BANANARAMA: Love in the first degree 7″. UK 1987 Check video

Description

Bananarama – Love In The First Degree
Label: London Records
Catalog#: NANA 14
Format: Vinyl, 7″, Single
Country: UK
Released: 1987
Genre: Pop
Tracklist:
A Love In The First Degree
B Mr. Sleaze

Producer – Stock, Aitken & Waterman

British pop at its best in the 80s. Bananarama was more than a girl-band – they were an icon that sets a standard for all all-girls bands that came and went after them. Both songs of this single define how great the Nanas were.

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Bananarama are an English female pop music vocal duo, originally formed as a trio in London in 1979 by friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Their success on both pop and dance charts saw them listed in the Guinness World Records for achieving the world’s highest number of chart entries by an all-female group.Between 1982 and 2009, they had 28 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart.
The group’s 10 UK Top 10 hits include “It Ain’t What You Do…” (1982), “Really Saying Something” (1982), “Shy Boy” (1982), “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” (1983), “Cruel Summer” (1983), “Robert De Niro’s Waiting…” (1984) and “Love in the First Degree” (1987). In 1986, they had a U.S. number one with another of their UK Top 10 hits, a cover of “Venus”. In total, they had 11 singles reach the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 (1983–1988), including the Top 10 hits “Cruel Summer” (1984) and “I Heard a Rumour” (1987). They are associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US.The group featured on the 1984 Band Aid single, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”. They topped the Australian ARIA albums chart in June 1988 with Wow! (1987),and earned Brit Award nominations for Best British Single for “Love in the First Degree”, and Best Music Video for their 1988 hit cover of The Supremes single “Nathan Jones”.
Fahey left the group in 1988 and formed Shakespears Sister, best known for the UK number one “Stay” (1992). She was replaced by Jacquie O’Sullivan. This line-up had UK top five hits with “I Want You Back” (1988) and a cover of The Beatles’ “Help!” (1989), recorded with comedy duo French and Saunders for the charity Comic Relief. In 1989 they embarked on their first world tour.

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“Love in the First Degree” is a song written and recorded by English girl group Bananarama. It is included on their fourth studio album Wow! and was released in 1987 as its second single except in the U.S., where it was released in 1988 as the album’s third single (following “I Can’t Help It”). The track was co-written and produced by the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) trio.

The song is an uptempo pop tune similar to many hits produced by SAW during this time period. The surreal lyrics, composed by Siobhan Fahey and built upon by SAW and Bananarama members Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward, describes a dream in which they find themselves being tried in court for love. The musical structure could be compared to that of Pachelbel’s Canon.

“Love in the First Degree” is Bananarama’s biggest-selling single in their native UK. It holds a three-way tie for their highest UK singles chart placing (number three). The single also became a top-ten success in Australia and earned a top-twenty placing in New Zealand. In the United States the song just missed the top-forty, but was a top-ten club hit. The B-side was Mr. Sleaze in which Bananarama member Sara Dallin not only sang on that track but also played bass guitar like she did on “Love in the First Degree”.

As one of their final performances with Fahey, the group performed the song at the 1988 BRIT Awards with a large entourage of male dancers dressed only in black bikini briefs. The song was nominated for best British single at the BRIT Awards, but lost to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”, also produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.
By the time “Love in the First Degree” was released in the United States, Fahey had already announced her departure from Bananarama.

The record sleeves for “Love in the First Degree” and “I Can’t Help It”, were switched with each other, for UK, and North American markets.

Music video
The music video, directed by Andy Morahan, features the group performing the song in a jail cell, dressed in prison uniforms, as several male dancers perform around them. The imagery plays off of Elvis Presley’s 1957 movie Jailhouse Rock. Siobhan was pregnant with her first child at the time of filming. Sections of the video featuring acrobatics used body doubles.
On Bananarama’s The Greatest Hits Collection video compilation, the videoclip for Love In The First Degree is intercut with the live performance of the song at the 1988 Brit Awards, which was Siobhan Fahey’s last performance with the group before her departure.

Track listings
7″ single NANA14
“Love in the First Degree” (Album Version) 3:33
“Mr. Sleaze” 4:45

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Bananarama:
Sara Dallin – Vocals and bass guitar
Siobhan Fahey – Vocals
Keren Woodward – Vocals

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Charts ….Chart (1987–1988) Peak position
Belgian Top 30 / (Flanders) 9
UK Singles Chart 3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 48
U.S. Hot Dance Club Play 10
Australia (Kent Music Report) 5
New Zealand singles 11
Switzerland singles chart 18
Spain singles chart 12
Dutch Singles chart 12

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Last night I was dreaming
I was locked in a prison cell
When I woke up I was screaming
Calling out your name (whoa)And the judge and the jury
They all put the blame on me (the blame on me)
They wanna tell from my story
They want to hear my plea. Only you can set me free
‘Cause I’m guilty (Guilty)
Guilty as a girl can be
Come on baby can’t you see
I stand accused
Of love in the first degree(Guilty) Of love in the first degree

Someday I’m believing
You will come to my rescue
Unchain my heart, you’ll keep him
Let me start a new (uuuu)The hours passed so slowly
Since they’ve thrown away the key (Away the key)
Can’t you see that I’m lonely
Won’t you help me plea. Only you can set me free
‘Cause I’m guilty (Guilty)
Guilty as a girl can be
Come on baby can’t you see
I stand accused
Of love in the first degree(Guilty) Of Love in the first degree(Guilty)
Of Love

(Guilty)
Of Love in(Guilty) of Love(Guilty) of Love in(Guilty)
Of love in the first degree. And the judge and the jury
They all put the blame on me
They wanna tell from my story
They wanna hear my plea. Only you can set me free
‘Cause I’m guilty (Guilty)
As a girl can be
Come on baby can’t you see
I stand accused
Of Love in the first degree

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Songfacts®:
In this upbeat dance-pop hit, Bananarama is on trial, and the charge is love in the first degree. The group’s previous three albums were helmed by the production/songwriting duo Jolley & Swain, but when Bananarama heard the Dead Alive chart-topper “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record),” they sought out the up-and-coming production trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman for their cover of the 1969 Shocking Blue song “Venus.” The result was an international hit for Bananarama, who invited the producers to work on their fourth album, WOW!
The girls’ transition into full-on glossy pop was too much for group member Siobhan Fahey, who preferred the edgier side of their repertoire, such as “King Of The Jungle” and “Robert De Niro’s Waiting.” Fahey, who composed the tune, was also upset over the production trio’s control over lyrical content. She told BBC News in 2017: “They had a very much production-line approach. I felt there wasn’t much room for musical experimentation with them, because they had their sound, and that was frustrating for me.”

By the time the single was released in the US, Fahey had quit the group.
Pete Waterman often calls this his favorite song from the SAW catalog, but Bananarama, who co-wrote all their original songs, took issue with Waterman’s claims on the songwriting. “We’d argue about things he’d said in the press,” group member Sara Dallin recalled. “Like ‘I was lying in the bath and I thought, ‘Love In The First Degree,’ and it’s like, you weren’t even there. (Laughs) His stories were so hysterical. I’ve always had a huge soft spot for Pete, just because he was such a massive music fan. And as much as he was never fully involved with the writing side, he’d always pop his head round the door with that one great idea to make the track amazing.”
The producers cite the Motown sound of the early ’60s as a major influence on their work, so it was a proud moment for Pete Waterman when Motown founder Berry Gordy praised the song. He recalled in a 2012 interview: “I’ll always remember when [Gordy] was on Radio 1 and said, ‘I listened to a song called ‘Love in the First Degree’ by a guy called Pete Waterman – he’s the only guy that I would have put one of his records out’ – and that’s good enough for me.'”
Sara Dallin sang lead and played bass guitar on the track.
Inspired by the Elvis Presley movie Jailhouse Rock, the music video finds the girls performing in a jail cell surrounded by male dancers.
Just before Fahey’s departure, the trio sang this at the 1988 Brit Awards, where the song was nominated for Best British Single. It lost to another SAW creation: “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.

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Cover versions
Japanese pop group BaBe covered the song.
Cantonese version of the song, called 神仙也移民, performed by Hong Kong singer Danny Chan.
Mandarin version titled “Say You Love Me Again (再对我说声爱我)” recorded by Taiwanese singer Qian Baihui (千百惠) for her 1988 album Missing My Autumn Lover (秋水伊人).