Before The Bananas Split... (Greatest Hits - Bananarama)

Member Name: stoffy

Product:	Greatest Hits - Bananarama
Date:	04/10/03 (719 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fantastic pop tunes, a greatest hits with no glaring omissions

Disadvantages: some tracks have aged ever so slightly...

Pre Spice Girls and All Saints, there was one British girl-band who ruled the roost. For the vast majority of the 80's, the trio of Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward and Siobhan Fahey were omnipresent in the Top 40 with their own blend of dance-pop, and this Greatest Hits collection is a good demonstration that their music was superior to the dross of many of their contemporaries.

Whilst they had a reputation for being a fluffy pop act only for kids, they were acquaintences of the Sex Pistols in the late 1970's before drifting into music almost by accident. After recording the flop 'Aie A Mwana', the peculiar African song which is their only non-hit on here, they came to the attention of Terry Hall and The Fun Boy Three and the rest became history...

Both collaborations with the Fun Boy Three became instant top 10 smashes. The tongue-twisting 'It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It) effectively saw Bananarama as backing vocalists, and is gloriously unprofessional in its production. However, despite being a little gimmicky, it remains fantastically catchy. Equally, 'Really Saying Something' sounds like it was recorded on a shoestring budget. However, the harmonies and its simple piano accompanying the vocals of the old Velvettes song mix together to create a fabulous pop song.

Possibly the highlight of the early days though was 'Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)', one of their many classic sing-a-longs. Another cover version of a little-known song, it came with a slightly unorthodox video of the girls in a boxing ring but is once again almost plague-like in its instant catchiness. By contrast the less light-hearted 1983's 'Rough Justice' is one of the weaker songs on this collection with its triteness sitting uncomfortably alongside some featherweight instrumentation.

As the band moved into the mid-1980's, their sound became a little more polished, moving away
from the rawness of their Fun Boy Three. The tribute to a certain actor in 'Robert De Niro's Waiting' was certainly inspired, and even gave them the opportunity to meet the ledgend in person. They also had other massive hits with the understated 'Shy Boy' and the melodic 'Cruel Summer' which broke them in the USA and appeared in the soundtrack to a vast number of American films.

By 1986, the band had become truly global superstars, although they still maintained their slight surprise and almost embarrassment that they had struck the big time. This sense of fun enabled them to maintain a pop direction rather than try to be taken seriously in the music press who tried at every opportunity to criticise them as untalented and lucky to be where they are.

They opted to team up with the Stock Aitken and Waterman, who had just burst onto the scene penning hits for the likes of Hazell Dean and Dead Or Alive. The Banana's went to the production trio and asked for their new hit to be moulded like Pete Burns & Co's number one single 'You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). The result was the sensational disco version of Shocking Blue's 'Venus' which sold by the bucketload and even topped the charts in the USA, one of the few British girlbands ever to do so. A real dancefloor filler, it epitomised the girls' carefree personalities.

'I Heard A Rumour' followed in a similar vein with its pumping beats and slick production the polar opposite of the more earthy beats of their earlier songs. However, the band were beginning to fracture. Now a mother and happily married to Eurythmic Dave Stewart, Siobhan Fahey announced that she was quitting the band. However, she left of a high note with the group biggest ever UK hit 'Love In The First Degree'. A catchy synth beat and some camper than camp similes about love and incarceration it is possibly still their most popular track.


Joined by friend Jacqui O'Sullivan, the band continued. 'I Can't Help It' and 'I Want You Back' were both SAW produced floor-fillers that saw O'Sullivan slip into the band's new found sound seamlessly. However, the relative failure of 'Love, Truth and Honesty' and the forgotten Supremes track 'Nathan Jones' seemed to indicate that fans had maybe turned away from the band after the charismatic Fahey left.

The band achieved their final top 10 hit with the Comic Relief cover of the Beatles' 'Help', included here as a bonus track. Still maintaining their sense of humour, Bananarama were joined by comediennes Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke, who would later help out the Spice Girls in their own Comic Relief video for 'Who Do You Think You Are?' 8 years later.

As the 90's moved in and SAW imploded, Bananarama's singles reaped diminishing returns, and they called it a day in 1993 after various flops. Whilst Dallin, Woodward and O'Sullivan were struggling, Fahey had formed Shakespear's Sister with Marcella Detroit and enjoyed an 8-week stint at number one with the epic 'Stay'. By contrast, whilst they had a US chartopper and had appeared on both the 1985 and 1989 versions of the number one 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', Bananarama never went to the top of the singles chart in their own right.

Still, the notched up an impressive 10 Top 10 hits and sold millions of records around the world. Dallin and Woodward still tour sporadically to this day, and even reformed with Fahey for a one-off stab at 'Waterloo' for a Eurotrash album.

This collection is a must for any 80's music fan, and there are even some credible tracks in amongst those that haven't stood the test of time too well. With 18 tracks and two bonus dance remixes, as well as a sleeve with details about the background to each song, it's
also great value and probably the most fun retrospective of any band your ever likely to get.

Summary: