Fun Boy Three
Left to right: Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Lynval Golding
Left to right: Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Lynval Golding
Background information
OriginUnited Kingdom
Genres
Years active1981 (1981)–1983 (1983)
LabelsChrysalis
Spinoff ofThe Specials
Past members

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. They released two albums and had seven UK top 20 hits.

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 singles, starting with "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)" and including the top 10 hits "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)", "Tunnel of Love" and "Our Lips Are Sealed".[3] They created two albums of which the eponymous The Fun Boy Three was the more successful. The follow-up album Waiting, produced by Scottish-American singer David Byrne, was well-received critically.[4][5][6]

Following the trio's last UK hit "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", both reaching the top 5 in the UK.[3]

Discography

Fun Boy Three discography
Studio albums2
Live albums1
Compilation albums3
Singles9

Studio albums

List of studio albums, with selected details and chart positions
Title Details Chart positions Certifications
(sales thresholds)
UK
[7][8]		 AUS
[9]		 NL
[10]		 NZ
[11]		 US
The Fun Boy Three 7 84 10 17 —
Waiting
  • Released: February 1983
  • Label: Chrysalis
 14 — 47 11 104
"–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Live albums

List of live albums, with selected details
Title Details
Live on the Test
  • Released: 1994
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Windsong International
  • Note recorded 1983

Compilation albums

List of compilation albums, with selected details
Title Details
The Best of Fun Boy Three
  • Released: 1984
  • Format: LP, CS
  • Label: Chrysalis
Really Saying Something: The Best of Fun Boy
  • Released: 1997
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Chrysalis
The Complete Fun Boy Three
  • Released: 4 August 2023
  • Format: 5×CD + DVD
  • Label: Chrysalis Catalogue

Singles

Year Title Chart positions Certifications Album
UK
[7][14]		 AUS
[9]		 IRL
[15]		 NL
[10]		 NZ
[11]		 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) 4[7] 55 5 3 37 49
"Really Saying Something" (Bananarama with Fun Boy Three) 5[7] 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. 1 2 Fun Boy Three Allmusic bio
  2. ↑ Green, Jim & Robbins, Ira "Fun Boy Three", Trouser Press, retrieved 27 January 2010
  3. 1 2 "Fun Boy Three". Official Charts.
  4. ↑ Review from Allmusic
  5. ↑ Fun Boy Three from Christgau's website
  6. ↑ Robert Palmer (10 August 1983). "The Pop Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Fun Boy Three | Full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 216. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  9. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St Ives: Australian Chart Book. p. 119. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  10. 1 2 "charts.org.nz - Discografie Fun Boy Three". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  11. 1 2 "charts.nz - Discography Fun Boy Three". Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  12. ↑ "Albums in the Year 1982". © 2007-9, Steve Hawtin et al. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  13. 1 2 3 "British certificates: searchable database". bpi.co.uk. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  14. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 519. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  15. ↑ "The Irish Charts". IRMA 2006 - 2008. Archived from the original on 26 January 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
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