The Ukulele Alphabet: If She Knew What She Wants by The Bangles

Letter I, Week 2
“If She Knew What She Wants” by The Bangles

Jem and the Holograms, Barbie and the Rockers, and The Bangles’ Different Light all hit my childhood consciousness at the same time.

And I’ve only realized this week what a wildly formative trip that must have been for my 8-year-old rebel self.

Different Light and Whitney Houston’s eponymous debut were the two vinyl records I rotated most often in this era¹, and as much as Whitney is an icon, there’s no question about which one stuck with me on a more personal level. Whitney is creme brulee, and I am Jello. And creme brulee can never be Jello.

Though I’ve never fully realized my ‘80s rockstar dreams, they’ve never really left me, either.²

Consider this my homage to my Jello self, even though I’ll never be as effortlessly LA cool as Vicki, Susanna, Debbi, and Michael.

You should also consider yourselves lucky that I didn’t choose “Twilight in Paris” or the “Truly Outrageous” for this project, because I definitely still know those songs by heart too.

Listen to the original version of “If She Knew What She Wants”:

Or watch the performance I saw at Rye Playland in 2002! It was also a trip to see my childhood rock heroines live as an adult (with the bonus, of course, being that Rye Playland was the filming location for the Zoltar carnival and final scenes on the boardwalk in Big).

What’s the Ukulele Alphabet?

Read all about my 2025 ukulele performance project (and its rules) here.

I want to A-B-SEEEE some more!

Watch all the performances in the Ukulele Alphabet project.

1. I’m still a little salty that all of my original vinyl — including my amazing Disney picture discs — got ditched when we moved in the divorce. (Don’t worry, I found both Different Light and Whitney Houston in vintage shops in the past few years. Order restored.) ↩︎
2. Even as far as my senior year in college, I was suggesting “Walk Like an Egyptian” as a totally excellent choice for a sorority lip sync competition. Readers, it was not. It was an embarrassment. ↩︎