UK band Bananarama arguably achieved their greatest success with their 1987 album WOW, which was released 35 years ago this week.
The album was the fourth album in the trio’s career. It would see them collaborating with hit production team Stock, Aitken and Waterman for the entire album, and it would unleash five dancefloor filling singles.
Despite the record being at the top of the charts, just months after the album was released founding member Siobhan Fahey quit the group and headed off to form Shakespears Sister.
Leaving the remaining members of the band to draft in new member Jacquie O’Sullivan who re-recorded many of the songs.
Since releasing their debut single in 1981 girl group Bananarama had enjoyed a steady string of successful singles, including six top 10 hits in the United Kingdom.
The group comprised childhood friends Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward, alongside Siobhian Fahey who the pair met when they moved to London in the late 1970s. The trio were housemates who decided to put together a band.
While their debut single, a cover of disco hit sung in Swahili, was not successful, the girls were soon racing up the charts with hits including Shy Boy, Cruel Summer and Robert De Niro’s Waiting.
For their third album, 1986’s True Confessions they turned to production duo Stock, Aitken and Waterman to create a Hi-NRG take on Venus, a song that was originally a hit for Dutch band Shocking Blue. The SAW team had scored a massive hit with You Spin Me Right Round (Like a Record) for Dead or Alive. Their take on Venus was a massive hit.
More Than Physical, a second song that was written by the production trio was selected as the follow up single, and they also were asked to remixed A Trick of the Night, another of the album’s singles.
When it came time to record the band’s next album, they shifted from writers and producers Jolley and Swain to working solely with the Stock, Aitken and Waterman team.
The album’s lead single was I Heard a Rumour which came with a video of the band members emulating famous film stars.
It was later highlighted that the song had a strong similarity to Give Me Up by Michael Fortunati, but producer Mike Stock has denied any connection beyond them both being in the Europop genre.
The hits kept coming with Love in the First Degree, which came with a video in a prison setting. Siobhan Fahey was pregnant when the video was being shot.
The band also created a video for non-album track Mr Sleaze, which appeared on the single’s b-side. Mr Sleaze contains the same groove as Roadblock another that Stock, Aitken and Waterman put out under their own name.
I Can’t Help It was the third single from the band in the UK, but in Australia it was released as the fourth single after I Want You Back. In the USA it was released as the second single.
The release featured promotional photos taken by famous photographer Herb Ritts, while the video featured the band in a milk bath. Siobhian is only seen from the shoulders up in this clip because she was really advanced in her pregnancy.
Soon after it’s release Fahey announced she was quitting the band.
In their autobiography Really Saying Something Dallin and Woodward recall that split in the band grew as Fahey’s life took a different trajectory to the other members. She’d fallen in love with Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics, and after the couple wed in France, she’d relocated to Los Angeles, putting her on a different continent to the other band members.
Bananarama found themselves halfway through releasing the songs from the album, minus one of their members. They quickly drafted in Jacquie O’Sullivan as a new member, with the press being told she was an old friend of the girls and a natural fit.
O’Sullivan made her debut on I Want You Back, having gone into the studio to record fresh vocals. The song was another monster hit for the group.
In retrospect it’s video had some shocking choices with the band appearing in back-face as a tribute to Motown girl groups of the past. Two different versions of the video were made, but both still contain the inappropriate footage.
The song was originally called Reason For Living, featuring a completely different chorus. Years later a version of the original track was released on a special edition of the album. The band expressed their disappointment that their record company had put out the earlier version of track.
A cover of The Supreme’s Nathan Jones served as the album’s fifth and final single. The single version onca again saw Jacquie O’Sullivan recording new vocals and the instrumentation being updated from the album cut.
By the time Nathan Jones came out in late 1988 the band had already released their Greatest Hits Collection and a new single called Love, Truth and Honesty.
They stuck with SAW for the charity single Help, which saw them making fun of themselves with comedians Kathy Burke, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
When it came time to record their follow up album Pop Life, Bananarama were unsatisfied with the tracks Stock, Aitken and Waterman came up with. Only two of their songs made the final cut of the album, with the band striking up a new creative partnership with producer Youth.
In 1993 Bananarama had jettisoned O’Sullivan and Matt Aiken had quit the production team, leaving just Mike Stock and Pete Waterman. They collaborated on one more album, Please Yourself but it failed to recreate the magic of their WOW sessions.
Many fans adore their final outing together, but the girls have said it’s not one of their favourite albums. It featured the singles Movin’ On and Last Thing On My Mind. Both would later be recycled for British band Steps.
Siobhian Fahey went on to have great success with Marcella Detroit in Shakespears Sister, and the original Bananrama line-up reunited for a tour in 2017.
This year Bananarama released their 12th studio album and are celebrating 40 years of making music.
Graeme Watson
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