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Cruel Summer (WORD)
Cruel Summer (PDF)
YOU CAN PLAY ALONG WITH THE RECORDING IN GCEA TUNING IF YOU PUT YOUR CAPO ON THE 2nd FRET, BUT I HAVE REMOVED INSTRUMENTALS AND THE MULTIPLE CHORUS REPETITION AT THE END!
Thanks to Melodie Gabriel for the suggestion!
"Cruel Summer" was released as the first single from their self-titled second album. 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 U.S.). The group did not allow the song to be included on the film's soundtrack album, but it still reached No.9 in the U.S., their first top ten 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.
Bananarama singer Sara Dallin said the song "played on the darker side (of summer songs): it looked at the oppressive heat, the misery of wanting to be with someone as the summer ticked by. We've all been there!" It was ranked number 44 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s. Billboard named the song #13 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.