Bananarama

ladyfaheyfan

ladyfaheyfan

On the subject of singles, another Bananarama singles puzzler for me is also was there any officially released singles from "Exotica"?

On Wikipedia it states there was 2 PROMO only singles released, those being "If" and "Careless whisper".
Now I could be wrong but wasn't promo singles just what was sent out to DJ's etc not on sale to the public and chart eligible?
But yet i have heard others refer to those singles as "the singles" from Exotica.

Can anyone clear this up who knows for certain?
 
OnlyYourLove

OnlyYourLove

AshtrayHeart said:
It’s a weird one because Madonna’s I Don’t Search I Find got zero single service, but it got a couple of remix packages and that warranted it a single? I’m still confused if it’d appear on a single collection?
Click to expand...

I think I Don't Serach I Find is a "club single" where the goal is to get some promo through club play and nothing more. Madonna has had a few of those over the years. I've always thought a proper single is something that is sent to radio stations in hope of getting airplay, but I don't know if there is some official criteria.
 
YourLeadSinger

YourLeadSinger

On the flipside there are plenty of songs sent to radio that aren’t single-singles: Janet’s “Come On Get Up” is one example off the top of my head.

The digital age has also mucked up singles.
 
davearama

davearama

ladyfaheyfan said:
We have our answer...thank you hehe
Click to expand...

Teaser track? Taster Track? It is bit blurry though.

About Favourite ...

1. The song was released on its own before the album
2. The song had its own artwork
3. There was an official lyric video for the song
4. There was an official remix of the song with its own artwork
5. It was even played multiple times on the radio, although never playlisted

Just how is this different from any other single? Just because they say otherwise? Makes no sense.

I think of Favourite as a single.
 
Last edited:
davearama

davearama

ladyfaheyfan said:
On the subject of singles, another Bananarama singles puzzler for me is also was there any officially released singles from "Exotica"?

On Wikipedia it states there was 2 PROMO only singles released, those being "If" and "Careless whisper".
Now I could be wrong but wasn't promo singles just what was sent out to DJ's etc not on sale to the public and chart eligible?
But yet i have heard others refer to those singles as "the singles" from Exotica.

Can anyone clear this up who knows for certain?
Click to expand...

Sure. It is true that there were 2 physical promotional singles for Exotica, which were sent to DJs, etc. There were no commercial singles, so the physical singles were never sold brand new in music stores to the public. That is why people refer to Careless Whisper and If as the singles from Exotica. Hope that helps.

Careless Whisper promo: https://www.discogs.com/release/6095051-Bananarama-Careless-Whisper

If promo: https://www.discogs.com/release/5630555-Bananarama-If
 
Last edited:
bonnieetclyde

bonnieetclyde

It's a grey area these days because you aren't getting CD singles or 7'' vinyls and anything can chart based on streaming and downloads (albums tracks as well as singles). A single is not all that different from a 'taster' or 'teaser' or whatever. You could say that if it has a music video it's a single but then not all singles these days have a music video. We've also had videos for songs that aren't labelled as being singles. So it's murky waters really.

But if they themselves don't call it a single then fair enough. I suppose the old school music geek in me just always assumes the first song you hear from an upcoming project is the lead single, as it always used to be, to get people hyped for the album. As I said earlier, it's very easy for people to put a song out and not say whether it's a single or not and then see how it does and if it gets radio play and streams it can then be sold as a single and if it doesn't it's just a buzz track or taster etc.
 
ladyfaheyfan

ladyfaheyfan

Good to hear everyone's opinion on this, it truly is blurred but like others have said I guess the best thing to go by is the artist intention and word of what is an official single or just a taster track.
I have noticed lots of taster tracks that have an identical to the album artwork just with the track name in place of the album name, I guess that is just to tell the buyer it is from that particular album but this is the track you are buying/downloading.
Also I see many non official singles and album tracks that have been given the remix treatment also so again remixes is not something that makes an official single release either it seems.

So by that logic Bananarama have officially stated so far that "Masquerade " and "Forever young" are THE official single releases from this campaign.

Oh how I miss those physical release days haha.
 
WhereIsTheFeeling

WhereIsTheFeeling

Jumping in on this debate but I’m pretty easy on the topic. Singles really don’t matter to acts at all these days. Guaranteed if by miracle a “taster” or “teaser” track caught some traction it would be classed as a single. As long as the music is good I’m a happy fan! I think both Dance Music and Favourite did a good job of showing something slightly different off in terms of style for the ladies. I love both tracks…. Perhaps more than any of the “official” singles.
 
ladyfaheyfan

ladyfaheyfan

davearama said:
Sure. It is true that there were 2 physical promotional singles for Exotica, which were sent to DJs, etc. There were no commercial singles, so the physical singles were never sold brand new in music stores to the public. That is why people refer to Careless Whisper and If as the singles from Exotica. Hope that helps.

Careless Whisper promo: https://www.discogs.com/release/6095051-Bananarama-Careless-Whisper

If promo: https://www.discogs.com/release/5630555-Bananarama-If
Click to expand...
Thank you
I thought that was the case but glad to hear it from someone other than Wikipedia.
It also explains why there are never Exotica tracks on the retrospective hits collection albums like 30 years of Bananarama covered every album except Exotica.
 
Last edited:
davearama

davearama

ladyfaheyfan said:
Thank you
I thought that was the case but glad to hear it from someone other than Wikipedia.
It also explains why there are never Exotica tracks on the retrospective hits collection albums like 30 years of Bananarama covered every album except Exotica.
Click to expand...

It's been over 20 years since Exotica, so my memory is a little fuzzy. Back then, fans used to communicate through a Yahoo Group called The Bananarama Mailing List, which its name was taken from back in the 90s where there was an actual mailing list that people would email, and then a big email was sent out to the group containing the emails in which people had written in. Yes, I'm that old. Yahoo finally closed the groups a few years ago, but it was fun place to go and look at our old messages at the time.

Anyhoo, back to Exotica ... I believe the Careless Whisper promo came out in December 2000. The album came out in March 2001, and I think the promo of If came out around the same time. I can't quite remember exactly when the If promo happened. After the album was released, we heard from someone at M6 Interactions (their French label) that the latin version of Cruel Summer was being considered for a summer release. But then everything went quiet and all summer we waited for the news of the Cruel Summer release or promo, but it never happened.
 
ladyfaheyfan

ladyfaheyfan

davearama said:
It's been over 20 years since Exotica, so my memory is a little fuzzy. Back then, fans used to communicate through a Yahoo Group called The Bananarama Mailing List, which its name was taken from back in the 90s where there was an actual mailing list that people would email, and then a big email was sent out to the group containing the emails in which people had written in. Yes, I'm that old. Yahoo finally closed the groups a few years ago, but it was fun place to go and look at our old messages at the time.

Anyhoo, back to Exotica ... I believe the Careless Whisper promo came out in December 2000. The album came out in March 2001, and I think the promo of If came out around the same time. I can't quite remember exactly when the If promo happened. After the album was released, we heard from someone at M6 Interactions (their French label) that the latin version of Cruel Summer was being considered for a summer release. But then everything went quiet and all summer we waited for the news of the Cruel Summer release or promo, but it never happened.
Click to expand...
Yes it seemed like it was very much an abandoned project and that everyone had given up hope due to dissatisfaction.
A shame really as some of the tracks are decent enough songs, it is just the production that let's them down.
 
WhereIsTheFeeling

WhereIsTheFeeling

Random question but am I correct in thinking the band is just a drummer and keyboards now? No bass or guitarist? Seems a bit odd - I mean why not just use a backing track if most of the instrumentation and BVs are on that anyway?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top