"Eternal Flame" was written by Susanna Hoffs, Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, who are credited as composers on the sheet. The American pop rock group the Bangles recorded it for their third studio album, Everything (1988), produced by Davitt Sigerson. CBS/Columbia released it as a single on January 23, 1989. Steinberg proposed the title, inspired by two eternal flames: Elvis Presley's grave at Graceland and a synagogue in Palm Springs. Hoffs and Kelly had met through the Bangles' concert of October 30, 1986.
A power ballad in soft rock style, the song has no chorus and follows an AABA structure, with a middle eight repeated twice. Sigerson's arrangement evokes a music box. Critics compared it to the Carpenters, and AllMusic called it a minor pop standard. In the United States it debuted at number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 4, 1989, reached number one after eight weeks, and topped the Adult Contemporary chart for two weeks. It was number one in the UK for three weeks from April 15, 1989, and in Sweden for three weeks. Steinberg and Kelly became the first songwriting team to score a Hot 100 number one five years in a row. Covers by Human Nature and Atomic Kitten followed.
