Walk Like an Egyptian, The Bangles

Sara Bizarro
2 min readJun 12, 2021

For 1986, I will pick the song “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles. This song was written by Liam Sternberg, the story goes that he came up with the idea while riding a ferry, watching people losing their balance, he thought they looked like Egyptians. The song was offered to Toni Basil, who I just wrote about regarding the song “Mickey,” but she refused it. The song was a huge hit, a number #1, but it set The Bangles down the road to breaking up. They were a cool girl band, who wrote their own songs, but the biggest hits, like “Manic Monday” and “Walk Like an Egyptian” were not written by them, which undermined their own originality. Bangles bass player, Michael Steele, used to be a member of the Runaways before she was with The Bangles.

The video started the “Walk Like an Egyptian” dance, there were a bunch of scenes with random people in the streets doing the moves, they all look pretty silly:

All the old paintings on the tombs
They do the sand dance don’t you know?
If they move too quick (oh whey oh)
They’re falling down like a domino

All the bazaar men by the Nile
They got the money on a bet
Gold crocodiles (oh whey oh)
They snap their teeth on your cigarette

Foreign types with the hookah pipes say
(Whey oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh)
Walk like an Egyptian

The blonde waitresses take their trays
They spin around and they cross the floor
They’ve got the moves (oh whey oh)
You drop your drink, then they bring you more

All the school kids so sick of books
They like the punk and the metal band
When the buzzer rings (oh whey oh)
They’re walking like an Egyptian

All the kids in the marketplace say
(Whey oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh)
Walk like an Egyptian

Slide your feet up the street, bend your back
Shift your arm then you pull it back
Life is hard you know (oh whey oh)
So strike a pose on a Cadillac

If you wanna find all the cops
They’re hanging out in the donut shop
They sing and dance (oh whey oh)
They spin the clubs, cruise down the block

All the Japanese with their yen
The party boys call the Kremlin
And the Chinese know (oh whey oh)
They walk the line like Egyptian

All the cops in the donut shop say
(Whey oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh)
Walk like an Egyptian
Walk like an Egyptian

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