Bonnie Hayes

Hayes is the eldest of seven children and she attended Washington High School and San Francisco State University. Her brother, Chris, was the lead guitarist for Huey Lewis and the News, and another brother, Kevin, the drummer with the Robert Cray Band.[1] Her family moved to San Francisco from the San Joaquin Valley in 1970 and Hayes joined the jazz fusion band Sweetmeat and taught piano and music theory at the Blue Bear School of Music.

In the early 1980s, Hayes founded the new wave band The Punts, and released the single, "Shelly's Boyfriend". In 1982, the band was signed by Slash Records and changed the name to "Bonnie Hayes with the Wild Combo". A song from the album Good Clean Fun called "Girls Like Me" appeared in the 1983 movie Valley Girl. Her album, Brave New Girl was released on Bondage Records. Hayes and her band toured as the opening act for Huey Lewis and the News. After being signed by Huey Lewis and the News's publishing company, Hayes signed with Chrysalis Records and in 1987 released the album Bonnie Hayes. "Some Guys", the first single from the record, was recorded by Cher.

In 1988, Hayes signed with Muscle Records and Miles Copeland. She recorded an album that was never released. Later that year, she became a member of Belinda Carlisle's band for her world tour. In 1989, Bonnie Raitt recorded Hayes' songs, "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart", for her Nick of Time album. The Hayes "Have a Heart" song was the top charting song on the album, rising to number 3 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. In 1991, Hayes joined Billy Idol on tour for almost two years in support of his record Cradle of Love. In 1996, Hayes was signed to Fuel records and recorded the album Empty Sky. One song from the album, "Bottomless", was later recorded by Bette Midler.

In 2004, Hayes released the CD "Love in the Ruins", written after she had learned to play the guitar. The record shows the strong songwriting for which she is known and a capricious rough-edged quality evocative of her first record with a rootsier, Americana sound. She has taught at the Berklee College of Music, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the REO Songwriting Retreat outside of Vancouver B.C, the ASCAP workshops in Los Angeles and at the WCS Conference at Foothill College. In 2013, Hayes became chair of the songwriting department at Berklee in Boston.

A reviewer at Allmusic wrote that Hayes' album, Good Clean Fun, is "probably the finest album of the entire early-'80s California girl pop scene" and "a neglected '80s pop masterpiece."[2] The rock music critic Robert Christgau said that on that album Hayes "comes off smarter, surer, and more sisterly than just about any new rock and roll woman I can think of."[3]

• AllMusic
• Official website
• Bonnie Hayes & the Wild Combo photos