Susanna Hoffs

Love this promo shot of Susanna Hoffs with her signature model Rickenbacker guitar from 1991. She co-wrote Eternal Flame with Steinberg & Kelly (prominent hit-makers in the 80s), and recorded the vocals for the track completely naked. True story.

In an interview with music journalist Bill Pollock she said: “There is a famous story about the making of that record which is pretty funny – but it’s true. Like I said, we tracked most of the songs during a period of a few weeks. And then Davitt had this great idea that whichever one of us was singing lead vocals would come in in the evening. His theory was you can feel more relaxed and more in the mood to sing in the evening. He went out of his way to do something special for everyone and he kind of pulled a prank on me. He told me that Olivia Newton-John, who he’d just worked with, sang in the nude on all her songs, and she’d never sung better.”

“Well, it wasn’t true, but I fell for it. I said, “Really? You’re kidding!” I kind of thought, Well, that’s like skinny dipping. So I developed this whole routine on the record where, of course, they put in like a folding screen between me and the control room, so no one could see in. And it became this funny thing where I sang most of the songs on that record in various states of undress, including “Eternal Flame.” It was just for that record; it’s not something I ever did again.”