivacious yet mellow enough [for] adult contemporary radio [airplay]."Atlanta Constitution 25 May 1985 "Record Review... Pop" by John Piekarski p.26 An album review by High Fidelity assessed Shear's love songs as "astute [being] equal parts compassion, affectionate wit, and armchair psychoanalysis", exemplified by the lyric "If she knew what she wants I'd be giving it to her" which "condenses a self-help manual for the mates of neurotics into a single piercing line."High Fidelity Vol 35 #9 (September 1985) "Crown Jules" by Joyce Millman p.68 Shear himself would say that he typically imparted his songs with "some little twist that makes [them] rise above" standard pop music fare, and "It doesn't really have to be too complicated to be a little bit different."
Although passed over as lead single on The Eternal Return in favor of the Cyndi Lauper co-written "Steady" (whose Hot 100 peak was no. 57), "If She Knew What She Wants" was tagged as the potential followup with EMI, who sent promo copies to radio stations in June 1985. When no significant airplay resulted, EMI canceled both the single's commercial release and a tour by Shear to support his album.Chicago Tribune 9 September 1988 "A Hit For Others - Shear Looks Out For #1" by Chris Heim p.5-1Hanford Sentinel 15 June 1985 "Songwriter Shares Wealth of Talent" by Frank Spotnitz p.TV-11 Shear's original version was co-produced by Shear and Bill Drescher, not to be confused with the baseball player of the same name.
The Bangles version Background
The Bangles recorded "If She Knew What She Wants" for their 1986 album Different Light for which it would serve as second single. Hailed by Cashbox as an "infectious, gorgeous pop song...with classic pop dimensions, including a can't-stop-singing-it chorus", "If She Knew What She Wants" would cause Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times to opine that "on...'If She Knew What She Wants' the Bangles' voices blend with the kind of seductive charm that you swore disappeared the day The Mamas & the Papas called it quits,"Los Angeles Times 15 June 1986 "The Pop World on $25 a Month - a Baedeker" by Robert Hilburn p.60 while News Journal (Wilmington Del) writer Peter Bothum would in 2011 recall the Bangles' "If She Knew What She Wants" as "what the Byrds would have sounded like if they were chicks."News Journal September 30 2011 "Nightlife: 25 years later the Bangles are still making us do the 'Walk'" by Peter Bothum pp.HR19-HR20
The Bangles had spent the autumn of 1984 as the opening act on the Fun Tour by Cyndi Lauper, the singer through whose patronage Jules Shear had first come to the fore, chiefly through Lauper's hit version of Shear's composition "All Through the Night". The Bangles themselves would subsequently assist Shear in the promotion of his The Eternal Return album. When Shear had mimed his single—the Lauper co-written "Steady"—on an American Bandstand episode broadcast on 8 June 1985, The Bangles served as faux-backup band. Shear would also co-write The Bangles' track "I Got Nothing" included on the 1985 The Goonies soundtrack.
Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post would opine that "The Bangles wisely didn't second-guess Shear's version of 'If She Knew What She Wants'; their arrangement of that song... echoes his faithfully—except that they sing better." Vicki Peterson of The Bangles said that the group did slightly change Shears' arrangement. Lyrically, some first-person clauses in Shear's recording (ex. "I'm crazy for this girl") are third-person in The Bangles' version (cf. "He's crazy for this girl"). The positioning of the bridge also differs—in Shear's recording the bridge (which begins with "Some have a style") follows the verse that starts with "No sense thinking I could rehabilitate her"; in The Bangles' version, the bridge comes before that verse.
Single release and impact Overview Similar in style to the Different Light lead single, "Manic Monday",The News (North Jersey) 25 January 1986 "Music Beat" by Mike Daly p.S-3Philadelphia Daily News 13 February 1986 "Fantastic Plastic" by Jonathan Takiff p.52Bangles Greatest Hits liner notes by Mark Rowland"If She Knew What She Wants" peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as No. 28 on the Cash Box Top 100. Elsewhere, it reached No. 31 on the UK Singles,Rock movers & shakers p.27. Billboard Publications, Inc., 1989 No. 31 on the Kent Music Report in Australia and No. 29 on the RPM in Canada. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between 1983 and 19 June 1988.
Charts +Chart performance for "If She Knew What She Wants"Chart (1986)PeakpositionAustralia (Kent Music Report) N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between 1983 and June 19, 1988.31Canada Top Singles (RPM) 29Ireland (IRMA)23Luxembourg (Radio Luxembourg)18US Cash Box28Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)13
Video and soundtrack usage
The Bangles shot a promotional video for "If She Knew What She Wants" while on tour in the UK the first week of March 1986, and it was this video that aired in the British Isles and Europe. Upon returning the US, the band shot an alternate video for the song's American promotion, produced by Tamar Simon Hoffs, mother of the track's main vocalist Susanna Hoffs, and directed by Dan Perri.
The Bangles version of "If She Knew What She Wants" is featured in the 2006 Tim Allen and Courteney Cox superhero comedy Zoom.
References
External links Lyrics of this song at Genius (Jules Shear version) The Bangles music video (US version) via YouTube The Bangles music video (UK version) via YouTube The Bangles extended remix (UK) via YouTube Jules Shear version via YouTube