If She Knew What She Wants

Last updated
"If She Knew What She Wants"
Jules Shear If She Knew What She Wants.jpg
Promotional single by Jules Shear
from the album The Eternal Return
B-side "Chain Within Chain"
ReleasedJune 1985
Genre
Length3:44
Label Capital
Songwriter(s) Jules Shear
Producer(s)
  • Jules Shaer
  • Bill Drescher
Jules Shear singles chronology
"Steady"
(1985)
"If She Knew What She Wants"
(1985)
"If We Never Meet Again"
(1988)
Audio
"If She Knew What She Wants" on YouTube

"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, [1] 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." [2] The song, especially The Bangles' version, is typically described with such adjectives as "bittersweet", "plaintive" and "wistful". [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Contents

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. [9] [10] [11] [12] John Piekarski of The Atlanta Constitution lauded the song's "melody [as] dreamy and vivacious yet mellow enough [for] adult contemporary radio [airplay]." [13] 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." [14] 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." [2]

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. [15] [16] 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

"If She Knew What She Wants"
US If she knew what.jpeg
Picture sleeve of US and Australian vinyl singles
Single by The Bangles
from the album Different Light
B-side
  • "Not Like You" (US)
  • "Angels Don't Fall in Love" (UK)
ReleasedApril 14, 1986 [17]
Recorded1985
Studio Sunset Sound Factory
Genre Pop rock
Length3:49
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Jules Shear
Producer(s) David Kahne
The Bangles singles chronology
"Manic Monday"
(1986)
"If She Knew What She Wants"
(1986)
"Walk Like an Egyptian"
(1986)
The Bangles UK / Irelandsingles chronology
"Manic Monday"
(1986)
"If She Knew What She Wants"
(1986)
"Going Down to Liverpool"
(1986)

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 .

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">She Bop</span> 1984 single by Cyndi Lauper

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