I learned from this thoroughly interesting AV Club interview with Robyn Hitchcock that he wrote “Balloon Man” for the Bangles. He sent them the tape, and they never wrote back.
Bad move, Bangles! This would have been a near-perfect Bangles song — it’s pretty, it’s weird, there’s room for much more harmony than Hitchock gives it, and the guitar breaks already sound like RH is imitating Vicki Peterson. And the Bangles, of course, are ace cover artists, often outdoing the original:
Quomodocumque 