Bonnie Hayes With The Wild Combo
Bonnie Hayes is an American singer/songwriter/keyboardist from California, … Read Full Bio ↴Bonnie Hayes is an American singer/songwriter/keyboardist from California, USA.
Late 1970s and early 1980s
In the late 1970s, she founded a New Wave band called The Punts, who released a 45 RPM single, "Shelly's Boyfriend" (a song inspired by her sister), b/w "Rochambeau," which received considerable airplay in the SF market. In 1982, the band changed their name to "Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo" and released their first album entitled Good Clean Fun, a New Wave/rock offering. The Good Clean Fun album was finally released on CD in September 2007. The song "Girls Like Me" from that album was used in the opening credits for the 1983 movie Valley Girl. Due perhaps to the label's (Slash) limited muscle, the record was only regionally successful, but stands as one of the first great punk/pop records, and as a signpost pointing to the later success of west coast punk/pop girl-fronted bands The Bangles, The Go-Go's and No Doubt.
1982 brought the release of "Brave New Girl", on Hayes' and producer Steve Savage's Bondage Records. This sophomore effort expands even further the broad musical range of "Good Clean Fun", ratcheting up the sophistication of the earlier release, in the material as well as the production. "After Hours" is a soaring ballad, while "Night Baseball" and "Brave New Girl" bring a distinctive power pop tilt to its new wave core and hint at things to come in Hayes' writing.
Late 1980s and beyond
Hayes signed with Chrysalis Records and, in 1987 released "Bonnie Hayes", produced by Stuart Levine (UB40). This album, recorded and mixed in Los Angeles, favors Bonnie's pop sensibility and, with layered horns, sheets of keyboards, dense backing vocals, and lots of processed reverb, the production colors of choice in the L.A. pop scene at the time. "Some Guys", "The Real Thing" and "Time Stands Still" are standouts. The record was not a commercial success.
In 1988, Hayes and Savage, having signed a deal with Miles Copeland and IRS, went into Soma Studios in SF for what would turn out to be the seminal recording of their career together. The duo was joined by Bonnie's brother Chris (HLN) and Wild Combo member Paul Davis on guitars, Bennie Reitveld (Santana, Miles Davis) on Bass and powerhouse Dennis Chambers (Parliament, John Scofield), holding down the drum chair. What transpired over those 7 days is described by all who were there in reverent superlatives. Fittingly, the album was never released, and is now known simply as "The Lost Record" by Hayes. This recording is Hayes at her absolute best, both as a writer and a performer. It moves from one great song to another to another. "Dream of Love", "He's Got the Touch", "Moment of True Feeling, "Drunk on Love", and "Sure of You", could be hits even at this writing (2008) and there's a remake of "Rochambeau" from the first record which, Chambers absolutely commands. Still, for all its glory, and all its great songs, only "Love Letter" ever saw the light of day, when it was covered by Bonnie Raitt on 1989's "Nick of Time".
Later that year Hayes joined the traveling band of former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle for a world tour. She has also toured with Billy Idol (1991-2) and Bruce Springsteen (2000).
In 1989, Bonnie Raitt heard Hayes' catalog (They shared a music publisher), and chose "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart" for her comeback release "Nick of Time". The album was a smash hit, selling over 6 million copies in the US alone, and winning the Grammy for Record of the Year. The Hayes-penned "Have a Heart" was the top charting song on the album, rising to number 3 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. Although this gave Hayes her first commercial success, she was known in the business from that point on as a songwriter, to the detriment of her career as a performer. Hayes went on to place many songs with other artists. Including Bette Midler, Natalie Cole, Robert Cray, David Crosby, Cher, and Booker T and the MGs.
In 1996, Hayes recorded "Empty Sky" in Los Angeles, with Savage back in the producer's chair. Drawing on session players Keith Brown (bass), Alvino Bennett (drums) to hold down the rhythm session, with brother Chris playing guitar, and a guest appearance by Huey Lewis playing harmonica in the endout of a haunting, funky version of Bobby Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe". This release is a toned-down, but beautiful follow-up to the stillborn IRS project. "Out of the Loop" is a jazz ballad Harold Arlen would be proud to claim, while the insidiously catchy "Things You Left Behind" and the Brazil-flavored "Hieroglyphics" deliver the unique quality of Hayes' writing as well as any of her previous work. "Bottomless", written for Hayes' daughter and later covered by Bette Midler, could well be her most beautiful effort to date.
2003's "Love in the Ruins" features Ted O'Connell on guitar, brother Kevin back on the drum throne, Reitveld and Darryl Anders on bass, a slew of good material and a capricious rough-edged quality evocative of Hayes' first record. "Stealing Roses", "I Can't Stop", and "Still Wild" are Hayes through and through and demonstrate that, even after a 25 year career in pop, nobody writes quite like her.
Bonnie Hayes is the sister of Chris Hayes, former lead guitarist of Huey Lewis and the News, and Kevin Hayes, drummer with the Robert Cray Band.
Songwriting Teacher
Bonnie Hayes began her teaching career as a keyboard instructor at Family Light Music School in Sausalito, CA, a small private school whose staff also included Michael Bloomfield (Electric Flag, Super Session), John Cippolina (Quicksilver Messenger Service, brother of Mario Cippolina, who played bass with Huey Lewis and the News) and Toni Brown (Joy of Cooking). She continues to teach various aspects of songwriting. Students of hers have won various songwriting prizes, such as:
* the John Lennon songwriting contest
* the WCSA songwriting contest
* the Soulmaking contest
Late 1970s and early 1980s
In the late 1970s, she founded a New Wave band called The Punts, who released a 45 RPM single, "Shelly's Boyfriend" (a song inspired by her sister), b/w "Rochambeau," which received considerable airplay in the SF market. In 1982, the band changed their name to "Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo" and released their first album entitled Good Clean Fun, a New Wave/rock offering. The Good Clean Fun album was finally released on CD in September 2007. The song "Girls Like Me" from that album was used in the opening credits for the 1983 movie Valley Girl. Due perhaps to the label's (Slash) limited muscle, the record was only regionally successful, but stands as one of the first great punk/pop records, and as a signpost pointing to the later success of west coast punk/pop girl-fronted bands The Bangles, The Go-Go's and No Doubt.
1982 brought the release of "Brave New Girl", on Hayes' and producer Steve Savage's Bondage Records. This sophomore effort expands even further the broad musical range of "Good Clean Fun", ratcheting up the sophistication of the earlier release, in the material as well as the production. "After Hours" is a soaring ballad, while "Night Baseball" and "Brave New Girl" bring a distinctive power pop tilt to its new wave core and hint at things to come in Hayes' writing.
Late 1980s and beyond
Hayes signed with Chrysalis Records and, in 1987 released "Bonnie Hayes", produced by Stuart Levine (UB40). This album, recorded and mixed in Los Angeles, favors Bonnie's pop sensibility and, with layered horns, sheets of keyboards, dense backing vocals, and lots of processed reverb, the production colors of choice in the L.A. pop scene at the time. "Some Guys", "The Real Thing" and "Time Stands Still" are standouts. The record was not a commercial success.
In 1988, Hayes and Savage, having signed a deal with Miles Copeland and IRS, went into Soma Studios in SF for what would turn out to be the seminal recording of their career together. The duo was joined by Bonnie's brother Chris (HLN) and Wild Combo member Paul Davis on guitars, Bennie Reitveld (Santana, Miles Davis) on Bass and powerhouse Dennis Chambers (Parliament, John Scofield), holding down the drum chair. What transpired over those 7 days is described by all who were there in reverent superlatives. Fittingly, the album was never released, and is now known simply as "The Lost Record" by Hayes. This recording is Hayes at her absolute best, both as a writer and a performer. It moves from one great song to another to another. "Dream of Love", "He's Got the Touch", "Moment of True Feeling, "Drunk on Love", and "Sure of You", could be hits even at this writing (2008) and there's a remake of "Rochambeau" from the first record which, Chambers absolutely commands. Still, for all its glory, and all its great songs, only "Love Letter" ever saw the light of day, when it was covered by Bonnie Raitt on 1989's "Nick of Time".
Later that year Hayes joined the traveling band of former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle for a world tour. She has also toured with Billy Idol (1991-2) and Bruce Springsteen (2000).
In 1989, Bonnie Raitt heard Hayes' catalog (They shared a music publisher), and chose "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart" for her comeback release "Nick of Time". The album was a smash hit, selling over 6 million copies in the US alone, and winning the Grammy for Record of the Year. The Hayes-penned "Have a Heart" was the top charting song on the album, rising to number 3 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. Although this gave Hayes her first commercial success, she was known in the business from that point on as a songwriter, to the detriment of her career as a performer. Hayes went on to place many songs with other artists. Including Bette Midler, Natalie Cole, Robert Cray, David Crosby, Cher, and Booker T and the MGs.
In 1996, Hayes recorded "Empty Sky" in Los Angeles, with Savage back in the producer's chair. Drawing on session players Keith Brown (bass), Alvino Bennett (drums) to hold down the rhythm session, with brother Chris playing guitar, and a guest appearance by Huey Lewis playing harmonica in the endout of a haunting, funky version of Bobby Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe". This release is a toned-down, but beautiful follow-up to the stillborn IRS project. "Out of the Loop" is a jazz ballad Harold Arlen would be proud to claim, while the insidiously catchy "Things You Left Behind" and the Brazil-flavored "Hieroglyphics" deliver the unique quality of Hayes' writing as well as any of her previous work. "Bottomless", written for Hayes' daughter and later covered by Bette Midler, could well be her most beautiful effort to date.
2003's "Love in the Ruins" features Ted O'Connell on guitar, brother Kevin back on the drum throne, Reitveld and Darryl Anders on bass, a slew of good material and a capricious rough-edged quality evocative of Hayes' first record. "Stealing Roses", "I Can't Stop", and "Still Wild" are Hayes through and through and demonstrate that, even after a 25 year career in pop, nobody writes quite like her.
Bonnie Hayes is the sister of Chris Hayes, former lead guitarist of Huey Lewis and the News, and Kevin Hayes, drummer with the Robert Cray Band.
Songwriting Teacher
Bonnie Hayes began her teaching career as a keyboard instructor at Family Light Music School in Sausalito, CA, a small private school whose staff also included Michael Bloomfield (Electric Flag, Super Session), John Cippolina (Quicksilver Messenger Service, brother of Mario Cippolina, who played bass with Huey Lewis and the News) and Toni Brown (Joy of Cooking). She continues to teach various aspects of songwriting. Students of hers have won various songwriting prizes, such as:
* the John Lennon songwriting contest
* the WCSA songwriting contest
* the Soulmaking contest
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Bonnie Hayes With The Wild Combo Lyrics
Girls Like Me They got a word for girls like me. they've got a…
Joyride She got the car She gonna take a joyride If you wanna…
Loverboy Woah, woah, woah-oh (Loverboy) Woah, woah, woah-oh (Loverboy…
Separating Oh, I′m guessing you want a cigarette Oh, but maybe I…
Shelly's Boyfriend Shelly, look, you got a boyfriend Don't let your boyfriend p…