Bananarama turned a miserable summer in London into one of their biggest hits. “Cruel Summer” was inspired by a scorching heat wave in 1983 before the song found an even bigger audience through The Karate Kid the following year.
Bananarama formed in London in 1980 with Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. The trio quickly became a fixture on the British pop charts, scoring five Top 10 singles between 1982 and 1983.
“Cruel Summer,” released in June 1983, was the first of those hits that Bananarama had a hand in writing. Producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain created the backing track, combining steel drums with gritty guitar sounds, while Dallin, Fahey and Woodward wrote the lyrics.
The idea came from what was happening around them. London was experiencing a rare heat wave at the time, and the women were frustrated that they were stuck in the city working while friends were enjoying themselves on vacation. They channeled those feelings into the song.
“Cruel Summer” quickly caught on in the U.K., reaching No. 8 on the U.K. Singles Chart and earning the group a performance on Top of the Pops in July 1983.
The song’s biggest breakthrough came a year later when it was featured in the 1984 movie The Karate Kid. “Cruel Summer” soundtracks some of Daniel LaRusso’s tougher moments. After the Cobra Kai beat him up at the beach, he heads to his new school, where he gets to know Ali, runs into them again and gets kicked out of soccer tryouts.
The movie helped Bananarama gain a much bigger following in the U.S. The song eventually climbed to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, giving the group its first U.S. Top 10 hit.
Interestingly, Bananarama did not allow “Cruel Summer” to appear on The Karate Kid soundtrack album, though its inclusion in the film still gave the song a major boost.
Woodward later recalled the “massive, welcome shock” of discovering that “Cruel Summer” had made the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10. “Knowing that we’d cracked the top 10 in the Billboard charts was definitely a moment,” she said.
The song’s title has since taken on another pop-culture connection thanks to Taylor Swift’s 2019 hit of the same name. Dallin admitted she hadn’t heard Swift’s version when asked about it. “I haven’t heard it, I’m afraid,” she said.
Woodward joked, “I would have preferred her recording mine, because then I could have made some of her money.”
Related: 1969 Rock Song, Written by the ‘King of Folk,’ Was Reimagined by Cher Before It Became a Hit
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