Songoftheday 11/16/13 - People feel the world with narrow confidence, like a child at birth, a man with no defense...

Culture Club - "The War Song"
from the album Waking Up With The House On Fire (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak; #17 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day is by the British pop/new wave band Culture Club, who were just coming off of a successful tour behind their most popular record ever, Colour By Numbers. That album had spun off four big hits with the #1 "Karma Chameleon", along with "Church Of The Poison Mind", "Miss Me Blind", and "It's A Miracle". Instead of taking a needed break, the group were forced back in the studio for a hasty follow-up, and from those sessions Waking Up With The House On Fire came to be. Released at the end of 1984, the set was preceded by the first single, "The War Song", a sing-song kind of ditty written by the group and produced by Steve Levine in which I guess intentions were nobler than the finished product...

While "The War Song" ended up being a rather big success internationally, reaching the top ten in their native England and most of Europe, the single stopped in the top-20 on the pop chart and spent less than two months in the top 40 in America. Boy George has since derided the song (as pretty much expected), and it's become a curious footnote in their history. (It's a shame too, that follow-up single "Mistake No 3" didn't get as much attention as it would have without this stinkbomb).

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


And here's the extended remix video for the dance version of the song...

Next up, the band giving it a go on Top of the Pops..

...and finally, a rare concert performance of the song by an obvious tripped out to oblivion Boy George and the Culture Club in 1985 in Japan..

Up tomorrow:   A Rock(y) band is unable to restrain themselves.