This is a 20-track anthology of hits by the British trio Bananarama, including their debut single with Fun Boy Three, "It Ain't What You Do."

Remaster adds four songs.

CD contains bonus tracks.

Theoretically, this should be a note-perfect example of commercial '80s pop music at its best. But it isn't. Half of this album is actually pretty great, though -- particularly the early Bananarama hits. The Fun Boy Three-produced "He Was Really Sayin' Something" throws that band's quirky avant-funk underneath the threesome's harmonizing; the cover of "Aie A Mwana" shows off some slightly unexpected Afrobeat chops over a brisk arrangement; while "Shy Boy" takes a more mainstream approach, but without losing its understated sass. The American hits "Robert De Niro's Waiting" and "Cruel Summer" show how the trio could balance chart aspirations with atypical singing or subject matter. When it comes to the multi-national smashes produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman, though, it's not quite a case of the emperor having no clothes as much as a case of SAW being a one-trick pony. The reworking of Shocking Blue's "Venus" was a well-deserved success, taking the off-kilter pop/rock of the original and giving it a sparkling dance undercarriage. "I Heard a Rumour" isn't bad either, with a catchy chorus and a similar synth sheen. Unfortunately, the rest of the SAW-overseen selections do both the band and producers a major disservice, all being pallid and boring revamps of those two songs. If they ever felt defensive about the critical slams they received, the fact remains that at this point in the band's career there wasn't much to shout about. A new version of the Beatles' "Help!" at least provided them with a song that was more distinct than most of the late-'80s hash they received, but it wasn't as compelling a reworking as the others. ~ Ned Raggett

There is honestly no reason for this collection to exist. Released in 1999 as the first fruit of a revised distribution deal following the shuttering of the London label, this collection is exactly the same as the 1988 compilation The Greatest Hits Collection, plus three pointless, uninteresting remixes of "Venus," "Preacher Man," and "Love in the First Degree," the last stretched out to a numbing nine and a half minutes. Everything else, from the track selection to the unimaginative sleeve art, is exactly the same as before. This isn't even the best starting point for the casual Bananarama fan, who would be much better served by 2002's The Very Best of Bananarama. Though the tracks range from guilty pleasure (the aforementioned remake of the Shocking Blue's "Venus") to sublime pop masterpiece ("Shy Boy," "Robert de Niro's Waiting," "Cruel Summer"), they're all available on much better compilations. ~ Stewart Mason

A straightforward singles compilation, Bananarama's GREATEST HITS is a handy summary for fans and an excellent introduction for newcomers. The track selection somewhat unfairly gives short shrift to 1983's DEEP SEA SKIVING and 1984's BANANARAMA, the trio's earliest-some say best-albums, in favor of later singles that were bigger US hits ("I Heard a Rumour," "I Can't Help It"). But GREATEST HITS does the service of collecting the often-superior single mixes of these later songs rather than the longer album versions.

The 15-song collection opens with Bananarama's biggest hit, 1986's "Venus," and closes with a 1988 benefit-single version of the Beatles' "Help!" The latter is the group's first track featuring Jacqui O'Sullivan, original member Siobhan Fahey's replacement. As O'Sullivan only appears on this one song, her inclusion in the album's cover photo is somewhat misleading. Over one-third of the tracks are taken from the group's then-recent album, WOW!