“Karma Chameleon” is a song by English band Culture Club, featured on the group’s 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The single was released in the United Kingdom in September 1983. spent three weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984, becoming the group’s biggest hit and only US number-one single among their many top 10 hits. The sleeve features work from the photographer David Levine.
In the group’s home country of the United Kingdom, it became the second Culture Club single to reach the top of the UK Singles Chart (after “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”), where it stayed for six weeks in September and October 1983, and became the UK’s biggest-selling single of the year 1983. To date, it is the 38th biggest-selling single of all time in the UK, selling 1.52 million copies. It has sold over 7 million global copies.In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation’s ninth favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.
'Karma Chameleon' is a song by English band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The single was released in the United Kingdom in September 1983. It spent three weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US number-one single among their many top 10 hits. Karma Chameleon was the #3 song in 1983 in the R&B charts. The song was performed by Culture Club. Comment below with facts and trivia about the song and we may include it in our song facts!
Background
In an interview, Culture Club frontman Boy George explained: “The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It’s about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren’t true, if you don’t act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that’s nature’s way of paying you back.” In response to claims from singer-songwriter Jimmy Jones that the song plagiarizes his hit “Handy Man”, George stated, “I might have heard it once, but it certainly wasn’t something I sat down and said, ‘Yeah, I want to copy this.'” In an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Boy George said that he wrote the song while he was on vacation in Egypt, and that the other members of Culture Club were initially hesitant to record it as they felt it sounded like a country and western song.
Mail master 1 1 1 – design stylish emails messages. The harmonica part was played by Judd Lander, who had been a member of Merseybeat group The Hideaways in the 1960s. The song was originally to be called “Cameo Chameleon”; the band was recorded in interviews in mid-1983 stating this was to be the title of their next single.
Reception
The song won Best British Single at the 1984 Brit Awards. In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation’s 9th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.
Other appearances
The group performed the song as a finale when they appeared in the 1986 episode “Cowboy George” of The A-Team.
Likely because of the lyric “I’m a man without conviction,” and the chorus, which includes the word chameleon, “Karma Chameleon” has been used by several politicians in political adverts. In 2006, Britain’s Labour Party used “Karma Chameleon” as the theme song for a series of political advertisements against Conservative Party leader David Cameron in the 2006 UK local Elections.
Music video
The New Southern Belle, the Thames riverboat used in video
The music video, directed by Peter Sinclair, was filmed at Desborough Island in Weybridge during the summer of 1983.
The video is set in Mississippi in 1870. It depicts a large multiracial group of people in late 1800s dress, including some dressed in red, gold, and green (as referenced in the lyrics). Boy George is dressed in what would be known as his signature look: colourful costume, fingerless gloves, long braids, and a black bowler hat.
A pickpocket and jewellery thief is seen wandering through the crowd, stealing from unsuspecting victims. The band and everyone board a riverboat, The Chameleon, as Boy George continues to sing. While four men are playing poker, the thief is discovered cheating by giving himself the Royal Flush, and is forced to return all his ill-gotten gains and walk the plank at the points of ladies’ parasols, falling into the river. As the video ends, day has turned to evening and the party continues on the boat as it cruises down the river.
'Victims' | ||||
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Single by Culture Club | ||||
from the album Colour by Numbers | ||||
B-side | 'Colour by Numbers, Romance Revisited' | |||
Released | 28 November 1983 (not in the US) | |||
Recorded | 1983 | |||
Genre | Soft rock | |||
Length | 4:56 | |||
Label | Virgin Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Roy Hay, Boy George, Mikey Craig, Jon Moss | |||
Producer(s) | Steve Levine | |||
Culture Club singles chronology | ||||
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'Victims' is a song by English band Culture Club, released as a single in 1983 and taken from the album Colour by Numbers. As with most early Culture Club singles, the song is about lead singer Boy George's then publicly unknown and rather turbulent relationship with drummer Jon Moss.
Although the group's previous single 'Karma Chameleon' had been a massive hit throughout the world, 'Victims' was only issued in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, and Australia. The piano ballad[1] peaked at #3 on the UK Singles Chart. In Ireland, it peaked at #2, and in Australia, at #4. The single was not released in the United States, Canada or Japan, where they released 'Miss Me Blind' instead; reportedly, Epic felt that the song was too depressing to be a single for the US market.[citation needed]
Chameleon Song Meaning
The orchestral overdub on this track was recorded in Studio 1 at CBS Recording Studios, London by the renowned recording engineer, Mike Ross-Trevor (assisted by Richard Hollywood) on Saturday 9 July 1983. The day earlier (on Friday 8 July), a new drum track was overdubbed by Jon Moss in Studio 1. However, this was later replaced by a new drum track for the final released version.
Chameleon 1983 Song
Its B-side was the then unreleased track 'Colour by Numbers', which is the title of the album but not included on it. An instrumental version was also issued on the 12', renamed 'Romance Revisited'. Both extra tracks are now available on the 2003 remastered version of Colour by Numbers.
An early demo version of the song was released re-titled 'Shirley Temple Moment' on the Culture Club box set. The track is a candid glimpse of the relationships within the band as they argue viciously amongst one another between takes, before Boy George finally walks out. It is notable also for the different lyrics which appear in the first verse:
'We love and we never tell what places our hearts in the wishing well / Strange lover I've never been, but you must be strong, you must come clean / And I keep on loving you, it's the only thing to do / There are stranger things, if I do those things, I'm a puppet king for you.'
Boy George re-recorded the song himself as a solo artist, as a folk arrangement with piano and an orchestra, in 2002. That version can be found on the Culture Club box set that was released the same year.
Charts[edit]
Chart (1983) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Singles Chart | 3 |
Australia (Kent Music Report)[2] | 4 |
Belgian Singles Chart | 11 |
German Singles Chart | 39 |
Irish Singles Chart | 2 |
Italy Singles Chart | 2 |
Netherlands Singles Chart | 17 |
New Zealand Singles Chart | 7 |
Switzerland Singles Chart | 18 |
References[edit]
- ^''80s Music Icon Boy George Led English Band Culture Club to Legend Status'.
- ^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN0-646-11917-6.
External links[edit]
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Chameleon Song Youtube
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