Bananarama was a girl group of the 1980s that found worldwide fame with their melodic pop songs. Founded as a joke in 1981 by friends Siobhan Fahey, Keren Woodward, and Sarah Dallin, they later added Jacquie O'Sullivan to their roster. Along with groups like The Bangles and The Go-Gos they helped to change the old Motown image of "Black Girls only" girl groups, and paved the way for such other artists as the Spice Girls. They got into the Guinness Book of World Records as the United Kingdom's best selling girl group ever.

Bananarama experienced their greatest success during the period from 1984 to 1989. Their debut album, Deep Sea Skiving (1983), was a minor hit, but the next, Bananarama (1984), contained their first two hit singles, "Cruel Summer" (1983) and "Robert De Niro's Waiting" (1984). "Cruel Summer" was included in the movie The Karate Kid and its soundtrack, shooting the song up to #1 worldwide. It was covered by Swedish band Ace of Base and was a worldwide hit all over again in 1998. In 1986 they began to be produced by UK pop producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman, which immediately resulted in the international #1 hit "Venus" (a remake of Shocking Blue's #1 hit fron 1970), whose dance enticing beats typified the "SAW" approach to pop production.

They appeared on the Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas?

"I Heard a Rumor", from the True Confessions album, was a hit in 1987 , as was "Love in the Third Degree", but the late 80s brought a resurging of boy bands, and interest in girl bands waned a bit. A few minor hits proved to be a last hurrah, and few comeback tours during the late 1990s. But in 1993 they returned with a new cd called "Please Yourself" after Jaquie left the band. In the 2001 released a new album "Exotica" in France with the cover of George Michael's "Careless Wisper" and the next year in UK a greatest hits "The Very Best of Bananarama".

External links

• MusicBrainz.ORG - Bananarama's complete discography.
• Bananarama.Co.Uk - Bananarama's official website