Songoftheday 10/10/13 - Strange voices are saying things I can't understand, it's too close for comfort this heat has got right out of hand...
Bananarama - "Cruel Summer"
from the album Bananarama (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11
Today's Song of the Day is by the British female vocal trio Bananarama, who came together at the end of the 70s with childhood friends Karen Woodward and Sara Dallin, along with college acquaintance Siobhan Fahey in London. Sex Pistol Paul Cook helped to produce their first single, a cover of the Swahili song "Aie A Mwana", which made the lower reaches of the English pop and American dance charts in 1981. Rejecting an offer from Pistols svengali Malcolm McLaren, the three collaborated with ska-ish new wave trio Fun Boy Three, and their first single together, a rework of the 1930's ditty "It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)" on the latter's album went to #4 in the UK and #49 on the US dance list. They returned the favor for Bananarama's next single from their debut album Deep Sea Skiving, "He Was Really Sayin' Something" ( a Motown cover of the Velvelettes), which also made the top-5 in their homeland, and went up to the top-20 on the dance chart.
Their next single, "Shy Boy", was an infectious culmination of their work, and it put them on the American pop chart for the first time at #83, while also going top-5 in the UK, #2 in Australia, and #14 on the US dance chart. That set them up for their next record to be bigger, but it would take a prime placement in a mass-market 80s movie to knock it home.
That movie was The Karate Kid, and the song was "Cruel Summer", which originally hit the top-10 in England, making it their fifth such record, in 1983. A year later, it's inclusion in the movie stirred up interest in America, and the song, written by their producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain, became their US breakthrough...
"Cruel Summer" was more of an "Indian" kind, reaching the top-10 on the American pop chart in late September of 1984, while stopping at #11 on the dance club play chart and #44 on the adult-contemporary radio format.
The thing about Bananarama is that their totally eschewed harmony for a more "sleepover party" sing-a-long style that endeared them to the masses.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
In 1989 Bananarama released a new version of "Cruel Summer", with departed member Fahey (who had gone on to Shakespear's Sister) replaced by Jacqui O'Sullivan. It reached #19 on the British singles chart...
What did become a big hit was a remake by Swedish pop group Ace Of Base, who had a top-10 pop hit in the US and Britain and international success with their take in 1998...
The same year, French group Alliage merged a native-language version with Ace Of Base's, and both ended up with a top-40 hit there...
In 2009, German remixer Rico Bernasconi had a minor hit in that country (#69) with a tweak of the song...
When Bananarama reunited, they performed it on the Graham Norton show in 2017...
Next up, live in concert in London on their comeback tour (which I was happy to have seen in New York)...
Up tomorrow: Oh Lord, say the British glam gods.
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