Customer Reviews

Bananarama - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The import version of Bananrama's Greatest Hits is slightly different than the original U.S. release. This version has a few extra tracks and doesn't include the cover of the Beatles song "Help." Banarama's Greatest Hits covers most of their popular singles from the first 10 years of their career. I would have liked to see less popular songs like "More Than Physical" make the track list but maybe one day their will be a Bananarama box set or something. But this set is awesome because it includes on of my favorite Bananarama songs "Rough Justice." The set opens with the mid 80's hit "Venus." Other popular songs on the set include "Cruel Summer," "I Heard A Rumor," and "Robert Deniro's Waiting." If you bought the U.S. version the import is worth checking out for the additional songs. The remixes are pretty cool.

After twenty some years, I still love the groovey tunes of the Bananarama girls. I could listen to songs like "Robert DeNiro's Waiting," "Cruel Summer," and my fav-o-rite Bananarama tune "Love, Truth and Honesty," a million times and never tire of them. This is a great compliation. And the extra tune with The Fun Boy Three brings back many wonderful memories on mid-80 dance parties. Long Live Bananarama!!

Yes, I am an 80's girl! This is just fun music that makes the day go by like a breeze. Robert DeNiro's Waiting has always been one of my faves of Bananarama. I Heard a Rumor makes me remember the video with the girls in all their costumes. This is just plain fun music.

Upbeat and moving! One that I would enjoy dancing to!

This Bananarama CD is better known outside the USA. And it is a pity it never got launched here. It is still very much an exciting compilation of some of the best-known Bananarama songs.

great music stands the test of time... always. there were so many groups in the 1980s, and they produced a string of hits. but do you listen to them and appreciate them adter ten or twenty, or more years... if you do, then they produced a memorable record.

bananarama, in my opinion, stood the test of time. all their hits are still cropping up in radio stations, cd players, ipods, computers, and what not.

they are fun, the songs are catchy and dancable. and though they are slowly being overtaken by the artists of today, they were unbelievably great, and atill aew...

this album represents a collection of their very first hits in the 1980s. and it is with great pleasure that i review them for the fun, lightness, dancability and staying power that they have in my collective memory.

Before you read this you need to understand that I am huge Bananarama fan. I adore these women because they used to make make more than great music - they taught us it was OK to have fun with the music. Now that said, I consider this to be the last great album that they cranked out before the group cracked up and decided to go with just Sarah and Kerin alone as a duo singing in tones that only dogs can hear. The truth hurts - you guys were better as a trio.

With Ms. Fahey (who I adore) and Miss Jacquie (who I adore as well, the trio really did great stuff and this CD captures the tail end of the great classic "BananaGlam" era.

This CD has the most noteworthy popular hits from Venus to the match up with Fun Boy Three. All of the song are beautifully engineered and the art work is great.

Evidently mid way through the planning Ms. Fahey decided to drop out and the group was lucky enough to find Ms. Jacquie Sullivan to step in and fill the hole left by Ms. Fahey's voice which anchored the trio and gave their vocalizations some traction. Sullivan did well and the change is virtually seamless in this compilation.

One disappointment is the lack of a track for their one underground dance hit Mr. Sleaze. However if you can track down a video copy of the Greatest Hits video tape you get Mr. Sleaze and the visuals from outtakes from their music videos as well. Its worth it to find it or at least view it on You Tube.

When this came out originally all those years ago it was quite a shock for those of us in the states who were their fans. We had no idea that Fahey left and had no idea who Jacquie was. Fahey's career, sad to say went nowhere after this CD came out and its a shame.

Sadly, without Fahey and her vocals, combined with her fashion sense and quirky knack for finding the right tunes, the group, now a duo, is a parody of its self.

One final note _ The group got back together some years ago for a one off recording of Waterloo for the television show Eurotrash. That recording is on an ABBA tribute album and its good - real good. Gives those of us who hope for a reunion something to wish for. Cheers!

....

The ladies of Bananarama are full of life, harmonize well together, and are very easy on the eyes. As a man whose musical tastes run the gamut of styles from 1940 to present(and whose collection of music encompasses said), I rank Bananarama the top girl group ever. All the early hits are here, and the later ones are obtainable as well.

Taste (or the lack thereof) is a personal thing of course. Music and the appreciation of it in its various forms is a gift to be treasured; this treasure of a cd has great 80's memories from the trio (featuring the original three girls and the fourth who joined the group after an original left), making it well worthwhile. Today a duo (featuring original members Sarah and Keren), Bananarama is currently working on a new release scheduled for 2004. My recommendation is buy a greatest hits CD, and if you like it, you will likely find their other cd's and music videos enjoyable as well.

Bananarama was one of the more entertaining pop bands of the 80's. Three girls who couldn't really dance, and probably couldn't sing either, but they were great fun!

Bananarama should be taken with a grain of salt. They were parodied by another band, the equally unforgettable La Na Nee Nee Noo Noo. And yes, the original and the parody actually recorded a single together, marked Comic Relief (apparently a quite serious charity).

Are you with me so far?

This greatest hits album contains all the songs we 80's freaks love (and sometimes love to hate): "Venus", "Cruel Summer", "I heard a rumour", "Love in the first degree" (smart lyrics for a pop song) and "I want you back". But the most 80-esque song is, of course, "Robert De Niro's Waiting", a pop turkey typical of the period. You know it's not *really* a good song, and yet you can't stop listening to it...

Talk about being a pop junkie!

This album also contains "Help", Bananarama's and La Na Nee Nee Noo Noo's cover of a Beatles classic. Please-please-help-me and watch the video clip on Youtube - and don't forget to read the comments. Apparently, some punks who believe The Beatles were Divine are (still!) really upset about this song. When will they realize that Siobhan, Keren and Sara were only joking? Not to mention French & Saunders.

Incidentally, Siobhan Fahey created the most irrelevant head lines of the period when she married Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. Maybe I was stupid as a teen, but I never really understood the news value of it all...

That being said, this is definitely the album for those of us who don't associate the 80's with Depeche Mode, New Order, The Smiths and other such pseudo-pretentious bands made in Britain!

Recommended.

;-)

Bananarama were one of the most successful British pop groups of the eighties, having a long string of hits with the production team of Stock, Aitken and Waterman. SAW have their critics (and I'm not keen on some of the stuff they produced) but Bananarama were better than most of the other acts they produced. So while their music is lightweight, it is enjoyable and makes great party music.

Bananarama made the top five in the UK with eight different singles while two others made the UK top ten. Two of these (Help / Beatles and Venus / Shocking blue) were covers, the others being It ain't what you do, Really saying something, Shy boy, Na na hey hey kiss him goodbye, Cruel summer, Robert De Niro's waiting, Love in the first degree and I want you back.

My favorite song here is Love in the first degree, which is completely different from the Alabama song with the same title. Similarly, I want you back (another original song) is different from the Jacksons' song, though both were in the UK charts at the same time, the Jacksons' song having been re-mixed.

This compilation contains all their top ten hits and several of their lesser hits including Nathan Jones, I heard a rumour, I can't help it and Preacher man, all of which made the UK top twenty.