Songoftheday 8/5/15 - Who needs friends who never show I'll tell you what you wanna know, I could have saved a broken heart If I'd found out long ago...

"I Heard A Rumour" - Bananarama
from the albums Wow! and Disorderlies (Original Soundtrack) (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's song of the day comes from the British female vocal trio Bananarama, whose group-chant charm had sent them to the top of the American charts in 1986 with their cover of the 60s/70s classic "Venus". With a shift in looks from vagabond curmudgeons to glamorous sexpots and in their sound from reggae/ska-lite to Stock-Aitken-Waterman-produced dance-pop sugar, the trio continued and even expanded their reliance on the SAW production team for their next album, Wow!. The first single from the record also appeared in the comedy film Disorderlies which starred the Fat Boys (who also had a hit from the movie with their remake of "Wipeout"). "I Heard A Rumour", written by the producers with the trio, was a flawless bit of musical trifle that exemplified their "new Wall of Sound" ethic, while women (and for certain gay men) were for once treated with man candy dancing around on the video...

"I Heard A Rumour" became Bananarama's third and final top-40 pop hit in America, reaching the top-5 on the Hot 100 in September of 1987. The record also went to #32 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart, while the 12" extended version peaked at #3 on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the single climbed to #2 in Canada, made the top-10 in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Switzerland, while surprisingly stopped short of that level in their native Britain at #14.

Although their Wow! album was stocked with radio-friendly tracks, their two follow-up barely missed the U.S. Top-40, though they did significantly better in Britain, with second single "Love In The First Degree" landing at #3 (tying "Robert De Niro's Waiting" for their best UK showing). The following year, member Siobhan Fahey left to form Shakespear's Sister, to be temporarily replaced by Jacqui O'Sullivan. The new lineup re-recorded a Wow! cut, "I Want You Back", for the act's Greatest Hits Collection, and it went to #5 in the UK. They also worked with the comedy duo French and Saunders to cover the Beatles' "Help" for the Comic Relief charity, which made their third #3 hit in the UK. Their next studio album Pop Life (the only one to include O'Sullivan) sent three singles into the British top-40, but none higher than the #20 Youth-produced "Preacher Man", even though the house-infused sound fit the times (another track, "Trippin' On Your Love", made the US Dance top-20). Pared to a duo, Dallin and Woodward carried on in 1992 with Please Yourself, and single "Movin' On" and a cover of "More, More, More" both hit the UK top-40. By this time, their fanbase was mostly the LGBT community, but that didn't translate to pop success for the next dozen years. In 2005, Bananarama came back in a big way with "Move In My Direction", which made the top-20 on the British pop and American dance chart. Its follow-up, "Look On The Floor (Hypnotic Tango)", ended up their biggest club hit since "Venus" in the U.S., climbing to #2 in Billboard's Dance chart  (as well as #26 in the UK). Besides hitting the "oldies circuit", the pair most recently released their Viva album in 2009, with lead single "Love Comes", just missing the top-40 in England at #44.

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Here the trio making a (mimed) appearance promoting the single in 1987...

and here's the "Horoscope Mix" from the top-ten 12" single...

...and the "Miami Mix", which interpolated the synth hook from Company B's "Fascinated"...

Up tomorrow: A slow-jam soulster wants to party this evening.