Today in 1984, the release of All Over The Place, the debut album by The Bangles.
And for one of the videos to promote that album, these 80s icons got a little help from an icon from the 60s.
This video was for the song “Going Down To Liverpool.”
The concept was pretty straightforward: the four Bangles pile into a limousine and put their song on the radio, the limo driver tut-tuts about the music and even turns it off at one point, but the musicians put it back on again.
Eventually they all drive to a tunnel, where the Bangles get out and dance to the music, and even the limo driver starts tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
The catch? That limo driver is none other than Leonard Nimoy!
In the same year that the officers and crew of the USS Enterprise roamed the galaxy in the search for Spock, the Bangles found him and put him to work driving a limo!
Nimoy was still a big name in Hollywood at that point, so he didn’t need the work.
Instead, his appearance was a favor to a friend: Nimoy had been friends with the parents of Bangles guitarist and singer Susanna Hoffs.
So Hoffs called him up and asked if he’d like to be part of their project, especially since Hoffs’ mother, Tamar Simon Hoffs, was directing.
“Going Down To Liverpool” wasn’t the biggest Bangles track; they would become big stars a little over a year later.
It wasn’t Nimoy’s most famous acting job, either.
But it’s a pretty unusual – and effective – combination.
I only wish the Bangles had covered a Nimoy song, like maybe “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”?
Starting today in Louisiana, it’s the Gonzales Jambalaya Festival.
Gonzales calls itself the “Jambalaya Capital of the World,” and those who drop by the four day festival will have a chance to see why.
Or they could make their own jambalaya in one of the festival’s cooking contests.
Leonard Nimoy drove the Bangles to video stardom (Albany Park Press)
