BANANARAMA
Bananarama are an English female pop music vocal group formed in London in 1979 by friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Their success on both pop and dance charts have earned the group a listing in The Guinness Book of World Records as the all-female group with the most chart entries in the world, a record which they still hold. (More from Wikipedia)
Everyone knows Shocking Blue’s big hit song “Venus”, a massive, worldwide Number One hit in 1970 and I believe the biggest-selling single ever by a Continental European band. In 1986, “Venus” was Number One on the charts for a second time as performed by the British pop band Bananarama.
(August 2012)
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Shakespear’s Sister, Hormonally Yours – Shakespear’s Sister (note the missing “e”) is composed of Siobhan Fahey, a former member of Bananarama, and Marcella Detroit, who was the backing vocalist for Eric Clapton in the late 1970’s. When I was living in New York, there was a channel on our local cable TV network called Video Jukebox. There was a number that you could call and order your video, for which you were charged a dollar or so. While you punched in the numbers on your telephone to order the video, those numbers would show up on the TV screen if you had that channel on, and that sure was cool. Video Jukebox showed a lot of videos not available on MTV or VH1; after awhile, it was mostly rap and hip hop videos, but there were a lot of rock numbers early on. That channel is where I frequently saw the video of their hit song “Stay”, a Top 5 hit on both sides of the Atlantic; the first half features tender singing from Marcella Detroit followed by unexpectedly menacing vocals by Siobhan Fahey. This, their second album (from 1991) includes that song and numerous other engaging performances.
(December 2015)
