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Bananarama

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Bananarama is an English pop group, founded in 1980 in London by three friends: Sara Dallin, Keren Woodward and Siobhan Fahey. The group is important above all as the face of the British hit factory of the 1980s. In 1988 Bananarama entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the girl group with the most entries in the English charts.

Music and breakthrough

The first big hit came in 1982 with It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It), together with Fun Boy Three. Cruel Summer (1983) and Robert De Niro's Waiting... (1984) followed. Cruel Summer became a hit in America when it was heard in the film The Karate Kid in 1984. In 1986 they recorded Venus, the song by the Dutch band Shocking Blue, with the producer trio Stock Aitken Waterman. At Fahey's suggestion the producers reworked a first version, which stayed close to the original, into Hi-NRG, in the style of You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive. Venus became a number 1 in the United States. The album Wow! (1987), with I Heard a Rumour and Love in the First Degree, was written and made by the group entirely together with SAW.

Influence

Venus showed that SAW could give an existing song and an existing group a new sound. Shortly afterwards Rick Astley and Kylie Minogue walked into the same studio. Fahey left the group in 1988 and with Marcella Detroit formed the duo Shakespears Sister. Dallin and Woodward carried on as a duo; in 2017 Fahey once again stood on stage with them.

Listening

Listening tip. In Venus (1986) the rock band of Shocking Blue has been replaced by a programmed drum machine (a Linn 9000) and synthesizers. Put it next to the original from 1969: the melody is the same, but the song has become a dance record.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Bananarama
  2. Wikipedia (en): Venus (Shocking Blue song
  3. Wikipedia (en): Wow! (Bananarama album
Categories: Artists