Note: when reading these results, some abbreviations are used. KTBC refers to the album Kissing to be Clever; CBN to Colour By Numbers, WUWTHOF to Waking Up with the House on Fire, and FLTH to From Luxury to Heartache. CC, of course, refers to Culture Club. Can ya handle it? :)
Question 1 asked you to list your three favorite Culture Club songs.
By a sizable distance, the winner was Time (Clock of the Heart) . Second place was Victims. This is interesting, as George himself has said that these are his two favorite Culture Club songs. Both are considered to be love songs to Jon, asking him to get over his fears about the relationship. As with many CC songs, Roy has said that he himself was the main writer of the instrumentation on these songs.
Third place was a tie between Church of the Poison Mind and Karma Chameleon.
Other songs that received more than one vote were: (in no particular order) I’ll Tumble 4 Ya, Miss Me Blind, I Just Wanna Be Loved, That’s the Way, Strange Voodoo, Do You Really Wanna Hurt Me? (the was the next highest vote getter), Love Twist, Black Money, It’s a Miracle, and Love is Love.
Nice to see a mix of old and new, including several songs that weren’t released as singles (Love Twist and Black Money for example.)
To the surprise of no one, most of people’s picks came from the group’s first two albums, which were much more successful than their last two albums. Not one song from either of the later two albums got more than one vote, though a handful of those songs did receive just one vote: Gusto Blusto, Mistake #3 and God Thank you Woman.
Question 2 asked you to list your three favorite Boy George solo songs.
The results of this question were more scattered than the CC song poll. There were tons of songs that just received one vote. Many fans seemed to have their own semi-obscure favorite.
Anyway, the winner (by a landslide) was The Crying Game. No doubt the fact that this single was the biggest hit—in the US---of George’s solo career helped it along, as well as that Culture Club has been performing it in concert on their tour.
Second place went to George’s cover of Everything I Own. This was a big hit in the UK a decade ago, and the band also performed this on tour.
Third place was another tie, this one among three different songs: Generations of Love, Sweet Toxic Love, and Bow Down Mister.
Other songs receiving more than one vote were: Same Thing In Reverse, If I Could Fly, Unfinished Business, Il Adore, To be Reborn,Sad, and Funtime. Like I said earlier, there were loads of songs that just got one vote.
Question 3 asked if there were any Boy/CC songs you do not like, and if so---which ones and why don’t you like them?
The most frequent response was “Are you kidding?”, “I love all his/their stuff!”, etc.
However, Karma Chameleon got two votes for being “too overplayed.” Miss Me Blind also received two votes, one for being “too long” and the other for being “too rocky.”
Those were the only songs to get more than one vote. Some other nominees and comments I found amusing were:
“Crime Time. Were they trying to do a broadway show?”
“Almost everything on WUWTHOF because it was a rush job.”
“I don’t care for WUWTHOF or FLTH.” (Editor’s note---ouch!)
“Murder Rap Trap: Can’t understand one word of it!”
“Sexuality---It’s just not George.”
“Man Shake—obnoxious!”
Question 4 asked you to list the four CC studio albums in the order you liked them. Not every survey respondent answered this question, as you were asked to not reply if you had not heard all four albums.
By far the most common arrangement was: CBN first, KTBC second, WUWTHOF third, and FLTH fourth. In fact, a full 55% of respondents answered exactly this way.
It was no surprise that CBN won hands down---it is generally considered CC’s masterpiece (George has said he considers it their best) and went quadruple platinum. Overall, 78% of respondents liked CBN the best. Only a handful ranked it third or fourth.
KTBC came in second and is thought of as almost epitomizing that great sound of the early 80’s music. Only 16% preferred KTBC over CBN, but all voters except for one ranked KTBC either first or second.
WUWTHOF and FLTH probably remind many long time CC fans of bad times, as WUWTHOF is seen as the beginning of the end, and FLTH was released as George was going through an awful period of his life. The album was quickly forgotten and CC broke up not long after it came out.
However, one respondent ranked WUWTHOF as his/her favorite album. Everyone else ranked it third or fourth. It got more votes for third place than fourth.
FLTH fared least well of the four albums. Although four voters did rank it second, more than half placed it dead last.
Personally, I’d rank `em: CBN, KTBC, FLTH and WUWTHOF. But I can honestly say I love all four of these albums and consider them all gems. There is not one song I consider a dud; not one I would fast forward over. And I can attest that the bulk of CC’s material stands up to repeated listenings. Thanks George, Roy, Jon and Mikey for long hours of listening pleasure.
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