FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
Part Seventy-Eight: Bananarama
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A little complicated and different…
Bananarama are a group who have had some line-up changes through the years. Currently consisting of Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward, I remember when Siobhan Fahey was a member back in the 1980s. I am going to come to my recommendation of Bananarama’s essential four albums, the underrated gem and their latest studio album. I will end with a book about the group. Before then, AllMusic provide some biography:
“Bananarama embodied so much of the bespangled excess of the '80s that they came to define at least a portion of the decade. At the outset of their career, the trio of Keren Woodward, Sarah Dallin, and Siobhan Fahey were post-punk renegades redefining the girl group sound for the new wave era. Early on, they received an assist from Terry Hall. The lanky, laconic Specials singer enlisted them as vocal support for "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)" and "Really Saying Something," early hits for his group Fun Boy Three. Both covers went into the British Top Ten in 1982, laying the groundwork for Bananarama's own smash "Shy Boy." The trio cultivated a strong following in U.S. dance clubs, which helped their single "Cruel Summer" become a Top Ten hit in 1984 and laid the groundwork for the international blockbuster "Venus" in 1986. "Venus" strengthened Bananarama's dance connections, a reinforcement that not only gave them another huge worldwide hit in 1987 with "I Heard a Rumour," but kept the group alive over the decades. Fahey left the group in 1988, but Woodward and Dallin persevered, racking up an enormous number of hits in the U.K. and around the globe, earning a certification from the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful female band worldwide.
The genesis of Bananarama lies in the relationship between Keren Woodward and Sarah Dallin, who were friends since childhood. While studying journalism at the London College of Fashion, Dallin met Siobhan Fahey. All three women were involved in London's punk and new wave scene, which is how Woodward and Dallin befriended Paul Cook, the drummer for the Sex Pistols. Cook produced a demo for Woodward, Dallin, and Fahey -- a cover Black Blood's "Aie a Mwana," which the indie Demon Records released as a single. "Aie a Mwana" became an indie hit, helping Bananarama land a deal at Decca while also earning the attention of Terry Hall, the former lead singer for the Specials, who had just formed Fun Boy Three.
Hall had Bananarama guest on "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)," the second single by Fun Boy Three. "It Ain't What You Do" turned into a massive U.K. hit in 1982, peaking at number four in the charts and turning Bananarama into stars. "Really Saying Something" -- a single that flipped the credit of "It Ain't What You Do," being billed to Bananarama featuring Fun Boy Three -- quickly followed in 1982, reaching number five on the U.K. charts. "Shy Boy" gave the group another Top Ten hit in the U.K., providing an anchor for their 1983 debut, Deep Sea Skiving. The album produced another hit single in the form of a cover of Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye."
Though Deep Sea Skiving and its accompanying singles performed well in Australia and Europe, Bananarama were still an underground act in America, receiving play on MTV and doing well on the dance charts, but not cracking pop radio. It was 1984's Bananarama that broke the trio in the United States. "Cruel Summer" was the vehicle for their Stateside stardom. "Robert DeNiro's Waiting…" arrived first, getting significant play on MTV but going no further than 95 on Billboard -- in Britain, it peaked at number three, their best position to date -- but "Cruel Summer" was timed for a summer release in 1984, nearly a year after the song reached number eight in the U.K. "Cruel Summer" came close to replicating that success in the U.S., reaching number nine. At the end of the year, Bananarama appeared on Band Aid's charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
"Do Not Disturb" gave the trio a modest hit in 1985, but they returned in 1986 with their third album, True Confessions. Its lead single, a Stock, Aitken & Waterman-produced cover of Shocking Blue's 1969 hit "Venus," gave Bananarama their first number one hit in the U.S.; it also topped Billboard's Dance chart, as well as charts in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, while reaching eight in the U.K. None of the other singles from True Confessions came close to replicating that success, but 1987's Wow! gave Bananarama another international smash in the form of "I Heard a Rumour." "Love in the First Degree" also became a Top Ten hit in the U.K., earning a silver certification.
Shortly after the release of Wow!, Fahey left Bananarama. Her last appearance with the group was at the February 1988 Brit Awards; she went on to form Shakespear's Sister with Marcella Detroit. Woodward and Dallin were joined by Jacquie O'Sullivan, who debuted with the group on a re-recorded version of "I Want You Back," which was initially featured on Wow!; this version reached number five in the U.K. Greatest Hits Collection arrived in 1988, accompanied by the new single "Love, Truth and Honesty," which peaked at number 23. By reaching the charts, "Love, Truth and Honesty" helped Bananarama become the female group with the most entries in the U.K. charts. During 1989, the trio supported the comedy troupe Lananeeneenoonoo on a cover of the Beatles' "Help!" which was cut for Comic Relief; it was a number three hit in the U.K.
Pop Life, Bananarama's first album with O'Sullivan, contained several collaborations with Youth, along with productions by Stock, Aitken & Waterman. The album gave them three modest hits in the U.K.: "Only Your Love," "Preacher Man," and "Long Train Running." O'Sullivan left the group after its release, and Dallin and Woodward soldiered on, making their debut as a duo with Please Yourself. The 1993 album added two hits to the group's canon: "Movin' On" and "More, More, More," which both peaked at 24.
Bananarama entered a fallow period in the mid-'90s. Their next album, I Found Love, only saw release in Japan; it appeared under the title Ultra Violet in North America, Europe, and Australia, but conspicuously never was released in the United Kingdom. The French label M6 Interactions released Exotica in 2001, but the album didn't appear anywhere else. During this time, Bananarama kept popping up on television in the U.K., along with playing the occasional show, but they didn't launch a proper comeback until 2005, when Drama became their first album to be released in the U.K. since 1993. "Move in My Direction," the first single from the album, peaked at 14, with "Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)" reaching 26. Bananarama returned with Viva in 2009, which had the modest hit "Love Comes." The Now or Never EP appeared in 2012.
Fahey rejoined Bananarama for a reunion tour in 2017; this was documented on a live album and home video released in July 2018. Fahey left the group before Bananarama recorded In Stereo, the duo's first full-length album in a decade, released in April 2019”.
If you are completely new to Bananarama and their history, I would recommend you try the albums that I have suggested below. From the 1980s sound through to the modern-day vibe, Bananarama has changed a fair bit. Let’s hope that there are going to be more albums. One of my favourite groups from the 1980s, Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward are keeping the group strong. I look forward to hearing…
WHAT comes next from them.
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The Four Essential Albums
Deep Sea Skiving
Release Date: 7th March, 1983
Label: London
Producers: Barry Blue/Dave Jordan/Jolley & Swain/Little Paul Cook/Big John Martin/Sara Dallin
Standout Tracks: Shy Boy/Young at Heart/Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=46512&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4v3E9sT3n9mz3MWlrtmtVw?si=qlw4Hwx8RqmCPOsBZo4Niw
Review:
“Bananarama's first album is by far their best. Before they fell in with the lucrative but often boring Stock, Aitken & Waterman assembly line starting with 1986's True Confessions, Siobhan Fahey, Sarah Dallin, and Keren Woodward were unashamedly poppy, but they had enough artistic credibility to create a debut album that, barring a couple of small missteps, actually works as an album instead of a collection of singles with some filler. (They were even hip enough for their first single to be produced by ex-Sex Pistol Paul Cook.) Of course, the singles are terrific. There are four British chart hits in these 11 songs, and every one of them still sounds terrific, where later hits like "I Can't Help It" are terribly dated. The slinky "Shy Boy" and a rattling cover of the Marvelettes' "He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'" (co-starring the trio's early mentors Fun Boy Three) are classic girl group songs updated for the '80s, every bit as credible as any mid-level Spector or Motown singles. That Cook-produced debut single, "Aie a Mwana" (oddly left off the album's first U.S. edition), now sounds mostly like a curio of the brief tropical craze that hit the U.K. in 1981/1982, but "Cheers Then" is a heartbreaker, an absolutely lovely lost-love song that's possibly the best thing Bananarama ever did and certainly one of the top singles to come out of Great Britain in 1982. Surprisingly, though, Deep Sea Skiving has some album tracks that are the equal of the singles. A funky version of Paul Weller's "Doctor Love" (originally written for Weller's then-girlfriend Tracie Young, whose version came out in 1984) is a killer, as is the countrified "Young at Heart," written by the trio and Fahey's then-boyfriend, Robert Hodgens of the Bluebells (who did their own version on 1984's Sisters). Three more Dallin/Fahey/Woodward compositions present a well-rounded portrait of young girls on their own in the big city, with the bouncy, glammy "Hey Young London" like a night out on the town and the resentful "What a Shambles," a morning-after snit about an out-of-touch star from the point of view of three struggling working-class girls. It's the closing "Wish You Were Here," though, that caps the album's widely varied moods with a romantic wistfulness that's like the emotional flip side of "Cheers Then." Deep Sea Skiving is not perfect. "Boy Trouble" is awfully slight, and a cover of Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" is okay, but basically pointless. Still, it's Bananarama's finest album by far, and an underappreciated pop gem of its era” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Really Sayin’ Something (with Fun Boy Three)
Bananarama
Release Date: 21st April, 1984
Label: London
Producers: Tony Swain/Steve Jolley
Standout Tracks: Rough Justice/Hot Line to Heaven/Roberto De Niro’s Waiting
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=2869&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4zHriUoFVrq0YZ2kIEOkIW?si=zMQbuIwlRoiOj2-YnkH9xA
Review:
“Whether addressing the intersection of drug culture and youth culture on “Hotline to Heaven” or exploring societal anomie on “Rough Justice,” Dallin, Fahey and Woodward are insightful versus clumsy when broaching socially conscious themes. That former quality is especially true of “Robert De Niro’s Waiting,” a snappy takedown of “hero worship” as Woodward defined it in a 2012 interview when questioned about the song. However, many fans have speculated for decades that “Robert De Niro’s Waiting” subversively addressed rape with lines like, “A walk in the park can become a bad dream / People are staring and following me / This is my only escape from it all / Watching a film or a face on the wall…!”
On the opposite side of the tonal spectrum are entries such as “Dream Baby,” “State I’m In” and “The Wild Life” that bring in a touch of conventional pop sass to balance out Bananarama’s heavier sides. As an aside, “The Wild Life” wasn’t included on the first pressings of Bananarama, it was a soundtrack feature for the 1984 American teen film of the same name and was tacked on to secondary Bananarama pressings in that territory.
Musically, the arrangements of the album are as progressive as its songwriting. Throughout the long player a diverse range of sounds are at play, from the flavorful pop-soul of “Dream Baby” to the airy acoustic vibe of “Through a Child’s Eyes.” Bananarama have no sonics limits here.
The warm, expressive grooves of “Cruel Summer,” Rough Justice” and “King of the Jungle” are of particular notice, indebted to an immaculate fusion of expert synthesizer sequencing and live instrumentation that yields an exotic pop composite of world music and soul rhythms. “Link”—a crafty interlude used to indicate the end of Side A on the originating vinyl pressing that went unlisted on this format and found itself restored on the subsequent CD reissues—puts this method into action in lush cooperation with Bananarama’s unison vocal style. A major leap forward from Deep Sea Skiving, Bananarama saw Dallin, Fahey and Woodward vocally communicating with a more confident eloquence which gifted a deeper emotional potency to the music and words of the LP.
As 1984 wore on, Bananarama and its post-“Cruel Summer” singles—“Robert De Niro’s Waiting,” “Rough Justice,” “King of the Jungle,” “Hotline to Heaven” and “The Wild Life”—met mixed reviews and sales worldwide. While it was far and away from a chart misfire, it wasn’t exactly a triumph; larger commercial victories awaited Bananarama further into the 1980s with True Confessions (1986) and Wow! (1987)” – Albumism
Choice Cut: Cruel Summer
True Confessions
Release Date: 12th July, 1986
Label: London
Producers: Tony Swain/Steve Jolley/Stock Aitken Waterman
Standout Tracks: A Trick of the Night/Do Not Disturb/More Than Physical
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=46805&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6CVuruIUWoYViZM97wgq9h?si=jwwEqzvySSCPzamFVLwuvQ
Review:
“After becoming one of the biggest girl groups in U.K. pop music history, and after scoring a Top Ten U.S. hit with "Cruel Summer," Bananarama reached the commercial pinnacle of their career with their third album, True Confessions. This album also marked an artistic change of pace for the trio because they began to utilize super hit producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman, who helped them turn the 1970 rock hit "Venus" into an unstoppable, unforgettable dance smash. In fact, their version was so huge that it became their only U.S. number one hit. The rest of the album, however, is a little darker than one might expect, with heavy lyrics and themes permeating the songs. Other highlights include the second single, "More Than Physical," which was also produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman, the moody third single, "Trick of the Night," the saucy "Hooked on Love," the dance-pop of "Promised Land," and the seductive "Dance with a Stranger." To some, True Confessions was a departure of sorts from the post-punk, new wave girl group sound that made Bananarama so essential to early-'80s British alt-pop music. To others, it represents a shift to platinum success (which continued with their follow-up album, Wow!), and this album, along with the hit "Venus," are prime examples of classic '80s dance-pop music” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Venus
Viva
Release Date: 14th September, 2009
Label: Fascination
Producer: Ian Masterson
Standout Tracks: Love Don't Live Here/Rapture/S-S-S-Single Bed
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=326002&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1cfn3c5NlxrzWkLv40XGem?si=yqnRggl9TPmlP8XFGbY-Fw
Review:
“In a post-Spice Girls pop world, where ‘Girl Power’ has been all too hastily supplemented by “How would you like us?”, it’s enormously satisfying to know that Bananarama never went away.
They may now be two middle-aged women and probably more intrinsically respectable than they ever imagined they might be, but they are the original UK girl group of the modern era – and the most successful – and serve to remind their spiritual spawn that there is an alternative, more independent-minded way to have a pop career.
They can do this because, and this is the most important thing about Bananarama and why everybody from Ms Dynamite to Girls Aloud to Lady Gaga should pay attention, they have never changed their approach to what they do. This may be their tenth album in their 30th year as a group and they may have acquired considerable sophistication along the way, but it still bristles with the sort of energy born out of total conviction that what they are doing is right for them. Regardless of what’s going on around them.
In this case it’s the hi-NRG-ish disco pop, which has served them well over time, with the producer here, Ian Masterton, not only getting the best out of the duo but making them sound a little bit contemporary by ushering in outside influences. As touches rather than fully-formed ideas, meaning the mix of self-penned tunes and covers – The Runner, S-S-S-Single Bed and Rapture – ploughs a pretty straightforward, synth-heavy path with not a great deal of tonal variation. That said, nobody knows their audience as well as this group – you wouldn’t survive for 30-odd years if you didn’t – and it’s not meant to be played as an album, but spun as one-offs in Europe’s most openly hedonistic discos.
Under those circumstances, the overblown dramas of the big keyboard explosions of Love Don’t Live Here and Tell Me Tomorrow or the relentlessly pumping Dum Dum Boy and Love Comes or the elastic groove in Seventeen will find a natural and enthusiastic home. Viva Bananarama, indeed” – BBC
Choice Cut: Love Comes
The Underrated Gem
WOW!
Release Date: 4th September, 1987
Label: London
Producers: Stock Aitken Waterman
Standout Tracks: I Can’t Help It/I Heard a Rumour/I Want You Back
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=46781&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4rf0QgMoJ4jVEjpX54GRH5?si=X9aiOS2eQeCNFXz7oFez-w
Review:
“It might sound like a bizarre criticism, but the trouble with Bananarama is that by the time they released this album in 1987 they’d got too good. When they started out at the beginning of the decade, the main thrust of their appeal was a kind of shambling amateurishness, like three girls at the back
of the school bus singing
for themselves with little thought for harmonies and vocal counterpoints.
Wow! is an incredibly slick pop record, as one might expect from the Stock/Aitken/Waterman factory, with chart-conquering hits I Heard
A Rumour and I Want You Back (and a seriously sly and sexy take on The Supremes’ Nathan Jones) the epitome of perfection. It still sounds pretty good, but naggingly clinical and with an absence of charm or humanity. It would be the last album by the original line-up, as Jacquie O’Sullivan replaced Siobhan Fahey on 1991’s Pop Life, also reissued as a deluxe model this month. The songs are more pedestrian, save for a lively take on The Doobie Brothers’ Long Train Running, while the following year’s Please Yourself found Keren Woodward and Sarah Dallin working as a duo and suffering from a similar drought of good material” – Record Collector
Choice Cut: Love in the First Degree
The Latest Album
In Stereo
Release Date: 19th April, 2019
Label: In Synk
Producers: Ian Masterson/Richard X
Standout Tracks: Love in Stereo/Intoxicated/Stuff Like That
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1536243&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1MBIMtEqRi2n4ox7m5SnV0?si=9QB-eTseTmyXPdSebHX4lw
Review:
“No one expected Bananarama to reinvent themselves. Most likely, no one wanted them to either. One thing’s for sure, though: Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward aren’t going to mess with the formula. Instead, they’re going to distil it to its purest form.
Hiring producer Richard X for opening track Love In Stereo is, therefore, a smart way to get people onside, its throbbing, Heart Of Glass synths underpinning an affectionate look at the way music revives powerful associations: “With you the music sounds better/ I can’t listen alone.” Better still, it cannily acknowledges their audience’s maturity, offering a sense of nostalgia with both its opening greeting – “Been a long time” – and its early reference to “a tape in the dashboard.”
What the title track does best, however, is fail to outstay its welcome. This is one of the greatest skills of all, and it’s one at which Bananarama often excel here.
As kickstarts go, then, Love In Stereo is pretty much immaculate, and that it’s followed by the summer disco fever of Dance Music – which borrows a trick or two from Kylie’s deathless Can’t Get You Out My Head – is another canny move.
The Venus-like Intoxicated delves into similar territory as well, the duo’s familiar unison voices breaking into harmonies before its chorus, and if that’s surprisingly restrained, it’s soon offset by Stuff Like That’s festive fireworks. There’s even a gentle comedown in the Morcheeba-like On Your Own.
Inevitably, though, some tracks are weaker: It’s Gonna Be Alright’s merely a pale shadow of Stuff Like That, Tonight’s chorus sounds like it’s deflating, and only the tense crescendo towards I’m On Fire’s climax redeems its formulaic overexcitement and trite sentiments.
In places, the duo also come across as surprisingly needy: Tonight’s “I need to feel you”, Gotta Get Away’s rather worrying “I wanna feel love so bad/ Like a heart attack”, Looking For Someone’s demanding “I don’t expect nothing but love” and It’s Going To Be Alright’s “I wanted a cowboy by my side/ I wanted a rodeo,” which is surely doomed to disappointment.
Still, whether or not they offer empowerment, who listens to lyrics when they’re dancing to Bananarama? After all, it ain’t what they do. It’s always been the way that they do it” – Classic Pop
Choice Cut: Looking for Someone
The Bananarama Book
Really Saying Something: Sara & Keren - Our Bananarama Story
Authors: Sara Dallin/Keren Woodward
Publication Date: 29th October, 2020
Publisher: Cornerstone
Synopsis:
“From the duo behind the all-conquering Bananarama, Really Saying Something is a sparkling, funny and sincere story of lifelong friendship and a journey through popular music.
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'This book is like something from a movie' DERMOT O'LEARY
'[A] brilliant autobiography' MARTIN KEMP
A Sunday Times Best Music Book of 2020
A HuffPo Book That Got Us Through 2020
A Daily Mail Best Showbiz Memoir
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MUSIC, FAME AND A LIFELONG FRIENDSHIP.
Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward met in the school playground when they were four. They became international stars, first as a trio, then, for almost three decades, as a duo.
After finishing school, Sara studied journalism at the London College Of Fashion, while Keren worked at the BBC. They lived in the YWCA before moving into the semi-derelict former Sex Pistols rehearsal room and immersing themselves in Soho's thriving club scene. A year later they teamed up with Siobhan Fahey to form Bananarama. A string of worldwide hits followed, including 'Cruel Summer', 'I Heard a Rumour and 'Venus'. In a male-dominated industry, they were determined to succeed on their own terms and inspired a generation with their music, DIY-style and trailblazing attitudes.
Narrated with humour and authenticity, and filled with never before seen photos Really Saying Something takes us from the early days to the world tours, to party games with George Michael, a close friendship with Prodigy's Keith Flint, hanging out with Andy Warhol in New York and a Guinness World Record for the most worldwide chart entries of any all-female group.
As well as the highs, Sara and Keren speak frankly about the flip side side of fame, revealing their personal struggles and the challenges of juggling family life with a demanding professional schedule.
Really Saying Something is the story of two friends who continue to pursue their dreams their way - and have a great time doing it. It's a celebration of determination and a lifelong friendship, with an unbeatable soundtrack.
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'A wonderful, pantomime-like story of self-invention and continuous reinvention' LITERARY REVIEW
'Their friendship has seen them through their school years, adolescence, bad breakups, motherhood and comebacks, all of which is beautifully captured in their memoir Really Saying Something, which I devoured . . . what a nostalgia-fest' KATE THORNTON
'Brilliant, of course, absolutely wonderful' EAMONN HOLMES
'This cheery memoir showed how luck and canny shoe choices propelled Bristol school friends Dallin and Woodward to megastardom' UNCUT” – Waterstones
Order: https://www.waterstones.com/book/really-saying-something/sara-dallin/keren-woodward/9781786332660