Love in the First Degree

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"Love in the First Degree"

Single by Bananarama
from the album Wow!
B-side(s)	Mr. Sleaze (non-lp track)
Released	October 1987
Format	7" single, 12" single
Recorded	1987
Genre	Pop, Dance
Label	London Records
Writer(s)	Matt Aitken, Sarah Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, Mike Stock, Pete Waterman, Keren Woodward
Producer(s)	Stock Aitken Waterman
Chart positions
#3 (UK) #48 (U.S.)
Bananarama singles chronology
"I Heard a Rumour" (1987)	"Love in the First Degree" (1987)	"I Can't Help It" (1987)

"Love in the First Degree" is a song written and recorded by English girl group Bananarama. It is included on their fourth studio album Wow! and was released as its second single except in the U.S., where it was the album's third single (following "I Can't Help It"). The track was co-written and produced by the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) trio.

The song is an uptempo pop tune similar to many hits produced by SAW during this time period. The surreal lyrics, composed by Siobhan Fahey and built upon by SAW and Bananarama members Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward, describes a dream in which they find themselves being tried in court for love. Some of the musical structure mimics Pachelbel's Canon.

The music video featured Bananarama (including a very pregnant Fahey) performing the song in a jail cell, dressed in prison uniforms, as several male dancers perform around them. The imagery plays off of Elvis Presley's 1957 movie Jailhouse Rock. As one of their final performances with Fahey, the group performed the song at the Brit Awards with a large entourage of male dancers dressed only in black bikini briefs.

"Love in the First Degree" is Bananarama's biggest-selling single in their native UK. It holds a three-way tie for their highest UK singles chart placing (number three). The single also became a top-ten success in Australia and earned a top-twenty placing in New Zealand. In the United States the song just missed the top-forty, but was a top-ten club hit.

By the time "Love in the First Degree" was released in the United States, Fahey had already announced her departure from Bananarama.

[edit] Charts

Chart (1987)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart	3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	48
U.S. Hot Dance Club Play	10
Australia ARIA singles	5
New Zealand singles	11
Switzerland singles chart	18
Spain singles chart	12

Bananarama
Sara Dallin \| Keren Woodward Siobhan Fahey \| Jacquie O'Sullivan
Discography
Studio albums: Deep Sea Skiving \| Bananarama \| True Confessions \| Wow! \| Pop Life \| Please Yourself \| Ultra Violet / I Found Love \| Exotica \| Drama Compilations: Greatest Hits Collection \| Greatest Remixes Collection \| Bunch of Hits \| Master Series \| The Essentials \| The Very Best of Bananarama \| Venus and Other Hits \| Really Saying Something: The Platinum Collection \| The Twelve Inches of Bananarama Singles: Aie a Mwana \| T'ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It) \| Really Saying Something \| Shy Boy \| Cheers Then \| He's Got Tact \| Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye \| Cruel Summer \| Robert DeNiro's Waiting \| Rough Justice \| King of the Jungle \| Hot Line to Heaven \| The Wild Life \| Do Not Disturb \| Venus \| More Than Physical \| A Trick of the Night \| Set on You \| I Heard a Rumour \| Love in the First Degree \| I Can't Help It \| I Want You Back \| The Bananarama Mega-Mix \| Love, Truth and Honesty \| Nathan Jones \| Help! \| Cruel Summer '89 \| Megarama '89 \| Only Your Love \| Preacher Man \| Long Train Running \| Tripping on Your Love \| Movin' On \| Last Thing on My Mind \| More, More, More \| I Found Love \| Every Shade of Blue \| Take Me to Your Heart \| Careless Whisper \| If \| Really Saying Something (Solasso Remix) \| Move in My Direction \| Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)
Related articles
Jolley & Swain \| Stock Aitken Waterman