Cruel Summer

In this song, the singer finds herself alone in a hot city, as her boyfriend has left. For her, it's a cruel summer. Like most tracks on the album, the song was written by the three group members - Sarah Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward - and their producers, Steve Jolley and Tony Swain. "We loved their work with [the group] Imaginatio," Dallin told People of Jolley and Swain. "They came up with a rough backing track, and then we wrote the melody and the lyrics over the top." "It was about our friends because we just sort of made it quite big at that point. We were on Top of the Pops, and so we're doing loads and loads of promo," she continued. "We were used to going on our little annual holiday and then we couldn't go because we had so much promo. We were just moaning because all our friends were going on holiday and we couldn't, and the city is very oppressive in the heat in London and New York or wherever. So that was the kind of inspiration for it."

This did well when it was released in the UK in 1983, but it wasn't a hit in the US until 1984, when it was used in the movie The Karate Kid. The group had four Top 10 UK hits to that point, but "Cruel Summer" was their first to make an impact in America.

From the Beach Boys' "Surfin' U.S.A." to Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime," certain songs work best in the summer. Sara Dallin of Bananarama told The Guardian July 22, 2009: "The best summer songs remind you of your youth: what you did in your holidays, how it felt when you first kissed a boy, going away without your parents." She added that this song "played on the darker side: it looked at the oppressive heat, the misery of wanting to be with someone as the summer ticked by. We've all been there!"