Bananarama - Bananarama - The Greatest Hits Collection

Amazing

Bananarama is one of the most important music in the history of music. Beethoven, Mozart, Bob Dylan, REM - all of these different artists who get all the praise owe everything to Bananarama. This is what high culture is all about. June 19, 2008

Go Bananas

Good collection of Banarama's music. The album is overall a fun listen; it's good 80s girl band pop. The ones that got the big radio play are here [Venus, I Can't Help It, Cruel Summer] as well as some lesser knowns that are nice and pleasant discoveries [Love Truth and Honesty, Nathan Jones, and Shy Boy]. The album gets kind of weak toward the end, and the remakes of Na Na Hey Hey and Help are not appealing. Good pop overall though. June 4, 2007

This collection is great, but...

I love Bananarama and this collection of their biggest hits before
Siobhan Fahey left the group is excellent. Although they hit the Hot 100 11 times, only 3 of those songs made the Top 40 (Cruel Summer, Venus, and I Heard a Rumour). Those songs plus many of their other hits are included here. However, one thing I do hate is when a record company puts out a Greatest Hits package and leaves off some of the songs that were released as singles. Most Greatest Hits packages do this, and this one is no exception. The key tracks missing here are the title song from the movie "The Wild Life" (which peaked at #70 in 1984) and "More Than Physical" (which peaked at #73 in 1986). Since this was issued, they have issued a package called "The Essentials" which includes all of their Hot 100 hits (including the 2 songs missing on this CD). So, if you want all the Hot 100 hits, skip this one and buy "The Essentials". If you just want the Top 40 hits plus some great dance tunes, this will suffice. March 28, 2005

Bananarama--A Tasty Guilty Pleasure

(3.5 stars) Everyone's got to have their musical guilty pleasures, and I am certainly no exception. Right up there on my list is Bananarama, a band that produced music that no one would describe as deep, sophisticated, or consequential. But, you know what? There are times when I don't want to listen to music that is challenging or probing but merely want to be entertained. And when those moods hit me, there's a good chance you'll find me tucked away in a dark recess of my home tapping my toes to the bouncy pop of Bananarama, all the while looking around nervously to make sure no one catches me in this indiscretion.

That I would like Bananrama is curious considering that I despise boy-band and girl-group bubble-gum pop, which to me is nauseatingly cloying and pre-fabricated and sounds as if it's performed by automatons, not humans. By contrast, Bananarama's music is brimming with exuberance and coquettish playfulness and full of engaging hooks. Listening to Bananarama is the musical equivalent of flirting with a saucy minx whose come-hither enticements are just a tease. Insubstantial? Yes. Meaningful? Hardly. Fun? Absolutely.

The Greatest Hits Collection contains all the Banarama that you'd ever want (or need) to hear, including: the dance-`til-you-drop version of "Venus"; the catchy "Cruel Summer"; the glossy "I Heard a Rumor"; the jaunty "Shy Boy (Don't It Make You Feel Good)"; and the frothy "Love in the First Degree." Even the most cold-hearted cynic couldn't resist these lively tunes. So go ahead and indulge yourself in this guiltiest of pleasures. Don't worry; your secret's safe with me. November 1, 2003

Fine collection of Bananarama tunes

All right, this class is BANM-52, for those of you into 80's music studies, and the required text here is Bananarama's Greatest Hits Collection. I would've recommended their first and fourth studio albums, whose key tracks comprise this compilation, but they are criminally hard to get and/or out-of-print. No matter, this single CD collection will do.

For most 80's music fans, their barn-burning cover of Shocking Blue's "Venus" and "Cruel Summer" are their two most famous songs. Don't worry--they're here. Their fourth album Wow boasted five singles, all here, and that was when they exploded, becoming part of the Stock-Aitken-Waterman bubblegum machine. However, I would like to point out that the single versions of "I Want You Back" and their cover of the Supremes' post-Diana Ross hit "Nathan Jones" are on this collection, and are much better than the originals on Wow.

The song distribution per album is as follows, with (C) indicating cover songs:

Deep Sea Skiving (4)--"Aie A Mwana" (C), "He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'", "Shy Boy", "Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" (C)

Bananarama (2)--"Cruel Summer", "Robert De Niro's Waiting"

True Confessions (2)--"Venus" (C), "Trick Of The Night"

Wow (5)--"I Heard A Rumour", "Love In The First Degree", "I Can't Help It", "I Want You Back", "Nathan Jones" (C)

(New) (2)--"Love Truth And Honesty", "Help!" (C)

That's consistent with how I feel--Wow and Deep Sea Skiving were Bananarama at their best, their self-titled album being the worst.

Of the new tracks, "Love Truth And Honesty" would've fit in their Wow album, which figures as it was produced by Stock-Aitken-Waterman. And speaking of S-A-W, notice that eight of the fifteen songs here are S-A-W productions, including their cover of the Beatles' "Help!" If one thinks about it, the original was also quick-paced, and the Rams' version is just as bouncy.

With the exception of the new songs, this features the original trio of Sarah Dallin, Keren Woodward, and Siobhan Fahey. The Rams at their best--what else can I say? Believe you me, you won't slip with this one. OK, class dismissed. September 9, 2002

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