User:EncicloCharlie

Hi, I'm a Wikipedian since November 15, 2007.

I'm a Bananarama fan since I was younger. My Nana favourite single is "Venus".

Bananarama

Bananarama is a British female group of pop music.

The band was founded in 1981 by Keren Woodward, Sarah Dallin and Siobhan Fahey. They took this name from one of their favourite Roxy Music's song called "Pyjamarama". Before Bananarama got together Keren had a job at the BBC and Sarah and Siobhan were studying fashion journalism. They met in a London nightclub and shared a flat before forming a group.

In early 1988 Siobhan decided to leave the group to form Shakespears Sister. Keren and Sarah enlisted the services of an old pal, Jacquie O'Sullivan, for their first World Tour. By this time, Bananarama were massive. They was the all-female group who had most chart entries in history, 9 Top UK Singles Chart and 3 US Top 10 Hits, being honoured in "The Guinnes Book of World Records" as The Most Successful British All-girl Group Ever. So they released their retrospective compilation "The Greatest Hits Collection", which was a huge success on Britain, peaking at 3, and remained on UK Albums Chart for 37 weeks.

With the 80's back in vogue, the time was right for a Bananarama revival. In 2002 London Records repackaged their Greatest Hits into a Very Best Of collection.

	Single	Album	Date	Performed by	Written by	Produced by	Top UK Chart	Weeks on UK Chart
1	"Venus"	"True Confessions"	May 1986	Bananarama	Robert Leeuwen	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	8	13
2	"I Heard A Rumour"	"WOW!"	July 1987	Bananarama	Stock/Aitken/Waterman/ Dallin/Fahey/Woodward	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	14	9
3	"Love In The First Degree"	"WOW!"	September 1987	Bananarama	Stock/Aitken/Waterman/ Dallin/Fahey/Woodward	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	3	12
4	"I Can't Help It"	"WOW!"	December 1987	Bananarama	Stock/Aitken/Waterman/ Dallin/Fahey/Woodward	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	20	6
5	"I Want You Back"	-	April 1988	Bananarama	Dallin/Fahey/Woodward/ Stock/Aitken/Waterman	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	5	10
6	"Love, Truth And Honesty"	-	September 1988	Bananarama	Dallin/O'Sullivan/Woodward/ Stock/Aitken/Waterman	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	23	8
7	"Nathan Jones"	-	November 1988	Bananarama	Wakefield/Caston	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	15	9
8	"Help!"	-	February 1989	Bananarama with Lananeeneenoonoo	Lennon/McCartney	Stock, Aitken and Waterman	3	9
9	"Really Saying Something"	"Deep Sea Skiving"	April 1982	Bananarama with The Fun Boy Three	Whitfield/Holland/Stevenson	Fun Boy Three and Dave Jordan	5	10
10	"Shy Boy"	"Deep Sea Skiving"	July 1982	Bananarama	Swain/Jolley	Tony Swain and Steve Jolley	4	11
11	"Robert De Niro's Waiting"	"Bananarama"	March 1984	Bananarama	Jolley/Swain/ Dallin/Fahey/Woodward	Tony Swain and Steve Jolley	3	11
12	"Cruel Summer"	"Bananarama"	July 1983	Bananarama	Jolley/Swain/ Dallin/Fahey/Woodward	Tony Swain and Steve Jolley	8	10
13	"It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)"	-	February 1982	The Fun Boy Three with Bananarama	Oliver/Young	The Fun Four<center>	4	10
14	"Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)"	"Deep Sea Skiving"	February 1983	Bananarama	De Carlo/Frashuer/Leka	Tony Swain and Steve Jolley	5	10
15	"Rough Justice"	"Bananarama"	May 1984	Bananarama	Jolley/Swain/ Dallin/Fahey/Woodward	Tony Swain and Steve Jolley	23	7
16	"Trick Of The Night"	"True Confessions"	February 1987	Bananarama	Jolley/Swain	Tony Swain and Steve Jolley	32	5
17	"Aie A Mwana"	"Deep Sea Skiving"	September 1981	Bananarama	Vangarde/Kluger	Little Paul Cook, John Martin and Sara	92	?

"Greatest Hits"

"EncicloCharlie"
Song
B-side	"White Train"

"Venus" (1986)

Bananarama's first collaboration with producers Stock/ Aitken/ Waterman, and also their first number one in the USA.

The song was originally recorded by Dutch rock group Shocking Blue in 1970, and was updated for the 80's. Bananarama had done this cover from the beginning, when the girls were starting out. They wanted an injection of high glamour and disco and that is exactly what they got.

The single was promoted by a rather camp video (directed by Peter Care) and a catchy dance routine. The video marks a pivotal shift towards a more glamourous and sexual image: the girls are presented in various costumes (she-devil, female vampire, Grecian goddesses...), and it's also start of the use of male boy-toys dancers which would become a hallmark of their videos. This visual iconography and Hi-NRG influenced sound turns the girls into gay icons the world over.

"Venus" still is Bananarama's biggest hit, topping the charts in many countries.

Charts	debut date	Chart positions	weeks	peak	peak date
UK Singles Chart	05/31/1986	55-36-26-22-15-9-8-8-9-16-25-40-73	13	8	07/12/1986
US Billboard Hot 100	06/28/1986	89-57-43-34-23-15-9-6-3-2-1-5-7-17-25-42-53-68-99	19	1	09/06/1986
US Hot Dance Club Play	07/05/1986	40-15-6-2-2-1-1-3-8-21-32	11	1	08/09/1986
US Hot Dance Music (Maxi-Singles Sales)	07/05/1986	32-6-5-2-1-1-1-2-2-4-4-4-8-9-19-27-42	17	1	08/02/1986
Australian ARIA Chart				1	09/13/1986

"EncicloCharlie"
Song
B-side	"Clean Cut Boy"

"I Heard A Rumour" (1987)

The girls think this is the best they've written with Stock/ Aitken/ Waterman. It's also Pete Waterman and many group fans favourite Bananarama song.

The music video (directed by Andy Morahan) presents group members are seen emulating various film starts, projected on screens behind them. At one point the girls, dressed in French can-can, bend over to moon the camara and expose the letters "W" "O" "W" (a reference to their album tittle) on their rears.

Charts	debut date	Chart positions	weeks	peak	peak date
UK Singles Chart	07/11/1987	55-28-15-14-15-16-28-37-54	9	14	08/01/1987
US Billboard Hot 100	07/18/1987	74-65-54-44-36-26-21-17-10-8-4-4-4-10-21-30-51-59-88	19	4	09/26/1987
US Hot Dance Club Play	08/01/1987	30-22-17-14-8-6-4-3-3-8-24	11	3	09/19/1987
US Hot Dance Music (Maxi-Singles Sales)	08/08/1987	36-27-20-20-17-13-12-9-7-8-17-35-44	13	7	10/03/1987

"EncicloCharlie"
Song
B-side	"Mr. Sleaze"

"Love In The First Degree" (1987)

The band's best selling single ever in the UK. The success is party due to the B-side "Mr. Sleaze" being heavily played by English radio stallions.

They got so over the top with the video for this single, directed by Andy Morahan. The girls perfoming the song in a jail cell, as several boy dancers perform around them in their little uniforms.

Charts	debut date	Chart positions	weeks	peak	peak date
UK Singles Chart	10/10/1987	46-22-5-3-4-7-13-16-25-39-49-63	12	3	10/31/1987
US Billboard Hot 100	03/19/1988	82-74-64-55-51-48-49-57-75-98	10	48	04/23/1988
US Hot Dance Club Play	04/02/1988	30-18-18-15-12-10-22-44	8	10	05/07/1988
US Hot Dance Music (Maxi-Singles Sales)	04/09/1988	54-49-44-34-27	5	27	05/07/1988

"EncicloCharlie"
Song
B-side	"Ecstasy"

"I Can't Help It" (1987)

Stock/ Aitken/ Waterman had such a brilliant attitude to making pop records and here is a fine example.

The music video was directed by Andy Morahan. Most people would think that writhing around with four men in a milk bath with fruit would be very erotic, so Sarah and Keren featured in a milk bath filled with fruit an naked men. Siobhan, extremely pregnat by this time, was only shown on camera from the shoulders up.

World famous photographer Herb Ritts shot the girls for the record's sleeve. The sleeves for "I Can't Help It" and "Love In The First Degree" were switched with each other for the UK and USA markets.

Charts	debut date	Chart positions	weeks	peak	peak date
UK Singles Chart	01/09/1988	45-23-20-22-37-70	6	20	01/23/1988
US Billboard Hot 100	11/21/1987	78-66-60-55-53-48-48-47-50-58-80-87-99	13	47	01/09/1988
US Hot Dance Club Play	11/14/1987	45-36-24-14-12-7-7-7-13-22-47	11	7	12/19/1987
US Hot Dance Music (Maxi-Singles Sales)	11/21/1987	54-50-32-30-23-21-21-22-22-25-40	11	21	12/26/1987

"EncicloCharlie"
Song
B-side	"Amnesia"

"I Want You Back" (1988)

Siobhan decided to leave the group in 1988. Sarah and Keren had seen this coming for some time and had already lined up a possible replacement: their longtime friend Jacquie O'Sullivan.

Before releasing this song -a track from the "WOW!" album- as a single the vocals were re-recorded with Jacquie.

"I Want You Back" was not released in the United States.

Charts	debut date	Chart positions	weeks	peak	peak date
UK Singles Chart	04/09/1988	36-14-7-5-5-6-9-21-40-54	10	5	04/30/1988