Bonnie Hayes is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer, born in San Francisco, California, United States, and currently lives between Los Angeles and New York City. Her songs have been recorded by Cher, Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Cole, Robert Cray, David Crosby, Adam Ant and Booker T and the MGs.
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 previously recorded by Bette Midler.
In 2004, Hayes released 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.
