Bananarama are an English pop group formed in London in 1980. The group, originally a trio, consisted of friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, and Keren Woodward. Fahey left the group in 1988 and was replaced by Jacquie O'Sullivan until 1991, when the trio became a duo. Their success on both pop and dance charts saw them listed in the Guinness World Records for achieving the world's highest number of chart entries by an all-female group. Between 1982 and 2009, they had 32 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart.
"Cruel Summer" is a song by English girl group Bananarama. It was written by Bananarama and Steve Jolley, Tony Swain, and produced by Jolley and Swain. Released in 1983, it was initially a stand-alone single but was subsequently included on their self-titled second album a year later. The song reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart in 1983 and the group appeared on the BBC's Top of the Pops that summer, and after its inclusion in the 1984 film The Karate Kid, it reached number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100.
"Venus" is a song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue, released as a single in the Netherlands in the summer of 1969. Written by Robbie van Leeuwen, the song topped the charts in nine countries.
True Confessions is the third studio album by British group Bananarama. It was released on 30 June 1986 by London Records. The majority of the album was produced by Tony Swain and Steve Jolley, with the exception of "Venus" and "More Than Physical". The latter, given a garage remix for its single version, was Bananarama's first songwriting collaboration with the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) production team.
The Greatest Hits Collection is a compilation album released by Bananarama which features their single releases and greatest hits. It was issued by London Records in 1988, eight months after the departure of group member Siobhan Fahey. The track listing differed between versions released in the United States and Canada, as well as those released throughout Europe and other territories.
"I Heard a Rumour" is a song by English girl group Bananarama from their fourth studio album, Wow! (1987), and was released on 22 June 1987 as the album's lead single. It became a hit in UK where it reached the top 20, but was more successful in North America, where it peaked within the top five.
Please Yourself is the sixth studio album by English pop act Bananarama. It was released on 29 March 1993 by London Records, the group's last release under the label. It is also the first album from Bananarama as a duo – with original members Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward continuing after the departure of Jacquie O'Sullivan in 1991. Please Yourself also reunites Bananarama with two-thirds of the Stock Aitken Waterman production team. Musician Gary Miller was brought in to do keyboards and guitar and would be Bananarama's next collaborator on their following album Ultra Violet.
Exotica is the eighth studio album released by the British female vocal duo Bananarama. The album was released only in France by the independent label M6 Interactions.
Bunch of Hits is a greatest hits album by English group Bananarama, released on 13 March 1993 by Spectrum Music. It contains many of the same tracks found on the 1989 hits set Greatest Hits Collection, plus several album tracks. Bananarama's two biggest singles are absent: "Cruel Summer" and "Venus". It also includes two B-sides available for the first time on CD, "Scarlett" and "Ghost". This album was not released by the group's record label London Records. The album was released with different artwork and titles in other countries, such as Pop Giants, Collection Series, Robert De Niro's Waiting and also saw a re-release with different artwork in the UK in 1998.
The Essentials is one of several greatest hits collections by Bananarama. This compilation was only released in the US by Rhino Records' Essentials series. Within the same year, WEA issued The Very Best of Bananarama to mark the group's twentieth anniversary.
The Very Best of Bananarama is a greatest hits album by English group Bananarama, released on 15 October 2001 by Warner Strategic Marketing and London Records. It was released to celebrate the group's 20th anniversary, including their singles released from 1981 to 1993. The album reached number 43 on the UK Albums Chart.
"A Trick of the Night" is a mid-tempo ballad recorded by English girl group Bananarama. It was written and produced by Steve Jolley and Tony Swain and released as the final single from Bananarama's album True Confessions.
"Love in the First Degree" is a song by English girl group Bananarama from their fourth studio album, Wow! (1987). It was released on 21 September 1987 as the album's second single, except in the United States, where it was released in 1988 as the third single. The track was co-written and produced by the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) trio. It achieved major success in the UK and Australia, and also peaked within the top 20 in many European countries, but, unlike "I Heard a Rumour", it reached only the lower end of the top 50 in the US.
The Twelve Inches of Bananarama is a compilation album by English girl group Bananarama, released on 2 October 2006 by Warner Bros. Records. The collection contains twelve remixes of Bananarama songs, spanning the years 1982 to 1991, many of which are appearing on compact disc for the first time. The photo on the album cover features group members Sara Dallin, Jacquie O'Sullivan and Keren Woodward from the Pop Life album era, c. 1991.
The Greatest Remixes Collection is a compilation of Bananarama remixes released exclusively in Southeast Asia in 1990. At the time of the release, the only mix that had not been issued on CD was the Miami Mix of "I Heard a Rumour", although none of the mixes had ever been compiled on a Bananarama album. Subsequently some of the mixes have been available on easier to find Bananarama albums, such as The Very Best of Bananarama double CD or The Twelve Inches of Bananarama. The album has become very rare and expensive.
The Hit Factory: The Best of Stock Aitken Waterman is a compilation album released in 1987 by Stylus Records in association with PWL Records. The collection brought together some the biggest hits by British production team Stock Aitken Waterman. It reached #18 in the UK Top 100 Album Chart and achieved a Gold BPI award.
The Hit Factory: Pete Waterman's Greatest Hits is a compilation album featuring music produced by Pete Waterman. It was released by Universal Music in 2000 and reached #3 in the UK compilation Top 20 chart, achieving a Gold BPI award.
Stock Aitken Waterman Gold is a compilation album released in 2005 by Sony BMG, PWL Records and EBUL.
The Video Singles is a music video compilation by Bananarama, released by Channel 5 in 1987, featuring videos which had been made to accompany the four singles taken from the True Confessions album. The "Venus" video is the 7" version, the extended version featuring instead on The Greatest Hits Collection. "A Trick of the Night" is the U.S. version: this song has two different videos, namely the UK black-and-white version, and the U.S. colour version; the UK b/w version was directed by Paul Heiney for the BBC programme, In at the Deep End. Bananarama hated this video. The other two videos included in the collection were for "Do Not Disturb" and "More Than Physical".
The Greatest Hits Collection is a Bananarama videos compilation released by London Records in 1988, as a companion video to their Greatest Hits album. The video differs slightly from the album—"More Than Physical" is not included on the album; the video to "Love in the First Degree" includes group live performance from 1988 BRIT awards ; and "Mr. Sleaze" is actually the B-side to "Love in the First Degree", and the video includes images from old Bananarama videos, while both songs and videos for either "I Want You Back" and "Love, Truth & Honesty" feature new member Jacquie O'Sullivan. The video for "Nathan Jones" was not included at the time of release.
