"Eternal Flame" is a song by American pop rock group the Bangles for their third studio album, Everything (1988). The power ballad was written by group member Susanna Hoffs with the established hit songwriting team of Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Upon its 1989 single release, "Eternal Flame" became a number-one hit in nine countries, including Australia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Since its release, it has been covered by many musical artists, including Australian boy band Human Nature, who reached the Australian top 10 with their version, and British girl group Atomic Kitten, who topped four national charts with their rendition.

Two of the song's three writers, Tom Kelly and Susanna Hoffs, had met via the Bangles' October 30, 1986, concert at the Avalon Hollywood (then the Palace). Kelly attended the concert and backstage met the group's members. This led to Hoffs writing songs with Kelly and his regular songwriting partner Billy Steinberg, an experience she found interesting in contrast to her usual songwriting habits. Hoffs would develop lyrics based on a melody she worked out while playing around with a guitar, while Kelly and Steinberg would start with a lyrical idea and write music to fit it.^[2] The trio's first composition to be recorded was "I Need a Disguise", which Belinda Carlisle recorded for her 1986 solo debut album. The Bangles' 1988 album Everything would feature two Hoffs/Kelly/Steinberg compositions, both with lead vocals by Hoffs: the upbeat lead single "In Your Room" and "Eternal Flame".

The focal metaphor of "Eternal Flame" was suggested by two eternal flames: one at the gravesite of Elvis Presley at Graceland, where the Bangles had been given a private tour.^[3] Hoffs said, "we were taken out to the Garden of Memories, and there was this little box which was supposed to have a lit flame in it, an eternal flame. Actually, that day it was raining so the flame was not on"^[4]—and one at a local synagogue in Palm Springs which Steinberg attended as a child.^[5] Steinberg explained, "Susanna was talking about the Bangles having visited Graceland, and she said there was some type of shrine to Elvis that included some kind of eternal flame. As soon as those words were mentioned, I immediately thought of the synagogue in the town of Palm Springs, California where I grew up. I remember during our Sunday school class they would walk us through the sanctuary. There was one little red light and they told us it was called the eternal flame."^[2]

After Steinberg suggested writing a song titled "Eternal Flame", he and Hoffs wrote the song's lyrics at Steinberg's house and then according to Hoffs brought the lyrics to Tom Kelly's studio where Kelly completed the music and the demo was cut. Steinberg recalls Kelly also being at Steinberg's house when the lyrics were written, beginning the music's composition there.^[4][6] "'Eternal Flame' was retro in that it has no chorus", Steinberg observed in 2021. The song instead works from an AABA song structure and has a middle eight, the portion beginning "Say my name / Sun shines through the rain", that it repeats twice. "In the 60s, it wasn't that unusual to have songs structured in that way, but, by the 80s, choruses were much more developed and middle eights had started to disappear", Steinberg recalls.^[2] While the final recording is a power ballad,^[7] the demo was deliberately guitar-oriented, despite sounding more suitable for a keyboard, as the Bangles had no keyboardist. When Hoffs played the demo at a band meeting where members and producer Davitt Sigerson decided what they would record for the upcoming album, it was rejected. Hoffs was "heartbroken" since she had been very enthusiastic about the song, but accepted her bandmates' decision.^[2]

During the sessions, Sigerson admitted to Hoffs that he could not get the demo out of his mind.^[2] He worked out an arrangement evoking a music box, bringing in keyboardist John Philip Shenale to give the track a chiming effect.^[4] According to Hoffs, Sigerson's production of the track was inspired by the vintage recordings of Patsy Cline which he knew Hoffs enjoyed singing along to.^[4] Hoffs would also recall that the Bangles' manager, Miles Copeland, overhearing the recording session for "Eternal Flame", had been displeased by the lack of drums^[8] and that Hoffs had to resist pressure to re-record it with a stronger beat.^[9][4] On the BBC program I'm in a Girl Group, Hoffs revealed she actually sang the studio recording of the song completely naked after Sigerson pranked her by telling her Olivia Newton-John recorded unclad (a falsehood Sigerson eventually admitted to).^[10] "I imagined it would feel like skinny dipping—vulnerable yet freeing – and I decided to try it", she remembered in 2021. Nobody could see me; there was a baffle in front of me and it was dark." She liked the experience enough to sing all her vocals on the album that way.^[2]

Considered by Billy Steinberg to be a stylistic fusion of the Byrds and the Beatles, especially evoking the latter group's "For No One", "Mother Nature's Son" (the bridge part) and "Here There & Everywhere",^[11] "Eternal Flame" elicited different points of comparison from contemporary music critics, among them: "a backhanded tribute to every sappy string-drenched ballad—from Lulu's 'To Sir With Love' to Merrilee Rush's 'Angel of the Morning'—that ever overstayed its welcome on the radio";^[12] "[a] fluffy romantic fantasy [that] resembled the Carpenters a lot more than the Beatles";^[13] "a cloying ballad that Andrew Lloyd Webber could have written for Sarah Brightman";^[14] "[On] 'Eternal Flame' Hoffs does her best inspired reading of Kate Bush".^[15] Pan-European magazine Music & Media commented that "this is a very sweet and conventional gospel-tinged ballad with the emphasis on close harmonies."^[16]

In 2000, Vicki Peterson of the Bangles would describe "Eternal Flame" as "a beautiful song [which] at the time I didn't think essentially Bangles. Anyone could've taken the song and made it a hit".^[17] A retrospective AllMusic critique by Matthew Greenwald assessed "Eternal Flame" as "somewhat removed from the Bangles' sound and vibe...[its] gentle, lilting melody...seems ready-made for an artist such as Anita Baker or Whitney Houston. The song features a dramatic bridge that takes the song to a wonderfully emotional place, and adds to the overall dynamics of the piece. In the end, it doesn't fit the Bangles' catalog well, but it remains a minor pop standard."^[18] In June 2021, Tom Eames of Smooth Radio ranked "Eternal Flame" as the Bangles' best song.^[7]

Personnel are lifted from the US cassette single sleeve.^[29]

• Susanna Hoffs – writing
• Billy Steinberg – writing
• Tom Kelly – writing
• The Bangles – vocals
• Davitt Sigerson – production
• John Beverly Jones – recording
• Frank Filipetti – mixing

Rather than consolidating the Bangles' stardom, the success of "Eternal Flame" would have a negative impact on the group, underscoring the wide public perception of the Bangles as star attraction Hoffs and her backing band. The choice for the third single release from the Everything album being "Be with You", the group's first single led by Debbi Peterson since the band's second single release "Going Down to Liverpool" (1984), was an apparent attempt to redress the balance which failed, as "Be with You" would rise no higher than number 30 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1989, when its UK chart peak would be number 23. The Bangles announced their disbanding the second week of October 1989.^{[80][81][82][27]}

In 1997, a Japanese version of the song was recorded by Tomoya Nagase, the vocalist of the Japanese idol rock group Tokio, featuring 3T. This song was used as the theme song of the Nippon TV drama DXD, in which Nagase played the main role. He also wrote the Japanese version lyrics. This version was released as a single in Japan under the name of "Tomoya with 3T".

In 1999, Australian group Human Nature covered "Eternal Flame" and released it as the fourth single from their second album Counting Down. It peaked at number eight on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified gold.

English girl group Atomic Kitten subsequently recorded the song in 2001 and released it as the lead single from the reissue of their debut studio album, Right Now, on July 23, 2001. It was the group's first single to feature new band member Jenny Frost. Their version was produced by Andy Wright, and a music video directed by Phil Griffin was made for the song.^[88]