Fun Boy Three

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English new wave pop band

title: "Fun Boy Three" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["english-new-wave-musical-groups", "english-pop-music-groups", "english-musical-trios", "musical-groups-from-coventry", "chrysalis-records-artists", "british-political-music-groups", "musical-groups-established-in-1981", "musical-groups-disestablished-in-1983", "1981-establishments-in-england", "1983-disestablishments-in-england"] description: "English new wave pop band" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_Boy_Three" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English new wave pop band ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

Field	Value
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
years_active	–
label	Chrysalis
spinoff_of	The Specials
past_members
::

Fun Boy Three were an English new wave pop 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. 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". 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.

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.

They were 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 "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

Studio albums

::data[format=table title="List of studio albums, with selected details and chart positions"] | Title | Details | Chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | UK | AUS | NL {{Cite web|url=http://dutchcharts.nl/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Fun+Boy+Three | NZ {{Cite web|url=https://charts.nz/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Fun+Boy+Three | US | The Fun Boy Three | Waiting | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | publisher=Hung Medien| access-date=2011-09-09}} | publisher=Hung Medien| access-date=2009-11-07}} | | | | | | | | | | | | 7 | 84 | 10 | 17 | — | | publisher=© 2007-9, Steve Hawtin et al| access-date=2009-11-07 }} | | | | | | 14 | — | 47 | 11 | 104 | | | | | | | "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | | | | | | | | | | | ::

Live albums

::data[format=table title="List of live albums, with selected details"]

Title	Details	Live on the Test

::

Compilation albums

::data[format=table title="List of compilation albums, with selected details"]

Title	Details	The Best of Fun Boy Three	Really Saying Something: The Best of Fun Boy	The Complete Fun Boy Three



::

Singles

::data[format=table] | Year | Title | Chart positions | Certifications | Album | UK | AUS | IRL | NL | NZ | US Club Play | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1981 | "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)" | 20 | 43 | 28 | — | 46 | — | | Fun Boy Three | | | 1982 | "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 | | | | | "Really Saying Something" (Bananarama with Fun Boy Three) | 5 | 74 | 9 | 16 | — | 16 | | Deep Sea Skiving (Bananarama album) | | | | "The Telephone Always Rings" | 17 | — | 29 | 49 | — | — | | Fun Boy Three | | | | "Summertime" | 18 | — | 13 | — | — | — | | — | | | | "The More I See (The Less I Believe)" | 68 | — | — | — | — | — | | Waiting | | | | 1983 | "The Tunnel of Love" | 10 | — | 14 | 38 | — | — | | | | | "Our Lips Are Sealed" | 7 | — | 13 | — | — | — | | | | | | "The Farm Yard Connection" (Germany only) | — | — | — | — | — | — | | | | | | "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | | | | | | | | | | | ::

References

[{{Allmusic
Green, Jim & Robbins, Ira "[http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=fun_boy_three Fun Boy Three]", ''[[Trouser Press]]'', retrieved 27 January 2010
"Fun Boy Three". Official Charts.
[{{Allmusic
[http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1944 Fun Boy Three] from Christgau's website
Robert Palmer. (10 August 1983). "The Pop Life". [[The New York Times]].
Unterberger, Richie. "Fun Boy Three Biography". AllMusic.
Unterberger, Richie. "Fun Boy Three Biography". AllMusic.
"Fun Boy Three {{!}} Full Official Chart History".
Roberts, David. (2006). "British Hit Singles & Albums". Guinness World Records Limited.
Kent, David. (1993). "Australian Chart Book 1970–1992". Australian Chart Book.
"British certificates: searchable database". bpi.co.uk.
Roberts, David. (2006). "British Hit Singles & Albums". Guinness World Records Limited.
"The Irish Charts". IRMA 2006 - 2008.

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