A Hazy Shade of Winter song as "one of [Simon and Garfunkel's] best songs, and certainly one of the toughest and more rock-oriented". In 1987, the Bangles were approached to record a song for the soundtrack of the film "Less Than Zero". They chose to record a cover of "A Hazy Shade of Winter", which they had been performing live since at least as far back as March 1983. Their cover, simply titled "Hazy Shade of Winter", was a harder-edged rock song that removed most of the bridge section. The record, like the rest of the soundtrack album, was produced by Rick Rubin. After a
Dogs (the Who song) suggested that the song was influenced by the music of the Small Faces, particularly their song "Lazy Sunday," which had been a recent hit. Entwistle later said that it sounded much more like the Small Faces and suggested that it would have perhaps been better for both groups if they had recorded it instead. Roger Daltrey concurred, stating that the song was Pete Townshend's "tribute to Ronnie Lane" and that "it’d have been better if Pete had just given the song to Ronnie in the first place. As a Who record, it was all a bit frivolous for me.” Pete