Bananarama “Deep Sea Skiving” 1983. Polygram Records. Today July 20th is Paul Cook’s birthday (b. 1956), best known as the drummer for the Sex Pistols. What does this have to do with Bananarama? He helped discover the new wave girl group, helping to record their debut single, “Aie a Mwana” and produced  their debut LP “Deep Sea Skiving” which reached #7 on the UK charts. That single does not appear on the US release of the album (which this copy is).

It’s classic girl-group music, updated to reflect the sound of the 80′s, bop-bop-shoobie-do-wah’s with bright beats and keyboards. Bananarama cover the  Marvelettes’ on “He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’” as well as Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” in the video band members rock the fashion trend of patterned shirts with suspenders for women (which I heartily embraced at the time and luckily have documented with my 9th grade class photo).