Fun Boy Three were a short-lived but successful English band which ran from 1981 to 1983 and was formed by singers Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left The Specials.
They dispensed with the darker, moody sound and demeanour which they and Jerry Dammers had crafted with great success in the ska revival of the late 1970s and went into a much brighter, poppier phase with this new band, though maintaining savagery and wit within the lyrics and Hall’s wholly expressionless persona. Together they set about making music which covered a variety of genres. The band enjoyed six UK Top 20 hits, including the jungle drum inspired “The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)” and the brassy, cynical anthem “Tunnel of Love” and created two albums of which the eponymous Fun Boy Three was the most successful. The trio’s last UK hit was the song “Our Lips Are Sealed” from album Waiting, co-written by Terry Hall and Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Gos, who had scored a U.S. hit with the song a year earlier. They then toured the United States and split afterwards.
They were also 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 “T’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”.
Hall went on to create the short-lived project The Colourfield, who had one hit in 1985, before forming less successful bands Vegas and Terry, Blair & Anouchka. He also embarked on a solo career and maintains respect from musicians and fans alike, with many acts citing him as an influence.
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