Artist · chart history
Bananarama
Band London United Kingdom Formed 1979
Bananarama formed in 1979 in London, United Kingdom. Bananarama has 33 chart appearances on 21 radio countdowns from 9 stations on RockLists, spanning 1984–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Cruel Summer”, which appears on 14 lists with a best position of #81. The station that charted Bananarama most often is KROQ (Los Angeles, CA), with 13 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1984.
Bananarama started out as three friends from London, Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward, and they did pop their own way: a cheerfully offhand attitude and hooks you couldn't shake if you tried. They first turned up singing on Fun Boy Three's hit "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)" in 1982, and "Really Saying Something" and "Shy Boy" followed that same year.
Deep Sea Skiving (1983) brought "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", and the self-titled Bananarama album of 1984 carried "Cruel Summer", all sticky heat and slinking dread, and "Robert De Niro's Waiting...". They sang on the Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 1984 too. Then True Confessions (1986) delivered "Venus", a stomping, glitter-coated dance-floor blast that went all the way to No. 1 in the US, and Wow! (1987) pushed further into gleaming dance-pop with "I Heard a Rumour".
Fahey left in early 1988 to form Shakespears Sister, and Jacquie O'Sullivan stepped in until 1991. Since then Dallin and Woodward have carried on as a duo. Their knack for chart entries landed them in Guinness World Records for the most by an all-female group.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Bananarama on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cruel Summer | 14 | #81 | – | 1984 | |
| 2 | Venus | 7 | #45 | – | 1986 | |
| 3 | Wild Life | 2 | #20 | – | 1984 | |
| 4 | Robert De Niro's Waiting | 3 | #95 | – | 1984 | |
| 5 | I Heard a Rumour | 3 | #57 | – | 1987 | |
| 6 | He Was Really Saying Something | 1 | #327 | – | – | |
| 7 | Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) | 2 | #377 | – | – | |
| 8 | He was Really Sayin' Somethin' | 1 | #1741 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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