Steele began her professional career as Micki Steele in the teen-girl band
the Runaways, one of the first all-female rock groups. Her stay was brief, leaving the band in late 1975, months before the recording of their first album. The main recording of this early period is an August 1975 demo session, bootlegged and later released as the 1993 album
Born to Be Bad, with Steele playing bass and singing lead vocals on most songs. This release has her first songwriting credit with "Born to Be Bad", cowritten with
Sandy West and
Kim Fowley. The Runaways recorded a second demo at the famed
Gold Star Studios in September 1975; as of 2019 it remains officially unreleased. Steele's departure from the group has been given several interpretations—her own account being that she was fired by manager Kim Fowley for refusing his sexual advances, and calling the band's debut single "Cherry Bomb" stupid. Fowley denigrated her for blowing a chance at fame and not possessing sufficient "magic" or "megalo" to make it in the music industry. Her influences include
Paul McCartney,
John Entwistle,
Colin Moulding,
Tom Petersson,
Carol Kaye and
Suzi Quatro.
The Bangles ,
Susanna Hoffs and Michael Steele (1984) In mid-1983, Steele replaced Annette Zilinskas in the Bangles, a then little-known group. At this point, Steele was solely the band's bassist with no released compositions: her only live lead vocal at this time was on the band's cover of
the Yardbirds' version of "I'm Not Talkin'" by
Mose Allison. Steele was the oldest member of the band; Zilinskas had been the youngest.
All Over the Place The Bangles' 1984 debut LP
All Over the Place is the band's only album with no Steele-written songs (aside from
Sweetheart of the Sun, released 6 years after Steele's departure from the band); her biggest showcase on the album is the bass solo on "Tell Me". In addition to
All Over the Place, in 1984 Steele also wrote and recorded the political spoken-word piece "
El Pollo Loco" for the double LP compilation
Neighborhood Rhythms.
Different Light Although
All Over the Place was well regarded by critics, it was not a chart success. Like her bandmates, Steele only achieved popular success and fame with the 1986 release of
Different Light and its hit singles "
Manic Monday" (No. 2) and "
Walk Like an Egyptian" (No. 1).
Rolling Stone magazine praised "Following" upon the album's release as its standout song, a dark composition that pointed the band in new jazz and folk directions, only some of which were explored. Steele also sings lead on the second verse of "
Walk Like an Egyptian". As often discussed in later interviews,
Different Light was also the product of significant contention and tension between the band and producer
David Kahne; much of this contention surrounding the use of musicians outside the band on some songs. Despite lingering controversy about the extent to which session musicians were employed on the album, Steele is the only band member confirmed not to have been overdubbed, an achievement she later joked was only because Kahne "ran out of money".
1990s Steele initially sought to write and record material for a solo release. She remained musically active throughout much of the decade. Besides recording songs for an unreleased solo album, she played in several bands in this time, most notably as rhythm guitarist and singer in her short-lived band Crash Wisdom (producing several more unreleased songs) and as bassist in
Michelle Muldrow's San Francisco-based group Eyesore.
Doll Revolution By the late 1990s, the Bangles agreed to reunite, with Steele being the last holdout, joining the reunion only with the expectation that they would focus on releasing new material and not become a "Dick Clark oldies band". Although her final concert was in early 2004, her departure was not officially acknowledged until May 2005. In this period Steele also contributed guest bass parts to two albums by Lisa Dewey, playing on
Weather Changer Girl (2000) and
Busk (2004). == Discography ==