The name Molly Ringwald may be synonymous with the 1980s in your brain, and maybe you’re still crushing on her “richie” character, Claire, from the movie “The Breakfast Club.”

But the former ingenue has moved on.

After her run of hit films under the direction of John Hughes, Ringwald left the brat pack behind in the ’90s, delving into French cinema (including Tonie Marshall’s “Enfants de Salaud”), memorably cameoing in 2001’s “Not Another Teen Movie” and starring on Broadway as Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.” She toured in a production of “Sweet Charity,” starred in the miniseries of Stephen King’s “The Stand” and is in the cast of ABC’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

Last year, HarperCollins published Ringwald’s first book, the story-linked novel “When It Happens to You,” which earned the new author positive if not always glowing reviews. Further affirmation of her writing chops came just days ago, when the book was longlisted for a 2013 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. The paperback edition is due out in May.

Don’t you forget about me, indeed.

The freshest line on Ringwald’s resume: singer. She will perform Saturday at Bend’s Tower Theatre (see “If you go”), just days into a tour promoting her debut CD “Except Sometimes.”

Ringwald, 45, is the mother of a 9-year-old and 3-year-old twins.

“I put the band together before I was pregnant (the second time), and I started to do these gigs sort of under the radar,” she said in a telephone interview earlier this week.

She gigged until she was eight months pregnant, and “after (the twins) were born, we decided to do an album,” she said. “I wanted to have some sort of record of what I was doing.”

Concord Records released her homage to the Great American Songbook on Tuesday, to warm reviews and a high spot on the iTunes Jazz chart, alongside big names like Miles Davis, Esperanza Spalding and Diana Krall.

Though Ringwald came off lukewarm about talking about her famous ’80s films — “Pretty In Pink” and “Sixteen Candles” round out her celluloid triumvirate — note that the album ends with her crooning a jazzercised version of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” at least a nod to her teen years. The song was prominently featured in “The Breakfast Club.”

Ringwald’s father is the jazz pianist Robert “Bob” Ringwald, and she was singing before she began acting in roles on TV’s “The Facts of Life” in 1979 and the film “Tempest” in 1983.

Of acting, singing and writing, she finds writing the most difficult.

“I’ve been a performer my whole life,” she said, “so to go from performing, where you have that sort of immediate response, that call and response with an audience … you don’t have that (with writing).

“As you know, as a writer, you kind of just sit in a room by yourself, and particularly if you’re writing a novel,” Ringwald said, “you don’t get any kind of response for a long time.”

On the other hand, “singing is something I’ve been doing for so long. The first thing I started out doing was singing, like almost pre-verbal, so it’s very familiar to me,” she said. “It’s also, I think, the most joyful thing that I do. I love music. I love the musicians. It’s just really fun.”

If you go

What: Molly Ringwald

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Tower Theatre, 835 N.W. Wall St., Bend

Cost: $35-$50, plus fees

Contact: www.towertheatre.org or 541-317-0700