Songoftheday 10/23/14 - I never wanted to be a hero, I never wanted to be a man...

Culture Club - "Move Away"
from the album From Luxury To Heartache (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's Song of the Day comes from the British pop band Culture Club, whose third album Waking Up With The House On Fire had racked up two top-40 hits with "The War Song" and "Mistake No. 3", but their momentum definitely was slowed from their first two huge album successes. Adding to their problems was lead singer Boy George's descent into major drug addiction, which hampered the recording of their fourth album From Luxury To Heartache, and ultimately broke up the band. The lead single from the project, "Move Away", was written by the band with touring keyboardist Phil Pickett (who also co-wrote their "Karma Chameleon"), and produced by lite-soul master Arif Mardin, giving a mid-80's electrofunk sheen to the album, As for the video, I think it's rather hilarious that the record company was still trying to sell George as an "androgynous straight guy"...

"Move Away" became Culture Club's tenth and so-far last top-40 pop hit in America in May of 1986. The single also crossed over to the Adult Contemporary (#11) and the R&B (#87) radio charts in Billboard magazine. It was most successful in the clubs, climbing to #4 on the dance club play list. Internationally, the song did rather well, going top ten in England, (#7), Canada (#4), Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Belgium. However that success didn't last, as George's problems got worse, culminating in the death of friend and studio musician Michael Rudetsky in his home, and George's subsequent arrest for heroin possession. After a second top-40 hit in England, "God Thank You Woman", the quartet couldn't even make it to tour, with George heading off for a solo career.

In 1998 the four original members of Culture Club reunited for a very successful tour and a new single for their hits collection, "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which scaled to #4 on the British singles charts. Getting together for another album, Damned If I Do, they scrambled up another British top-40 single with "Your Kisses Are Charity". This past year saw the band back together yet again for another tour, and a forthcoming album at the beginning of 2015...

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Here's the 12" version that hit the top-5 on the club chart in 1986...

 I had to include this mimed performance of "Move Away" from Top Of The Pops just to show Boy George completely lost in his own self..

But finally, after getting his act together, here's the band live in 2002...

Up tomorrow: a son of a rock god isn't going anywhere...