"Cruel Summer" by Bananarama - January 19th 80's Quest Song/Band of the day

Check out this video: A girl band that messes with the cops!! In London!! And New York!!! In baggy pants!! (Baggy pants…or baggies… were all the rage back then, remember?) Initially I thought Bananarama was a band I was really going to get into. I loved their first hit “Cruel Summer” but turns out I never liked any of the other songs that they released such as their cover of Shocking Blue’s song “Venus”, “I Heard a Rumor” or “Robert Deniro’s Waiting”. One of the band member’s names was Siobhan. I never heard that name before, and I thought it was one of the coolest, most unique names I’d ever heard.

 Bananarama were a girl band (and who didn’t love a good Girl Band back in the ‘80’s?!) from England made up of three friends, Siobhan Fahey, Keren Woodward, and Sara Dallin. Keren and Sara had been childhood friends, and met up with Siobhan while studying fashion journalism. They became fast friends because all 3 dressed radically and were into punk. They hung out at “in” London clubs like Taboo and the Wag Club and worked nights at The Marquee in the coat check room and such. They began jumping on stage at shows to do impromptu backing vocals for bands like The Monochrome Set, Iggy Pop, and The Jam, and were generally known around the London club and music scene.

 Around 1981 Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols invited them to live in a dingy room above the rehearsal room he and former bandmate, Steve Jones were using. The guys helped them put out a demo. At the time Malcolm McLaren (famed manager of the Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow) was interested in managing them, but Bananarama passed, signed with a small label, and eventually signed with Decca records and had a long relationship with that label.
Famed English radio DJ (known for “breaking” all kinds of new bands), John Peel played one of their songs on the radio. Terry Hall from The Specials heard it, and he invited Bananarama to perform on his other band, Fun Boy 3’s, track “It Ain’t What You Do it’s the Way That You Do It. This really got them rolling.” (Later Fun Boy 3 played on Bananarama’s song “Really Saying Something”).

 Bananarama’s first big hit, “Cruel Summer” broke in 1983. This song was even featured in the movie The Karate Kid.

 By 1988 Siobhan had married Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics, became disillusioned with Bananarama, and left to sing with the band Shakespeare’s Sister. Keren and Sara carried on with a new 3rd member and eventually became a duo – and believe it or not still record to this day.

Lyrics:

Hot summer streets
And the pavements are burning
I sit around
Trying to smile but
The air is so heavy and dry
Strange voices are saying
(What did they say)
Things I can't understand
It's too close for comfort
This heat has got
Right out of hand

It's a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer
Leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, (it's a cruel), cruel summer
Now you're gone

The city is crowded
My friends are away
And I'm on my own
It's too hot to handle
So I got to get up and go

It's a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer
Leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, (it's a cruel), cruel summer
Now you're gone

Gonna feel only it was

It's a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer
(Leaving me), leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, (it's a cruel), cruel summer
Now you're gone

It's a cruel, cruel summer
Leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, cruel summer
Now you're gone

Gonna feel only it was

It's a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer
(Leaving me) leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, (it's a cruel), cruel summer
Now you're gone

Gonna feel only it was

It's a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer
(Leaving me), leaving me here on my own
It's a cruel, (it's a cruel), cruel summer
Now