Susanna Hoffs calls it “the list”: a faded piece of paper ripped from a Filofax day planner on which are scrawled the names of every guy she’s ever gone out with — some famous, some not, some “kind of douchey,” as she puts it with a what-can-you-do shrug.
“It was like a dating profile but pre-internet,” Hoffs says of the tally, which she composed sometime in the late 1980s as she was racking up hits — among them the chart-topping “Walk Like an Egyptian” and “Eternal Flame” — as the frontwoman of the Bangles. “I’m a nice Jewish girl,” she adds. “I was just keeping track, doing my homework.”
Today at the bottom of the list in all caps sits the name of Jay Roach, the movie director whom Hoffs met on a blind date in 1991. He’s the subject of a new song called “None of Them Were You,” in which the singer runs down some of Roach’s predecessors — “a very dapper Brit,” “a suave and handsome actor” — before musing on her deep connection with the man to whom she’s now been married for 33 years.
“I ended up with such a good guy,” she says. “It almost brings a tear to the eye.”
“None of Them Were You” isn’t the only tune with that potential on an album Hoffs is preparing to release next month. Due Sept. 18 from her Baroque Folk label, “The List” — Hoffs’ first set of original material in more than a decade — collects a dozen touching and witty songs based on tales from her life as an artist, wife, businessperson and mother. At 67, her winsome singing voice is remarkably unchanged from the era of big hair and dangly earrings. Yet the music reflects an emotional wisdom that had to be earned through experience, as in the folky “Time,” which ponders her and Roach’s relationships with their two adult sons.
“I see you dancing in the kitchen / I feel your tiny hand in mine,” she sings, “What if you fly back home this summer? / We could spend a little while.” (Beware, parents — this one will wreck you.)
A voluble presence with an easy laugh, Hoffs points out that she’s hardly been “hiding in a cave” since 2012’s “Someday.” In 2024, she put out a long-shelved solo record of songs she’d cut back in 1999; before that, she made a series of expertly curated covers albums, including three she recorded with the power-pop maestro Matthew Sweet. But publishing her first novel in 2023 — “This Bird Has Flown,” a charming bestseller about a one-hit wonder looking for a comeback — rejuvenated Hoffs’ devotion to songwriting.
“I never thought the book would sell, and I never thought it would get great reviews,” she says on a recent afternoon at her home in Brentwood. “That was a big turn career-wise.”
For “The List,” Hoffs teamed with CJ Camerieri, a musician and producer known for his work with Paul Simon and Bon Iver, among others; Camerieri in turn recruited an array of songwriters to collaborate with the two of them, including a couple of Grammy winners in Dan Wilson and Jesse Harris.
“Sue has built up decades and decades of goodwill in this town,” Camerieri says, seated next to Hoffs on a sofa, “so you call up somebody like Dan and you say, ‘Hey, you want to write a song with Susanna Hoffs?’ and he goes, ‘Great, yeah, I’m in.’”
The process was simple, the producer explains: “We’d start in Sue’s kitchen with coffee at 10 in the morning —”
“I’m really good at coffee,” Hoffs interjects. “I mean, I use Nespresso. But I’m good at being a hostess to all the lads.”
“So I’d give everybody a yellow legal pad and Sue would start telling stories,” Camerieri continues. “We’re all scribbling notes, and after about an hour, we’d go, ‘I think we got enough here,’ and we’d go write songs about what she’d told us.”
They recorded at Hoffs’ place — “We’d move this couch and the drums would go right here,” she says — beneath a vaulted ceiling that provided just the right ambience. First-call players like Greg Leisz and Wendy Melvoin stopped by to take part in the sessions; for harmony vocals in a country-ish ditty called “Bad Case of Loneliness,” they got Rufus Wainwright, with whom Hoffs had done a version of the Turtles’ “Happy Together” for Roach’s 2025 comedy “The Roses.”
The dreamy-rootsy arrangements are never less than handsome — and never prettier than in “Fool,” which Hoffs says was inspired by her love of the records Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach made together. Yet “The List” was built to showcase Hoffs’ rich storytelling.
The LP opens with “Casablanca,” in which she recounts a run-in with the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir in New Orleans in the late ’80s. The Bangles were on tour opening for George Michael; the Dead had a gig at the University of New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena. After Hoffs and Weir ended up at a crawfish boil put on by the Neville Brothers, the two took a walk along Lake Pontchartrain — “He was very cute,” Hoffs says — then later strolled again through the French Quarter.
“At one point, I looked back and there was a sea of Deadheads who realized it was Bob Weir,” she says. “But I was with him. I got to be his pal, which I just couldn’t believe was happening. It was delicious.” (Between the two walks, the Bangles famously jumped onstage with the Dead to perform “Iko Iko.”)
As we’re talking, Camerieri tells Hoffs that he recently met Weir’s former tour manager — Weir died in January at age 78 — and that he’d relayed Hoffs’ memory of the encounter. “He was like, ‘I know this story,’” Camerieri says the manager replied. “‘Bob used to talk about the time he got to walk around New Orleans with Susanna Hoffs.’”
“Oh my God!” Hoffs says, eyes starting to glisten. “So it meant something to him too.”
Bookending “The List” is “What Are Wings For,” a stately ballad about sticking to one’s guns that Hoffs and Camerieri wrote with Edie Brickell, who’s married to Simon, on a trip they took to the couple’s ranch in Texas.
“We were there during the World Series [in 2024],” Camerieri recalls, “and we watched the Yankees game with Paul every night after working on songs.”
Adds Hoffs with a laugh: “He also told me that he thinks the Bangles’ version of ‘Hazy Shade of Winter’ is better than his. I was like, ‘Please don’t — yours is the iconic version.’”
By the time the Bangles covered that Simon & Garfunkel tune for the soundtrack to 1987’s “Less Than Zero,” the band was already a fixture on the radio and MTV. Hoffs formed the group in 1981 with sisters Vicki and Debbi Peterson, who learned to play together in the garage of Hoffs’ parents’ house, just a few blocks from where the singer lives today.
The Bangles came up through L.A.’s ’60s-steeped Paisley Underground scene and found stardom after the addition of Michael Steele with “Manic Monday,” a sparkling pop-rock gem gifted to the band by Prince. (Beyond her list of boyfriends, one of Hoffs’ prized possessions from back in the day is Prince’s original cassette demo of “Manic Monday.”)
“He was brilliant but mischievous,” Hoffs says of the late trailblazer, on whom she modeled the character of Jonesy from her novel. “I remember one time he invited us to Sunset Sound in the middle of the night. We get there and we’re jamming, then suddenly we look around and he’s disappeared. ‘OK, I guess we’re done.’”
The Bangles with an assortment of music execs in Los Angeles in 1987.
(Lester Cohen / Getty Images)
After eight Top 40 singles and a triple-platinum LP, the Bangles split in 1989 amid differing ideas about the band’s creative direction and ambitions. The members pursued solo and other projects but reunited to record a song for 1999’s “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” which Roach directed; two more Bangles albums followed in 2003 and 2011, the second minus Steele, whom Hoffs says she’s not in touch with at the moment.
Compared to the Go-Go’s, whose parallel career was detailed in a 2020 documentary and who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame a year later, the Bangles haven’t quite cemented their legacy, though an authorized biography came out last year and a doc is currently in development.
Yet Hoffs doesn’t seem especially troubled by the possibility that the Bangles might be underappreciated, perhaps because she’s got plenty of her own stuff going on. Before “The List” comes out, she’ll play her old hits in a Sept. 5 gig at Largo at the Coronet and in a handful of dates opening for Billy Idol; after the new album drops, she’ll head east for a residency at New York’s Café Carlyle.
She and Camerieri are also at work on a musical adaptation of “This Bird Has Flown” for the stage or the screen. And just the other day she found a folder on her computer full of songs she wrote years ago with her friend Marvin Etzioni of Lone Justice.
“I don’t like using the word ‘bucket list,’ but all these things are labors of love,” Hoffs says.
What’s the trouble with “bucket list”?
“Oh, I don’t know,” she says, smiling. “It just seems, like, death-y.”
However, she’s now revealed she won’t be back on screens for a while, with replacements stepping in.
Susanna confirmed that she’d be taking her annual summer break in a message on social media.
Alongside a snap of her in the Good Morning Britain studio wearing comfy slippers, she wrote: “SHOES OFF, OUT OF OFFICE ON! Time for my summer break – but also time to say goodbye to our wonderful Director @stuearl who has been the champion of this programme for a decade. Thank you for everything Stuart.”
Susanna went on: “@edballs and I will be back September 1st after our travels. THANK YOU to our amazing viewers for watching and for contacting us and sharing your views – never a “waste of time” being on this brilliant programme and thanks to everyone on Team.”
Susanna’s ‘waste of time’ comment appeared to reference a moment from the programme on Wednesday, July 22, after an interview with Robert Jenrick.
In an awkward aside, the Reform MP could be heard saying, “Well that was a waste of time” after his interview with Susanna and Ed.
After making light of the moment with her message on social media, Susanna was showered with support, while her co-stars also paid tribute to their colleague.
Kate Garraway wrote: “We’ll miss you both @susannareid100 @edballs and @stuearl – we’ll miss you so much – good luck with your next adventure!!!”
Strictly’s La Voix said: “Pyjamas for me and slippers for you! It’s contagious causal glamour!”
One follower meanwhile commented: “We will miss you. Enjoy your holiday,” as another added: “Love the slippers! Have a fab break, see you in September.”
Another echoed: “Aww going to miss you,, but have a lovely break with your family and friends.”
Susanna’s announcement comes after she took a break from the show earlier this year, teasing a “special project”.
After an extended programme that ran into Lorraine Kelly’s usual ITV slot to provide commentary after Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation speech, Susanna confirmed after the show ended that she was taking a break.
She teased on social media: “BREAKING! At 9.30 this morning the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer RESIGNED as Prime Minister live @gmb. ANOTHER resignation at Number 10 in the last DECADE after Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak.
“I’m on a special project and will be back @gmb on Monday 6th July, the week that nominations for a new leader open. See you then @itv.”
One person replied: “You will be missed Susanna.” Another said: “Oh it’s never the same when you’re not there!”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
Susanna Reid was joined by Richard Madeley during the latest edition of Good Morning Britain
10:12, 21 May 2026Updated 10:20, 21 May 2026
Susanna Reid announced a break from GMB(Image: ITV)
Good Morning Britain star Susanna Reid will be taking a short break from the programme.
Susanna returned to the ITV studio on Thursday (May 21), alongside Richard Madeley, to deliver the day’s biggest headlines from across the UK and around the world.
At the end of the show, Susanna and Richard interviewed a woman who had saved up to £800 a month as part of a new ITV programme called Rising Bills: How Can You Save Money?.
Wrapping up the interview, Susanna said: “I love it. Thank you both for coming in. You can catch Rising Bills: How Can You Save Money? tonight [at] 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.”
The 55-year-old presenter then confirmed that she wouldn’t be on screen next week, which happens to be the May half term.
“Now, I am off next week, but Good Morning Britain is back tomorrow from 6am. Now, it’s time to join Lorraine. Have a great day,” she said.
It’s not yet known which presenter will stand in for Susanna while she’s away, but it usually tends to be either Kate Garraway, Ranvir Singh, or Charlotte Hawkins. Susanna’s announcement comes over a month after her last break from the show, which took place during the Easter holidays.
Elsewhere during today’s GMB, Susanna and Richard discussed the topical headlines with regular commentators Kwasi Kwarteng and Nels Abbey.
Ranvir also announced breaking news after EasyJet confirmed that summer flight bookings are lower than this time last year due to uncertainty linked to the Middle East conflict.
“However, last minute bookings made in the month that you want to travel have increased compared with a year ago,” Ranvir said.
“The airline also reported a pretax loss of £552 million for the six months ending in March.”
Susanna and Richard also interviewed Race Across the World stars Mark Blythen and Margo Oakley, who are competing in tonight’s grand final.
After racing over 11,000km, the final four teams will face one final test of endurance as they embark on the last leg of their journey. To finish the race, the teams must head north from Kharkhorin to reach the shores of the “Blue Pearl of Mongolia”, Lake Khövsgöl.
As they leave the checkpoint, they will face a crucial decision. They could head directly north, a shorter route but one which requires them to go off-road, or add 500km to their journey with a detour via the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Who will reach the finish line first? We’ll have to wait and see.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 6am
