“Hazy Shade of Winter” by The Bangles
We’ve already looked into the original version as this song, as put out by Simon & Garfunkel during the 1960s. And lyrically The Bangles only made a few, in the grand scheme of things insignificant changes to the lyrics. That is to say that the initial storyline of the vocalist being in a depressed state remains very much intact. And it is such that she is not pleased with what she has accomplished, the state she is currently in nor her perception of where her life is headed into the future, as she doesn’t see any type of relief in sight.
And this may not only be a matter of being plagued by defeating thoughts but also, as implied by the second verse, going through some serious financial difficulties also.
So all things considered, The Bangles noting that “the sky is a hazy shade of winter”, “a patch of snow on the ground” and what have you can be taken as metaphorical. That is to say that such observations aren’t about the actual environment that surrounds the vocalist but are rather indicative of her pessimistic disposition. And no, there isn’t anything inherently evil with winter or the snow. But poetically, such imagery is often used to point to the notion of depression or sadness.
Release Date of “Hazy Shade of Winter”
The Bangles came out with this song, courtesy of Def Jam Records, on 6 November 1987. It is the cover of a tune that the legendary Simon & Garfunkel originally dropped in 1966. As such, it was actually written by Paul Simon. The Bangles’ rendition was featured on the soundtrack of a movie co-starring Robert Downey Jr. titled “Less Than Zero“.
Cover meets with Massive Success
The Bangles are a crew of female rockers who are still technically active to this day. Around the time this cover came out, i.e. the late 1980s, was their professional heyday. Accordingly, their rendition of “A Hazy Shade of Winter” actually performed better than the original. For instance, it peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 3 on the Cash Box Top 100, besting Simon & Garfunkel’s showing in both cases by at least 10 spots. Also, The Bangles’ rendition managed to appear on the UK Singles Chart and in the process reached an impressive 11th place.
The Bangles’ lineup when this cover came out consisted of these fine musicians:
- Susanna Hoffs (lead singer)
- Vicki Peterson (guitarist)
- Debbi Peterson (bassist)
- Michael Steele (bassist)
The first three names on the list are still a part of the group as of this writing.
Some More Facts
Even though Susanna Hoffs is the group’s lead vocalist, on this track the entire quartet held down said responsibility.
To note the original title of this song, under Simon & Garfunkel, is actually “A Hazy Shade of Winter”.
The producer of this track is Rick Rubin. That fact may be surprising to some readers as Rubin, especially back in the 1980s, was mostly associated with the hip-hop scene. But in reality, he originally got into the game as a punk musician. In fact Rick co-founded Def Jam Records, which itself is synonymous with the early rap scene, but the first track the label put out was of a punk band he was part of called Hose.
“Hazy Shade of Winter” was eventually featured on a Bangles’ album, that being their 1990 Greatest Hits collection.
As the story goes, The Bangles have been performing “A Hazy Shade of Winter” ever since their formative years (i.e. the early 1980s). Later down the line, they were tasked with contributing a song to the soundtrack of “Less Than Zero” but were unable, due to their schedule, to concoct something new. Therefore, they went about officially covering and recording this song instead.
Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance covered this song (i.e. The Bangles’ version of “A Hazy Shade of Winter”) in 2019.
