UK London NANA21
Released: June 1990
UK chart position: 27

After Bananarama's world tour in 1989, there was a twelve month hiatus between singles. Cruel Summer 89 was released in conjunction with the world tour in mind 1989 (issue varied according to tour dates), and after the world tour ended in June 1989 Bananarama took a well deserved holiday. During the next twelve months, they initially returned to Stock Aitken & Waterman for production on a new album - but felt that their sound had not moved on, and increasingly were being forced to accept any product that they were handed. However they did record at least three songs at this time - One In A Million/Nothing Lasts Forever was originally slated as their next single. They performed it for an Italian TV show but afterwards decided that they "hated" the song, and it was cancelled. Other songs from these sessions included Heartless and Ain't No Cure which latter appeared on their Pop Life album. However, with little satisfaction from Stock Aitken and Waterman they approached a variety of different producers to work on their new album - to no avail. By chance they ended up working with long-time friend and well respected indie producer, Youth, whom the band had known in their early days while "hanging out" with ex-Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook (Sarah had at one stage dated Youth). The result from their collaboration with Youth culminated in recording eight tracks with him that made the bulk of their Pop Life album, and Only Your Love was chosen as the first single.

Reaction to the Only Your Love single and Youth/Bananarama collaboration was good, Bananarama benefitted by receiving some positive reviews from the more "artistic" music press in England, and good a long overdue boost to their "credibility" stakes. The single however, failed to make an impressive charting stalling at an undeserved #27 when it was issued in June 1990.

Musically, Only Your Love is a mosaic of pop imagery and samples - the bass and drum line are samples from Primal Scream's Loaded and Stone Roses Fools Gold both of which were huge dance and indie successes in England; vocal samples of "woo woo" are also remarkably reminiscent of the Rolling Stones legendary Sympathy For The Devil (also covered by Bryan Ferry, Gun N Roses, Adrenalin); and finally the generic "na na na na na na" that sounds remarkably similiar to Na Na Hey Hey. The single was available as two 12" issues, 7", CD single and cassette single in England. The first 12" features the Milky Bar Mix as the standard 12", the Youth and Thrash On The Mix, and the Hardcore Instrumental (which is available in a variety of different edit lengths). The second 12" features the Monkey Drum Mooch, The tribute to Barry Mooncult and the Paris Texas Instrumental. Also of interest, is that the versions of the Youth and Thrash On The Mix and Hardcore Instrumental available on the UK CDsingle are actually edits, (which are available as fuller versions elsewhere) whereas the Japanese CDsingle issue features the full length versions of these tracks. Also, one of the best remixes of Only Your Love is the Hot Tracks DJ only remix service version, which is based on the Milky Bar Mix but includes samples of Na Na Hey Hey, I Heard A Rumour and the Beatles' All You Need Is Love.

"It was great when we came back with this song, it' really easy and enjoyable to perform. Only Your Love was one of the first songs that we recorded for the album. It's been released around Europe, and it's done much better there than in Britain. As yet it hasn't officially came out in America because we've been sorting out new management there. We're actually using George Michael's manager." (Sarah, 1991)

"[in response to being asked if they will be giving any money to the Rolling Stones for pinching the "woo woos"] It's a pretty small thing to rip off in this day and age with what's going on in the charts at the moment - all the sampling and everything. It all comes from Africa anyway . . ." (Sarah, It's Hard Not To Be Grumpy, Australian Smash Hits 14/11/90)

"Absolutely not! It's just a backing vocal, isn't it? We're not handing them money just because we went "woo woo" on a record the same as they did 20 years ago" (Keren, ibid.)

In fact, Only Your Love was never released in America, as the record company decided to go with issuing Long Train Running and Tripping On Your Love instead.

"[on being asked if they were dissapointed by the poor sales of Only Your Love] Yes, but I think the main thing is we're really proud of it. I'm glad we out that record out and didn't put out another SAW song out. I think the stuff we're doing now is absolutely fantastic. Going back in the studio with SAW was not exciting and after a certain length of time in this business you have to keep yourself excited or there's no point . . . It's difficult for people to aaccenpt that we might be hip and trendy. I'm sure there were a lot of people just itching to go out and buy Only Your Love because they liked it, but they couldn't quite make themselves do it because it was Bananarama. It really annoys me actually. I think a lot of people buy what they think they should buy as opposed to the records they really like. There are a lot of secret Bananarama listeners out there." (Keren, 1991)

Written by: Sarah Dallin, Andy Caine, Youth
Produced by: Youth
Published by: In A Bunch, EG Music, Big TV Music
Copyright owned by: London Records 1990
Source: Single, Pop Life
Chart Peak: UK #27, Australia #51, NZ#49 (1 wk)

Bananarama Versions

Only Your Love (Album Version) 4:05 (R. Goodfellow)
Only Your Love (Single Version) 3:57 (R. Goodfellow)
Only Your Love (Hardcore Instrumental) 4:52 (Youth/Thrash)
Only Your Love (Hardcore Instrumental - edit) 3:27 (Youth/Thrash)
Only Your Love (Milky Bar Mix) 8:16 (R. Goodfellow)
Only Your Love (Youth & Thrash On The Mix / Love Mix) 6:34 (Youth/Thrash)
Only Your Love (Youth & Thrash On The Mix - edit) 4:17 (Youth/Thrash)
Only Your Love (Monkey Drum Mooch) 7:16 (Terry Farley)
Only Your Love (A Tribute To Barry Mooncult) 5:42 (Terry Farley)
Only Your Love (Paris Texas Instrumental) 5:22 (Thrash)


DJ Remix Service Versions

Only Your Love (Hot Tracks) 6:59 (JR Clements)