By Randee Dawn, NBC News contributor
What's former '80s teen movie star Molly Ringwald been up to lately? Sure, there's her recurring stint on "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," and she even popped up to co-host the fourth hour of TODAY in March. But her latest gig returns her to an art form she first visited at age six -- music.
As the daughter of a jazz pianist, Ringwald was immersed in music from an early age, and her "I Wanna Be Loved By You" album recorded with her dad and his Fulton Street Jazz Band when she was still in grade school was apparently just the start. Now, she's got a set of new songs, compiled on "Except Sometimes" -- and they include one surprising cover: "The Breakfast Club" song, "Don't You (Forget About Me)," which was a No. 1 hit for Simple Minds.
For those who aren't aware, Ringwald was one of the stars of 1985's "Breakfast Club."?
She told New York's Vulture column that she recorded the album a few years ago but didn't move forward with it, because it was right after "Breakfast Club" director John Hughes died. "And he was in my mind a lot. And, I don't know, I felt like I wanted to sing a tribute to him," she said. "I feel l've evolved. And I think the song represents that in a way. It's the same song but imagined in a different way."
Ringwald's version is much slower, jazzier (no surprise) and has pretty much zero 1980s musical connections, so it might not be the nostalgia trip some listeners are expecting.?
Still, says Ringwald, the song "really has fond memories for me," she added. "I can?t really say that I ever really listened to the lyrics that much. I just remember the sound of it and liking it and associating it with the movie and the experience. So it was really interesting to actually sing the lyrics. A lot of people that have heard it say the same thing: They never knew what the lyrics were until they heard my version of it."
Check out a snippet of Ringwald's version in the video above. And for those who can't get enough, she's on tour with select dates around the U.S. in April and May.
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