The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs Covers the Rolling Stones’ “Connection” With Elvis Costello in Celebration of Keith Richards’ 81st Birthday

To commemorate the 81st birthday of the Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards on December 18, Susanna Hoffs has released a version of “Connection” to celebrate the guitarist’s special day. Recorded with Elvis Costello, Hoffs wanted to pay tribute to Richards with one of her favorite Stones songs.

“I did the Keith part,” said Hoffs in a statement of the duo’s faithful rendition. “We both wanted to do the Keith part, but I won. I had the great honor of singing with Elvis at a couple of his shows, and it was a lifelong dream to record a song together.” 

Originally released on the Rolling Stones’ 1967 album Between the Buttons, “Connection,” was written by Richards and Mick Jagger and addressed some of the band’s hardships at the time, and was released prior to their arrest for drug possession at Richard’s Redlands home in Sussex in February 1967.

Sung by Richards, “Connection” was never released as a single but made its way onto the band’s live set lists throughout the decades, and on Richard’s solo tours. The song was also featured in the band’s 2008 Martin Scorsese concert film Shine a Light.

Videos by American Songwriter

[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs Wrote for Other Artists]

“I love Keith,” adds Hoffs, “his smile, his swagger, his songwriting, the way he moves on stage as if his guitar is a part of his body, and together they meld with the music and the emotion of the song.”

Produced by Hoffs’ longtime collaborator Peter Asher, the new version of “Connection” also features a line of musicians including guitarist Albert Lee, bassist Davey Faragher, drummer Pete Thompson, and a strings section.

Along with “Connection,” Hoffs’ favorite songs by the Stones are ones sung by Richards. “Three of my all-time favorite Rolling Stones songs are sung by Keith—’Happy,’ ‘Before They Make Me Run,’ and ‘You Got the Silver,’” Hoffs tells American Songwriter.

[RELATED: The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs to Share Previously Unreleased Album From 1999, ‘The Lost Record,’ Featuring Members of the Go-Go’s]

In October 2024, Hoffs released more songs from archives on The Lost Record, an album of songs she recorded in 1999 and shelved for 25 years. Produced by Hoffs and Dan Schwartz, the album was originally recorded in Hoffs’ garage in ’99 with a group of friends, including the Go-Go’s Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin, who co-wrote “Life on the Inside” with her, and longtime collaborators producer and songwriters Bill Bottrell, and Brian MacLeod.

The album follows Hoffs’ 2023 debut novel This Bird Has Flown (Little, Brown), and her album of covers, The Deep End, which also features her rendition of the Stones’ 1966 song “Under My Thumb,” with lyrics reversing the roles of the more misogynist song.

“I love the Rolling Stones,” Hoffs told American Songwriter at the time. “I’ve listened to that song on repeat since it came out in the mid-’60s. I had an epiphany when I really thought about what the song is about, and it ignited this idea to do my own spin on it—to change the gender and see how it felt.”

NEED NEW VIDEO

Photo: Susanna Hoffs, Alex Theatre, May 19, 2023. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)