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Fun Boy Three

{{Short description|English new wave pop band}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Fun Boy Three

| image = Fun Boy Three.jpg

| caption = Left to right: Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Lynval Golding

| background = group_or_band

| origin = United Kingdom

| genre = {{hlist|New wave|pop}}

| years_active = {{Start date|1981}}–{{End date|1983}}

| label = Chrysalis

| spinoff_of = The Specials

| past_members = {{ubl|Terry Hall|Lynval Golding|Neville Staple|June Miles-Kingston|Bethan Peters}}

}}

Fun Boy Three were an English new wave pop[{{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p4322/biography|pure_url=yes}} Fun Boy Three Allmusic bio] 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.Green, Jim & Robbins, Ira "[http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=fun_boy_three Fun Boy Three]", Trouser Press, retrieved 27 January 2010 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".{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/19346/fun-boy-three/ |title=Fun Boy Three |publisher=Official Charts }} They created two albums of which the eponymous debut was the more successful. The follow-up album Waiting, produced by David Byrne, was well-received critically.[{{Allmusic|class=album|id=r7880|pure_url=yes}} Review] from Allmusic[http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1944 Fun Boy Three] from Christgau's website{{Cite web| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/10/arts/the-pop-life-090349.html?&pagewanted=all | title= The Pop Life | author=Robert Palmer | work=The New York Times| date=10 August 1983 |access-date=2009-11-11 | author-link= Robert Palmer (American writer)}}

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.{{cn|date=July 2022}}

They were credited with helping launch the career in 1982 of Bananarama, whom Hall first saw in The Face magazine.{{cn|date=July 2022}} 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.

Discography

{{Infobox artist discography

| Artist = Fun Boy Three

| Image =

| Caption =

| Alt =

| Studio = 2

| Live = 1

| Compilation = 3

| EP =

| Singles = 9

| B-sides =

| Soundtrack =

}}

=Studio albums=

class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1"

|+ List of studio albums, with selected details and chart positions

!rowspan="2"| Title

!rowspan="2"| Details

!colspan="5"| Chart positions

!rowspan="2"| Certifications
(sales thresholds)

style="font-size: smaller;"

!width="30"| UK
{{cite web|title=Fun Boy Three {{!}} Full Official Chart History|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/19346/fun-boy-three/|website=Official Charts Company|access-date=19 January 2016}}{{Cite book| first= David| last= Roberts| year= 2006| title= British Hit Singles & Albums| edition= 19th| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London| isbn= 1-904994-10-5| page= 216}}

!width="30"| AUS
{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=Illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives|year=1993|pages=119|isbn=0-646-11917-6}}

!width="30"| NL
{{Cite web|url=http://dutchcharts.nl/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Fun+Boy+Three

| title=charts.org.nz - Discografie Fun Boy Three| publisher=Hung Medien| access-date=2011-09-09}}

!width="30"| NZ
{{Cite web|url=https://charts.nz/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Fun+Boy+Three

| title=charts.nz - Discography Fun Boy Three| publisher=Hung Medien| access-date=2009-11-07}}

!width="30"| US

scope="row" |The Fun Boy Three

|

| 7

| 84

| 10

| 17

| —

|align="left"|

  • BPI: Gold{{Cite web|url=http://tsort.info/music/ay1982.htm

| title=Albums in the Year 1982| publisher=© 2007-9, Steve Hawtin et al| access-date=2009-11-07 }}

scope="row" |Waiting

|

  • Released: February 1983
  • Label: Chrysalis

| 14

| —

| 47

| 11

| 104

|align="left"|

  • BPI: Silver{{cite web|title=British certificates: searchable database |url=http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx |publisher=bpi.co.uk |access-date=30 June 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924015932/http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/Search.aspx |archive-date=24 September 2009 }}
colspan="8" style="font-size: 85%"| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

=Live albums=

class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1"

|+ List of live albums, with selected details

! Title

! Details

scope="row" | Live on the Test

|

  • Released: 1994
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Windsong International
  • Note recorded 1983

=Compilation albums=

class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1"

|+ List of compilation albums, with selected details

! Title

! Details

scope="row" | The Best of Fun Boy Three

|

  • Released: 1984
  • Format: LP, CS
  • Label: Chrysalis
scope="row" | Really Saying Something: The Best of Fun Boy

|

  • Released: 1997
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Chrysalis
scope="row" | The Complete Fun Boy Three

|

  • Released: 4 August 2023
  • Format: 5×CD + DVD
  • Label: Chrysalis Catalogue

=Singles=

class="wikitable" style=text-align:center;

!rowspan="2"|Year

!rowspan="2" width="250"|Title

!colspan="6"|Chart positions

!rowspan="2"|Certifications

!rowspan="2"|Album

style="font-size: smaller;"

!width="30"| UK
{{Cite book| first= David| last= Roberts| year= 2006| title= British Hit Singles & Albums| edition= 19th| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London| isbn= 1-904994-10-5| page= 519}}

!width="30"| AUS

!width="30"| IRL
{{Cite web |url=http://www.irishcharts.ie |title=The Irish Charts |publisher=IRMA 2006 - 2008 |access-date=2009-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126040745/http://www.irishcharts.ie/ |archive-date=26 January 2010 }}

!width="30"| NL

!width="30"| NZ

!width="30"| US Club Play

1981

|align=left| "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)"

| 20

| 43

| 28

| —

| 46

| —

|

|align=left rowspan="2"| Fun Boy Three

rowspan="5"| 1982

|align=left| "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)" (Fun Boy Three with Bananarama)

| 4

| 55

| 5

| 3

| 37

| 49

|

  • BPI: Silver
align=left| "Really Saying Something" (Bananarama with Fun Boy Three)

| 5

| 74

| 9

| 16

| —

| 16

|

  • BPI: Silver

|align=left| Deep Sea Skiving (Bananarama album)

align=left| "The Telephone Always Rings"

| 17

| —

| 29

| 49

| —

| —

|

|align=left| Fun Boy Three

align=left| "Summertime"

| 18

| —

| 13

| —

| —

| —

|

|align=left| —

align=left| "The More I See (The Less I Believe)"

| 68

| —

| —

| —

| —

| —

|

|align=left rowspan="4"| Waiting

rowspan="3"| 1983

|align=left| "The Tunnel of Love"

| 10

| —

| 14

| 38

| —

| —

|

align=left| "Our Lips Are Sealed"

| 7

| —

| 13

| —

| —

| —

|

align=left| "The Farm Yard Connection" (Germany only)

| —

| —

| —

| —

| —

| —

|

colspan="10" style="font-size: 85%"| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{discogs artist|Fun Boy Three}}
  • {{imdb name|3186385}}

{{Commons category|Fun Boy Three}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:English new wave musical groups

Category:English pop music groups

Category:English musical trios

Category:Musical groups from Coventry

Category:Chrysalis Records artists

Category:British political music groups

Category:Musical groups established in 1981

Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1983

Category:1981 establishments in England

Category:1983 disestablishments in England