Bananarama

Bananarama were 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 and Play. 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. In 1986 they began to be produced by UK pop producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman, which immediately resulted in the international #1 hit "Venus", whose dance enticing beats typified the "SAW" approach to pop production.

"I Heard a Rumor", from the True Confessions album, was a hit in 1986, 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 in 1993, they released a greatest hits CD and have reappeared only sporadically, with occasional albums and a few comeback tours during the late 1990s.