5 September 1983, London: British band Culture Club release the single “Karma Chameleon” on Virgin Records. Three weeks later - #1 UK Singles Chart, holding the top for 6 consecutive weeks. By January 1984 - #1 Billboard Hot 100 in the US (3 weeks). #1 in 16 countries worldwide. Total global sales - 10 million copies. It was the best-selling single in the UK in 1983, the 9th best-selling UK single of all time. The frontman - Boy George (George Alan O'Dowd), a 22-year-old Irish-English singer with makeup, braids, and women's clothing - one of the most androgynous faces of 80s mainstream TV. “Karma Chameleon” became the soundtrack of the 1983 Christmas season in the UK and the opening single of 1984 in the US.
Culture Club before 1983
Culture Club came together in June 1981 in London. Lineup: Boy George (vocals, born 1961, Bexley), Roy Hay (guitar/keys, born 1961, Essex), Mikey Craig (bass, born 1960, London), Jon Moss (drums, born 1957, London, ex-The Damned). The name Culture Club was deliberate, emphasising the band's ethnic diversity: Moss is Jewish, Craig is Black British, Boy George is Irish, Hay is English.
First single “White Boy” (May 1982) - flop, #120 UK. Second, “I'm Afraid of Me” (July 1982) - #117 UK. On the verge of being dropped by Virgin. The third single - “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” (September 1982) - unexpectedly climbed to #1 UK for 3 weeks. It was a reggae-influenced soul ballad with Boy George's signature vocal.
The debut album Kissing to Be Clever (October 1982) sold 4M copies worldwide. Over 1983 Culture Club had two more hits: “Time (Clock of the Heart)” - #3 UK, #2 Billboard. “Church of the Poison Mind” - #2 UK. By autumn 1983 they were one of Britain's leading pop groups, ready to release their second album Colour by Numbers.
How “Karma Chameleon” was written
“Karma Chameleon” is credited to all four members of Culture Club plus their producer Phil Pickett - by legal credits. In practice the core work was done by Boy George and Roy Hay in February 1983.
The central metaphor - a “chameleon” that changes colour - is about a person who changes views and loyalties for gain. Boy George later said he took the line “Red, gold and green” from a Bob Marley lyric (reference to the Rastafari flag) as homage to the band's reggae aesthetic. The rest is about a former lover of Boy George who kept changing him and coming back.
“It's a song about a person who lies all the time. A chameleon changes colour to match its surroundings - it's not a real colour. "Karma Chameleon" is a person without a character of their own, who becomes whatever you want them to be. I loved a person like that. It ended badly”, - Boy George in his autobiography Take It Like a Man (1995).
Tracking at Red Bus Studios
Recording ran April-May 1983 at Red Bus Studios in London's Edgware. Producer - Steve Levine (ex-engineer Brian Eno). Album Colour by Numbers budget - £280,000, of which “Karma Chameleon” took about £55,000. The single was tracked over 12 days.
- Fender Stratocaster - guitar (Roy Hay), signature chucking riff
- Yamaha CP-80 - verse electric piano
- Sequential Prophet-5 - chorus pads
- Music Man StingRay - bass (Mikey Craig)
- LinnDrum LM-2 + Jon Moss's live drums (hybrid)
- Harmonica - Judd Lander, signature chorus riff
- SSL 4000E - console
The key ingredient - the chorus harmonica. Lander - a British session harmonica player who had recorded with the Rolling Stones. His “Karma Chameleon” part became one of the most recognisable harmonica solos in 80s British pop. Lander was paid £200 for the session - one take, 15 minutes of work.
The 1870s Mississippi video
The video was directed by Peter Sinclair at Wexham Park in Buckinghamshire in June 1983. Budget: US$220,000. The concept: an 1870s Mississippi riverboat, gambling, pickpockets, women in crinolines. Boy George is the card shark aboard, in white braids, makeup, and period costume.
The video was visually shocking for 1983. MTV initially refused to rotate it - “too eccentric for daytime”. After the single exploded in the UK chart, MTV ran the video from autumn 1983 with a “PG-13” tag (not for under 13). The clip picked up three MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, including Best Group Video.
Numbers
- UK: #1 UK Singles Chart, 6 weeks (October-November 1983); 2× platinum; 1.6M copies
- US: #1 Billboard Hot 100, 3 weeks (February 1984); 3× platinum
- Canada: #1 RPM, 5 weeks
- Australia: #1, 7 weeks
- Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Austria, Sweden: #1
- Japan: #1 Oricon, 3 weeks
- Mexico: #1, 9 weeks
- Total global sales by end 1984: 10 million copies
- Album Colour by Numbers: 16 million copies worldwide
- Grammy 1984: Best New Artist (Culture Club) - the band's only win
Spotify 2024 - over 1.3 billion streams. YouTube video - 520 million views.
The 1984 plagiarism suit
In February 1984 composer Jonathan King (author of “Everyone's Gone to the Moon”, 1965) sued Culture Club for plagiarism. He argued that the “Karma Chameleon” melody was lifted from his 1964 song “Handy Man” (written by Jimmy Jones and Otis Blackwell). The case in London ran two years. In 1986 Culture Club won, but the parties reached a compromise: Culture Club paid $200,000 in “voluntary contribution” to the estates of Jones and Blackwell.
In 1990 a further suit was filed by Larry Macy, an American composer, over resemblance to his 1961 song “Hunting and Fishing”. That case was closed without payment.
Boy George and Culture Club's fate
After “Karma Chameleon” Culture Club released two more albums - Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984) and From Luxury to Heartache (1986). Both sold worse: the first - 2M copies, the second - 1M. The reason - Boy George's heroin addiction, developing from 1984.
In July 1986 the addiction became public: Boy George was arrested in London for heroin possession. The group broke up in 1987. Boy George went through rehab, released a solo album Sold (1987) - #29 UK, not on the Billboard 100.
Culture Club reunions in 1998, then more in the 2000s and 2010s. In 2008 Boy George served 15 months in a UK prison for “false imprisonment” of a sex worker. After release he returned to music and performance.
By 2024 Culture Club are active again - recorded the album Tribes (2018) and tour nostalgia tours. Boy George is 63 and remains one of the defining iconic figures of British pop culture.
Related: “West End Girls” Pet Shop Boys, “Smalltown Boy” Bronski Beat, “It's a Sin” Pet Shop Boys. “Karma Chameleon” was the moment when Boy George (openly gay, drag, eccentric) became an idol for British and American family audiences simultaneously. Over a few months in 1983-1984 he turned from a niche New Romantic-scene artist into a mainstream celebrity with Time and Newsweek covers. One track did it in six weeks at UK #1 and three weeks at US #1.