Fun Boy Three

Fun Boy Three were an English new wave pop[1] band, active from 1981 to 1983 and formed by singers Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left The Specials.

Fun Boy Three
Terry Hall (left), Neville Staple (centre) and Lynval Golding (right)
Background information
GenresPop, new wave[1]
Years active1981–1983
LabelsChrysalis
Associated actsThe Specials, The Colourfield, Bananarama
Past membersTerry Hall
Lynval Golding
Neville Staple

History

Fun Boy Three reduced the ska sound that they and Jerry Dammers had crafted with great success with The Specials and initially took a more minimal approach with the focus on percussion and vocals.[2] For their second album they assembled a six-piece backing group including a cellist and a trombone player, allowing the record to feature more diverse and expansive arrangements, and also enabling them to play live instead of being a purely studio group as previously. The band enjoyed six UK Top 20 hits, including "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)" and "Tunnel of Love" and created two albums of which the eponymous The Fun Boy Three was the more successful. The follow-up album Waiting, produced by David Byrne, was well-received critically[3][4][5] but did not sell as well.

The trio's last UK hit was "Our Lips Are Sealed", co-written by Terry Hall and Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's, who had a U.S. hit with the song a year earlier. They then toured the United States and split afterwards.

They were credited with helping launch the career in 1982 of Bananarama, whom Hall first saw in The Face magazine. The three women provided credited chorus vocals on the hit "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)"; the Fun Boy Three later sang on the Bananarama song "Really Saying Something".

Discography
Fun Boy Three discography
Studio albums2
Live albums1
Compilation albums6
Singles9

Albums
Year Album details Chart positions Certifications
(sales thresholds)
UK
[6][7]		 AUS
[8]		 NL
[9]		 NZ
[10]		 US
1982 The Fun Boy Three 7 84 10 17 –
1983 Waiting 14 – 47 11 104
"–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Live albums
  • Live on the Test (1994) (recorded 1983)

Compilation albums
  • The Best of Fun Boy Three (1984)
  • Fun Boy Three - The Best of (1996)
  • Really Saying Something: The Best of Fun Boy Three (1997)
  • Fun Boy Three/The Colourfield The Singles (1994)

Singles
Year Title Chart positions Album
UK
[6][13]		 AUS
[8]		 IRL
[14]		 NL
[9]		 NZ
[10]		 US Club Play
1981 "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)" 20 43 28 – 46 – Fun Boy Three
1982 "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)" (Fun Boy Three with Bananarama) (UK Certification: Silver[12]) 4[6] 55 5 3 37 49
"Really Saying Something" (Bananarama with Fun Boy Three) (UK Certification: Silver[12]) 5[6] 74 9 16 – 16 Deep Sea Skiving (Bananarama album)
"The Telephone Always Rings" 17 – 29 49 – – Fun Boy Three
"Summertime" 18 – 13 – – – —
"The More I See (The Less I Believe)" 68 – – – – – Waiting
1983 "The Tunnel of Love" 10 – 14 38 – –
"Our Lips Are Sealed" 7 – 13 – – –
"The Farm Yard Connection" (Germany only) – – – – – –
"–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

References
  1. Fun Boy Three Allmusic bio
  2. Green, Jim & Robbins, Ira "Fun Boy Three", Trouser Press, retrieved 27 January 2010
  3. Review from Allmusic
  4. Fun Boy Three from Christgau's website
  5. Robert Palmer (10 August 1983). "The Pop Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  6. "Fun Boy Three - Full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  7. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 216. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  8. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St Ives: Australian Chart Book. p. 119. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  9. "charts.org.nz - Discografie Fun Boy Three". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  10. "charts.nz - Discography Fun Boy Three". Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  11. "Albums in the Year 1982". © 2007-9, Steve Hawtin et al. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  12. "British certificates: searchable database". bpi.co.uk. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  13. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 519. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  14. "The Irish Charts". IRMA 2006 - 2008. Archived from the original on 26 January 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
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