Bananarama – Cruel Summer

“Cruel Summer” – Single by Bananarama from the album Bananarama.
B-side “Cairo”
Released: 27 June 1983
Songwriters: Sara DallinS, iobhan Fahey, Steve Jolley, Tony Swain, Keren Woodward.

“Cruel Summer” was an immediate success when it was released in the UK, reaching number eight on the UK Singles Chart, and the group performed the song live on the BBC’s Top of the Pops in July 1983.[6] Its international popularity soared after its inclusion in the 1984 feature film The Karate Kid; this was a year after the song’s original release (the song was released in 1984 in the US). The group did not allow the song to be included on the film’s soundtrack album, but it still reached number nine in the US, their first top-10 hit there. When Bananarama were still struggling to make money in their early years, they even performed the song at a beauty contest in Hawaii. The song’s biggest chart success was in South Africa, where it peaked at number three.

Since the original release of the song, Bananarama recorded another three versions. “Cruel Summer ’89” was released in 1989, and given a new jack swing makeover, featuring Dallin and Woodward’s vocals as a duo for the first time. It reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart in June.

Directed by Brian Simmons, the video was shot in New York City, primarily because the group had never been there and wanted to go. In the video, somehow the girls end up in a truck on the run from the law. As they’re pursued, they get away by throwing banana peels at the sheriff, because they’re Bananarama. Later, they go to a rooftop party where they dance with the officers that were pursuing them.

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Bananarama - Cruel Summer

Bananarama - Cruel Summer (Official Video)03:33

For the shoot, they used a tavern in Brooklyn as their base camp, which is where they first discovered cocaine. Siobhan Fahey recalled in the book I Want My MTV: “When we repaired to the tavern for lunch, we met a bunch of dockworkers. They were intrigued by us and started chatting, and they all had these little vials of coke. I’d never done coke – I was aware of its existence, but I didn’t know anybody who could afford it. We were exhausted and they gave us very generous bumps. That was our lunch. When you watch that video, we look really tired and miserable in the scenes we shot before lunch, and then the after-lunch shots are all euphoric and manic.”

The music video for the 1989 remix was a compilation of different shots from Bananarama’s earlier videoclips. Notably missing are clips from the original 1983 video. Fahey is only featured in a pair of frames. Bananarama were unable to record a proper video for the song, because they were in the middle of a world tour at the time of its release.
The music video for the 1989 remix was a compilation of different shots from Bananarama’s earlier videoclips. Notably missing are clips from the original 1983 video. Fahey is only featured in a pair of frames. Bananarama were unable to record a proper video for the song, because they were in the middle of a world tour at the time of its release.

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