Boy George (born
George Alan O'Dowd; 14 June 1961) is an English
singer-songwriter who was part of the
English New Romantic movement which
emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give
androgyny an international stage with the success
of
Culture Club during the 1980s. His
music is often classified as
blue-eyed
soul, which is influenced by
rhythm
and blues and
reggae. His 1990s and
2000s-era solo music has
glam influences
such as
David Bowie and
Iggy Pop. He also founded and was lead singer of
Jesus Loves You during the
period 1989–1992. Being involved in many activities (among them
songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and
photography), he has released fewer music recordings in the last
decade.
On 11 May
2009, Boy George was released from prison at HMP Edmunds
Hill
in Newmarket, Suffolk, four months into a
fifteen-month sentence for the assault and
false imprisonment of a male escort in his East London flat. He
was
tagged and placed on a curfew for
the balance of the sentence.
Career
Early life and career
Boy George
was born George Alan O'Dowd at Barnhurst Hospital in Bexley, London
on 14 June 1961, to Gerald and Dinah O'Dowd (née Glynn), who were
originally from Thurles
, County
Tipperary
in
Ireland. He is one of six children. His siblings are
Richard, Kevin, David, Gerald, and Siobhan.
He was a follower of the
New Romantic
movement which was popular in Britain in the early 1980s. O'Dowd
and his friend
Marilyn were
regulars at
The Blitz, a trendy London nightclub run by
Steve Strange of the group
Visage. O'Dowd and Marilyn also worked at the
nightclub as cloakroom attendants.
Culture Club
Boy George's androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of
music executive
Malcolm McLaren
(previously the inspiration behind the
Sex
Pistols), who arranged for O'Dowd to perform with the group
Bow Wow Wow, featuring
Annabella Lwin. Boy George's association with
Bow Wow Wow ended soon afterwards, and he started his own group
with bassist
Mikey Craig. The group was
to be called 'In Praise of Lemmings', but the name was later
abandoned.
Jon Moss (who had been the
drummer with
The Damned,
Adam and the Ants and
London) then joined the group. The final
member to join the band was
Roy Hay. The
group abandoned another name,
Sex Gang
Children, and settled on the name
Culture Club, referring to the
ethnic background of the members; a
transvestite Irish singer (George), a Jamaican-Briton (Craig), the
Jewish drummer (Moss), and an Anglo-Saxon Englishman (Hay).
The band signed with
Virgin Records
in the UK, and with
Epic Records in the
US and released its debut album
Kissing to Be Clever
(UK#5, US#14)in 1982. The single "
Do You Really Want to Hurt
Me?", reached #1 in a dozen countries around the world, and #2
in the United States. This was followed by the Top 10 hit "Time
(Clock of the Heart)" in the US and UK, and I"ll Tumble 4 Ya" which
reached US #9. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the
first group since
the Beatles to have
three Top 10 hits in the US from a debut album.
Their next album,
Colour By
Numbers was an enormous success, topping the UK charts and
hit #2 in the US. The single "Church of the Poison Mind" (featuring
Helen Terry) became a Top 10 hit, and
"
Karma Chameleon" became a #1 single
in sixteen countries, including the US, where it stayed at #1 for
three weeks. It was the best-selling single of the year in the UK,
spending six weeks at
#1. "Miss Me
Blind" and "It's a Miracle" were Top 5 and Top 20 hits
respectively, and "Victims" was another UK hit.
George co-wrote the group's contributions to the movie soundtrack
Electric
Dreams, the songs "The Dream" and "Love is Love", were
written solely by George and Roy Hay. Moreover, the
P. P. Arnold song "Electric Dreams" was credited only
to George and Phil Pickett. The band's third album
Waking Up with the House on
Fire (UK#2, US#26) featured the hit single "The War Song",
but sales of the album were not as strong as the first two. George
also had a lead vocal role on the
Band
Aid international hit single "
Do They Know It's Christmas".
Proceeds from the single were donated to feed famine victims in
Africa. In 1986, George guest-starred on an
episode of the television action-drama
The A-Team, in which he played himself. The
episode was entitled "Cowboy George".
George had been occasionally using drugs, but by 1985 he had
developed a heroin addiction. The group's next album
From
Luxury To Heartache (UK#10, US#32) featured the hit single
"Move Away", but once again did not match their earlier success.
George was arrested by the British police for possession of
cannabis.
Keyboardist Michael Rudetski, who co-wrote
and played on the song "Sexuality" on Culture Club's From
Luxury to Heartache album, was found dead of a heroin overdose
in George's home in London
. This
followed the death of friend Mark Vaultier, who overdosed on
methadone and
Valium
at a party Boy George was to attend. George had been arrested
en-route to the party on suspicion of carrying drugs. Culture Club
disbanded several months after the release of their fourth
album.
Solo career: 1980s
His heroin addiction still a problem and a subsequent dependence on
prescription narcotics emerging, George started recording his first
solo album. In 1987,
Sold was
released and George enjoyed several hit singles including
"Everything I Own" (UK #1), "Keep Me In Mind" (UK #29), "To be
Reborn" (UK #13) as well as the title song (UK #24). Despite UK
success, George never managed to duplicate his success in the
United States; he was not able to work in America because of the
previous year's drug charges. He did have a Top 40 hit with the
single "Live My Life" (#40 US) from the
Hiding Out
soundtrack. His second US album
High
Hat was composed of various songs from two of his solo
British albums released after
Sold. The first single from
"High Hat" entitled "Don't Take My Mind On A Trip", produced by
Teddy Riley, became a
Top 5 R&B hit. His following release was a
protest song against the governing UK
Conservative Party's legal
restrictions on anyone working for a local authority "promoting"
homosexuality, 'No
Clause 28 (Emilio Pasquez Space Face Full Remix)'
was an underground
acid house hit.
In 1989, George formed his own label,
More
Protein and recorded under the name
Jesus Loves You, (writing under the
pseudonym Angela Dust). He released two other underground club
songs "After The Love" and "Generations Of Love", and "Bow Down
Mister". With "Bow Down Mister", he returned to the UK top 30 in
1991. Inspired by his involvement in the
Hare Krishna movement (
ISKCON), George had written the song during a trip to
India. A third single taken from it, "One On One" became popular in
its single version, remixed by
Massive
Attack).
Solo career: 1990s
From March 1990 to April 1991, George presented a weekly chat and
music show on the
Power
Station satellite channel called
Blue Radio. In 1992,
George had a hit with the song "
The Crying Game" (produced by the
Pet Shop Boys), which was featured in
the movie of the same name, and reached the top-twenty of the US
Hot 100. Although he had had several solo hits in the UK, this
would be his first and only big US hit since the Culture Club song
"Move Away" reached the Top 20 in America in 1986.
George made many recordings between 1990 and 1994, but none were
issued. A pop and
world music-oriented
album was scheduled for release by
Jesus Loves You in 1992, named
"Popularity Breeds Contempt", but never came out. Only three tracks
with their respective remixed versions survived, ending up on the
"Sweet Toxic Love" EP, released in the last year of the 1990 year
(which only reached #65 in the UK Chart). The album (the tentative
title of which, "Popularity Breeds Contempt", also survived as
opening line spoken at the beginning of the 1993 collection called
At Worst: The Best of Boy George and Culture Club) was
shelved, as it were, in favour of the recent growing interest in
rock for George.
He released a rock-driven
Cheapness and Beauty in 1995, but
the album was not successful, although "Same Thing in Reverse" did
become a minor US hit. A follow-up to
Cheapness And
Beauty, tentatively named "Too Spooky" was recorded in spring
1996, but it was shelved. Some of the tracks from those sessions
appeared later on
The Unrecoupable One Man Bandit Volume
One, which was at first sold on the internet only and then
distributed by several minor labels. Another project from the time
was a new group that would include Boy George and two long-time
musicians, John Themis and Richie Stevens. Initially named
"Shallow", it was later re-named "Dubversive". The project took
place in 1997 and was to include trip-hop, dub and reggae. The
project was shelved, this time due to a lack of interest by record
companies because of the group's lack of commercial appeal. Some
songs from those sessions surfaced later on the 2002 Culture Club
Box set and some others appeared on eBay in 2004.
On some other labels, several dance-oriented tracks were released
in various countries. For example, "Love is Leaving" went top 3 in
Italy and "When Will You Learn" reached the top positions in the
Switzerland charts. "When Will You Learn" was also nominated for
the Best Dance Recording, at the Grammy Awards. In 1999, Boy George
collaborated on songs with dance-oriented acts. For example, "Why
Go," a slow-paced track with
Faithless,
from their Sunday 8 PM LP, was later released in a remixed form in
some European countries and Australia. A track was done with
Groove Armada, named "Innocence Is
Lost", but was only released on a promo 12" in 1999.
Solo career: 2000s
Despite his lack of solo success, Boy George remained a figure in
the public eye. Although he never reached the same level of success
as in the 1980s, he has enjoyed a second career as a notable music
DJ. He started DJing in the early 1990s and came to the attention
of legendary rave/house promoters
Fantazia
who asked him to mix 1 of the discs on the 2 volume in their new
compilation series
Fantazia The House
Collection 2. This compilation was a success in the UK, going gold.
The album was also sold to Sony for European-wide release.
London
nightclub Ministry of
Sound
hired him to compile one of their first CDs, and it
promptly sold 100,000 copies. He then completed some
compilations for them, five of them being the Annual I to V. In
2002/2003 he starred in the London musical
Taboo, based on his life (George didn't
play himself, opting instead to take on the persona of
Australian-born performance artist
Leigh
Bowery). Boy George was nominated for a Tony Awards for the
"Best Musical Score" and
Taboo was a great success in
London's West End, though a heavily altered
Rosie O'Donnell-produced run in New York was
short-lived (100 performances only, against the two-year run in
England).
In 2002, Boy George released
U Can Never B2 Straight, an
"unplugged" collection of rare and lesser known acoustic works. It
contained unreleased tracks from previous years as well as some
ballads from
Cheapness And Beauty and the Culture Club
album
Don't Mind if I
Do. It received the best reviews of Boy George's solo
career, many of them highlighting his strong song writing
abilities. The record was only released in the UK and Japan, and
received almost no promotion from Virgin Records, only rising to
#147 on the UK album charts.
From 2002 to 2004, under the pseudonym "the Twin", Boy George
experimented in electronica, releasing limited edition 7" singles
and promo records. Performed in small venues such as the Nag Nag
Club, the material was considered innovative, but not commercially
marketable. This period, however, was a very creative and
liberating one for George; for "the Twin," could sing whatever he
wanted. The limited releases included four 500 to 520 copies 7",
one limited 12" (for Sanitized) and a promo CD, 1000 copies
13-track album
Yum Yum. Two years later, it was released
via digital outlets like
iTunes. An album
recorded in the Spring of 2003 was also shelved. A collaboration
with electronic combo T-Total, the album was a collection of covers
of songs by
Jefferson Airplane,
David Bowie,
John
Lennon,
Dusty Springfield,
T.Rex, and the
Eurythmics among others. It is suggested that Boy
George's numerous abandoned projects are due to his broad interest
and need to explore other creative mediums such as photography,
writing, and fashion.
During 2003, he presented a weekly show on London radio station
LBC 97.3 for six months. He wrote the
foreword for a
feng shui book called
Practical Feng Shui by Simon G. Brown (published in 1998).
He also appeared as a guest on the British comedy-talk show
The Kumars at No.
42. In March 2005 he
was the guest host for an episode of
The Friday Night Project, for
Channel 4 television.
On his "More Protein" website, George did announce another
unreleased album, named
Straight, for mid-2005. It was to
include tracks such as "Panic" and "Talking Love". Fortunately,
four tracks were released as a sampler with the book of the same
name in 2005. A reggaeton oriented EP was also planned for August
2006 but was never released. Some recent tracks were shared by
George himself in late 2006 and early 2007 on his
YouTube account, his three
myspace pages and sometimes on his official site.In
January 2007, Boy George released "Time Machine" on Plan A Records.
"Time Machine" was co-written by double
Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter
Amanda Ghost who also co-wrote
"
You're Beautiful" with
James Blunt.
On 20 October 2006, it was announced that he will write some tracks
for
Kylie Minogue (
News.com.au story) with Amanda Ghost. The songs
eventually were not included on her 2007 album. It was not the
first time that George wrote songs to other artists; in the past,
he shared compositions with
the Beach
Boys,
Caron Wheeler,
Charlotte Church,
Mica Paris and many others. He also wrote many of
the tracks for the artists on his own dance oriented music label,
More Protein, such as
Eve Gallagher,
Zee Asha, Lippy Lou, and E-Zee Possee.
Boy George has run his own fashion line for some years, namely
"B-Rude". B-Rude has shown at fashion shows in London, New-York and
Moscow. He is working right now on a forthcoming solo LP, which
apparently will be including some ragga, reggae, pop and acoustic
songs. On 24 December 2006, George appeared on a one-off BBC TV
programme
Duet Impossible where he performed with himself
from the 1980s and joked about his street cleaning.
Later in 2007, two electronica/dance collaborations were released
in limited editions. In the spring, the track "You're Not The One"
was remixed from an old demo and released with the dance combo
"Loverush UK" reaching the top 20 in the UK dance chart. It was a
digital-only release, available in many digital retailers like
iTunes. Also on iTunes, a new collaboration with trip-hop/electro
band Dark Globe, called "Atoms", was released on 19 November. The
single contains eight versions, from the slow original to electro
remixes by Ariya and Henrik Schwarz. Also in late 2007, an EP
titled "Disco Abomination" appeared on the internet, available for
download on several underground outlets. It included new remixes of
tracks like "Turn 2 Dust", "Love Your Brother", and covers of
"Don't Wanna See Myself" and "Go Your Own Way". Most of the
versions are remixes done by German producer Kinky Roland.
On 25 February 2007, George was special guest DJ at LGBT nightspot,
The Court Hotel in Perth, Western Australia. On 4 March 2007,
George performed as a DJ at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney for the
Mardi Gras Festival.
On 11 May 2007, George
performed as a DJ at the launch party for the Palazzo Versace in Dubai
, UAE
.
George cancelled his planned 2007 October tour via an announcement
on his official website. In 2007: George toured as a DJ, visiting
Florence, Stuttgart, Rotterdam, Toulouse, Auckland, Brisbane,
Melbourne, Syndey, Dubai, Skopje, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Toronto,
Cagliari, Blackpool, Coventry, Munich, Naples, Mantova, Lyon,
Follonica, Paris, Kristiansand, Noli, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo,
Amsterdam, Beirut, Budapest, Skanderborg, Baia, London, Mykonos,
Geneva, Lausanne, Stockholm, Manchester, Brussels, Bologna,
Hongkong, Letterkenny, Aix-en-Provence, Reims, Moscow and
Genova.
George has played a special residency at the Shaw Theatre in London
(in which all shows were sold out) from 23 January 2008, followed
by a full UK tour. In April 2008,
The Biography Channel featured a
documentary on the life of Boy George. The North American tour
which was planned for July/August 2008 had to be cancelled because
he had been denied a United States visa due to a London court case
scheduled for November 2008. On 2 July, 6 concert dates in South
America were announced. Boy George participated in RETROFEST held
in Scotland in August 2008, and a 30-date UK tour took place in in
October/November 2008.
Reunions
In July 1998, a reunited
Culture Club
performed three dates in Monte Carlo and then joined
the Human League and
Howard Jones in a "Big Rewind" tour
of the US. The following month, the band appeared on
The Late
Show with David Letterman and made an appearance in Britain,
their first in 14 years. Later that year, the band had a Top 5 hit
in the UK with "I Just Wanna Be Loved" and later a top 30 hit with
"Your Kisses are Charity". In 2006, the band decided to again
reunite and tour; however, George declined to join them for this
tour. As a result, two members of Culture Club replaced George with
vocalist Sam Butcher. George has expressed his displeasure at the
turn of events. Finally, after one showcase and one live show, that
project was shelved.
Personal life
George struggled against his severe
heroin
addiction for many years. He attempted to perform concerts under
its influence. Addictions to other drugs followed. Motivated by a
desire to save George's life, his younger brother David made an
appearance on UK national television and blew the whistle on
George's drug habit. Michael Rudetsky, a close friend of George's
and the co-writer of the
From Luxury to Heartache
album, was found dead of a heroin overdose in George's home in
August 1986.
In 1986, Boy George was arrested for
heroin
possession as part of 'Operation Culture'.
In 1995,
Kirk Brandon sued for libel
claiming that Boy George mentioned a non-existent love affair
between them in his autobiography,
Take It Like a Man.
George won the case and Brandon was ordered to pay £200,000 to
Virgin Records, EMI Virgin Music and
the book publisher in costs. Brandon declared himself bankrupt,
which resulted in Boy George paying over £60,000 in legal fees
(
Boy George with Paul Gorman (2005), Straight, London, Arrow
Book).
On 7 October 2005, Boy George was arrested in Manhattan on
suspicion of
cocaine possession and falsely
reporting a burglary. George denied that the drug was his. In court
on 1 February 2006, the cocaine possession charge was dropped and
George plead guilty to falsely reporting a burglary. He was
sentenced to five days of community service, fined $1,000 and
ordered to attend a drug rehabilitation program.
On 17 June 2006, a Manhattan judge issued a warrant for the arrest
of Boy George after he failed to appear in court for a hearing on
why George wanted to change his sentence for the false burglary
report. George's attorney informed the court that he had advised
George not to appear at that hearing.
On 14 August 2006, Boy George reported to the New York Department
of Sanitation for his court-ordered community service. As a result
of the swarming media coverage, he was allowed to finish his
community service inside the Sanitation Department grounds.
On 5 December 2008, Boy George was convicted in Snaresbrook Crown
Court, London, of the assault and false imprisonment of Audun
Carlsen. On 16 January 2009, he was sentenced to 15 months'
imprisonment for this offence.
Initially sent to HMP Pentonville
in London, he was later transferred to HMP Edmunds Hill
in Newmarket, Suffolk (a category C
prison).
On 11 May
2009, Boy George was released after serving four months of his
fifteen-month custodial sentence at HMP Edmunds Hill
. He was released on home detention curfew
and was required to wear an
ankle
monitor for 90 days.
Memoirs
Harper Collins published his first
autobiography,
Take It Like a
Man, in 1995, written with
Spencer Bright. The book was released to
coincide with the timing of George's solo album,
Cheapness and Beauty, actually
released at the same time, dealing with the same themes, and also
including a number of
photographs as in
the book.
Take It Like A Man was a bestseller in the
UK.
In 2005,
Century published
Straight, his second
autobiographical book, this time written with author
Paul Gorman. It stayed in
The Sunday Times bestseller list
for six weeks. This latter autobiography starts off there where the
former had stopped, though the two works are different in style,
due to their different co-authors, and all of the chapters do have
a title in the 2005 book, while the 1995 autobiography only
featured numbered sections.
Gorman has also ghost-written
Cry
Salty Tears, the memoirs of George's mother
Dinah O'Dowd, which was published by
Arrow Books, in January 2007. The same year also
saw the publication of
Straight in paperback. It was
originally supposed to be updated, but Boy George declined to do so
since he felt the book was too bitter and negative about other
people, and he regretted writing it.
Sexual orientation
When George was with Culture Club, much was made of his
androgynous appearance, and there was
speculation about his sexuality. When asked in interviews, George
gave various answers. At times, such as when interviewed by
Barbara Walters, he stated he was
bisexual . He gave a famous, often quoted
response to an interviewer that he preferred "a nice cup of tea" to
sex.
In
Take It Like A Man, George told his side of his secret
relationship with Culture Club drummer
Jon
Moss. He stated many of the songs he wrote for Culture Club
were directed at Moss. He also alleged that Moss had broken off his
engagement with a woman to be with George, but that Moss was never
comfortable in a same-sex relationship, although Moss was
bisexual.
In 2006, in an episodic documentary directed by Simon George titled
"The Madness of Boy George", George declared on camera that he was
"militantly gay". In a 2008 documentary directed by Mike Nicholls
titled "Living With Boy George", George talks about his first
realisation that he was gay, and when he first told his parents. He
discloses that he understands why men fall in love with one another
as well as with women.
Discography
Studio albums, greatest hits and DJ compilations
see also :
Culture Club
discography
- 1987 - Sold [UK #29
(Silver), U.S. #145, Switzerland #15, Norway #15, Sweden #18, Italy
#22]
- 1988 - Tense Nervous
Headache (not in the U.S)
- 1989 - Boyfriend (not
in the U.S.)
- 1989 - High Hat (selected
tracks from Tense Nervous Headache and Boyfriend,
for America only) [U.S. #126]
- 1990 - The Martyr
Mantras (released as Jesus Loves You in the UK) [UK
#60]
- 1992 - Spin Dazzle (Culture Club & Boy George
joint compilation)
- 1993 - At Worst... The Best of Boy George and
Culture Club [UK #24, U.S. #169 (Gold)]
- 1995 - Cheapness and
Beauty [UK #44]
- 1995 - Fantazia House Collection 2 (as DJ)
- 1998 - The
Unrecoupable One Man Bandit (studio album by fans
request)
- 1999 - Everything I Own (Boy George solo greatest hits
and stand-out tracks compilation)
- 1999 - Galaxy Mix (as DJ)
- 2001 - Essential Mix (as DJ)
- 2002 - Taboo Original London
Cast (soundtrack of West End show)
- 2002 - Classic Masters (compilation)
- 2002 - A Night Out with Boy George - A DJ Mix (as
DJ)
- 2002 - A Night In with Boy George - A Chillout Mix (as
DJ)
- 2002 - U Can Never B2
Straight [UK #147]
- 2002 - Culture Club Box
Set (contains many unreleased solo and band tracks, demos
and remixes)
- 2002 - In & Out with Boy George - A DJ Mix (as DJ)
(double CD collecting A Night Out... and A Night In
with Boy George)
- 2003 - BoyGeorgeDJ.Com (as DJ)
- 2004 - Taboo Original Broadway
Cast (soundtrack of Broadway show)
- 2004 - Yum Yum (as
The Twin)
- 2004 - The Annual 1, 2, 3, 4
- 2004 - Dance Nation 1, 2, 4, 5
EPs
- 1994 - The Devil in Sister George EP (1993-1994) [UK
#26]
- 2004 - Made To Measure (As The Twin, Limited edition
promo sampler)
- 2005 - Straight EP (included in the book of the same
name)
- 2007 - Boy George & Kinky Roland EP (AKA Disco
Abomination) (Limited edition promo sampler)
Singles and/or videoclips
- 1987 - Everything I
Own [UK #1 (Silver), U.S. Dance #45, Europe #1, Canada #1,
Germany #8, Switzerland #8, Italy #1, Eire #1, Norway #1, South
Africa #1, Europe #1 (2 weeks), Holland #3, Sweden #8, Austria #10,
Poland #28, Brazil top 10,France #11, Netherlands #4, New Zealand
#3, Norway #1 ]
- 1987 - Keep Me in Mind [UK #29, Italy #3]
- 1987 - Sold [UK #24, Italy #4, Ireland #8]
- 1987 - To Be Reborn [UK #13, Italy #13, Ireland
#8]
- 1987 - Live My Life [UK #62, U.S. #40, US R&B #21,
Canada #9]
- 1988 - No Clause 28 [UK #57]
- 1988 - Don't Cry [UK #60, Italy #13]
- 1989 - Don't Take My Mind on a Trip [UK #68, U.S.
R&B #5, Canada Dance #17]
- 1989 - Whether They Like It or Not(¤)
- 1989 - You Found Another Guy [U.S. R&B #34]
- 1989 - Whisper (video only in the UK)(¤)
- 1989 - You Are My Heroin (¤)(video only)
- 1989 - Something Strange Called Love(¤) (Philippines
only)
- 1989 - After The Love* [UK #68]
- 1990 - Generations Of Love* [UK #80]
- 1990 - One On One* [UK #83]
- 1991 - Bow Down Mister* [UK #27, France #8, Austria
#2]
- 1991 - Generations Of Love (remix)* [UK #35]
- 1991 - After The Love (remix)*
- 1992 - The Crying
Game [UK #22, Australia #39, Switzerland #32, U.S. #15,
Canada #1]
- 1992 - Sweet Toxic Love* [UK #65, Austria #14]
- 1993 - Everything I Own 1993 (US single, promo in the
UK)
- 1993 - More Than Likely (PM Dawn feat. Boy George) [UK
#40]
- 1994 - Human Beings (Gaurangi feat. Boy George)
- 1995 - Funtime [UK #45]
- 1995 - Il Adore [UK #50, France #69]
- 1995 - Same Thing in Reverse [UK #56, U.S. Dance
#18]
- 1996 - Sad/Satan's Butterfly Ball (double-A-side 12"
for DJs only)
- 1996 - Love Is Leaving (¤) [Italy #4, Spain #3]
- 1997 - When Will You Learn(¤)
- 1997 - Police and Thieves(***)(US single, promo in
UK)
- 1998 - Generations of Love 1998(*)(¤)
- 1999 - Why Go? (with Faithless)(¤)
- 1999 - Innocence Is Lost (with Groove Armada) (12"
promo only)
- 2002 - Swallow Me (as The Real Feminem) (12" promo
only)
- 2002 - Out of Fashion (with Hi-Gate) (promo only)
- 2002 - Run (with Sash!)(¤)
[Germany #48, Croatia #1, Switzerland #98]
- 2002 - Autoerotic (with Dark Globe) [UK #165]
- 2002 - Psychology of the Dreamer (with Eddie Locke)
[UK Dance #5]
- 2003 - Here Come the Girls (as The Twin) (limited
edition)
- 2003 - Electro Hetero (as The Twin) (limited
edition)
- 2003 - Sanitised (as The Twin) (limited edition)
- 2004 - Human Racing (as The Twin) (limited
edition)
- 2005 - Love Your Brother(**) (as Jesus Loves You feat.
Boy George) (12" promo only)
- 2006 - You Are My Sister (with Antony and the Johnsons) [UK
#39]
- 2006 - You're Not the One (with Loverush UK)
(promo)
- 2007 - Time Machine (with Amanda Ghost) (limited
edition)
- 2007 - You're Not the One (with Loverush UK) (digital
release only)
- 2007 - Atoms (with Dark Globe) (digital release
only)(plus 12" vinyl)
- 2008 - Generations Of Love (with Phunk Investigation)
(29 July)
- 2008 - Yes We Can (Oct 12th) [Europe #204, Slovenia
#1] (released in 2009 in Italy)
- 2009 - American Heart (With Bliss) (April 6)
- 2009 - White Xmas/Lousy Substitute/More Girls Just Like
You (Digital single on December 6th or 13th (depending of
country)
(¤) not released in the UK
(*) as 'Jesus Loves You' in the UK, 'Boy George' in the U.S., and
'Jesus Loves You-A Project by Boy George' in other territories
(other tags had 'Jesus Loves You feat. Boy George', but this
officially applies to
Love Your Brother only)
(**) as 'Jesus Loves You featuring Boy George'
(***) as 'Dubversive featuring Boy George'
Other songs
Non-album songs released on soundtracks
- "Live My Life" on Hiding Out (1987)
- "Girlfriend" on Slaves of New York (1989)
- "Fear Not the Sword My Son" on Freddie The Frog
(1992)
- "The Crying Game" on The Crying Game (1992-1993)
- "Felidae" on Felidae
(1994)
- "Welcome to Your Life" on Welcome to Woop Woop
(1998)
- "Try Not to Be Afraid" on special CD Whistle Down the
Wind (1998)
- "La Barque" on Le Libertin (2000)
- "Put Yourself Out with the Trash" in Désaccord Parfait
(2007)
B-Sides not included on albums
- "Use Me" on "Everything I Own" (1987)
- "I Pray '87" on "Keep Me in Mind" 12" maxi single (1987)
- "State of Love" on "Keep Me in Mind" (1987)
- "State of Love (Extended Version)" on "Keep Me in Mind" 12"
maxi single
- "Are You Too Afraid" on "Sold" (1987)
- "Leave in Love" (with Carroll Thompson) on "Don't Cry"
(1988)
- "A Boy Called Alice" on "Don't Cry" CD single (1988)
- "Oh Lord" on "Sweet Toxic Love" 12" (1992)
- "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", double-A-Side with "Il
Adore" double CD single (1995)
- "Turn To Dust", on Yes We Can download single #2 (2008)
Other rare songs
- "Something He Can Feel", multi-collaboration on Afrika Bambaataa album, The Light
(1988)
- "My Sweet Lord", George Harrison
cover on Ruby Trax (1992)
- "Five", collaboration with Ram Jam
World on album Rough and Ready (1997)
- "Dream", cover of Chage &
Aska, (1996)
- "Get It On", T.Rex cover on
Duos Taratata (1996)
- "I Could Be Someone", on Streetwise House Our Youth
(1998)
- "Why Go", slow version on Faithless
album Sunday 8PM (1998)
- "Bad Girl", Madonna cover
on Virgin Voices tribute (1999)
- "Burning Up", duet with Tracy Emin on
project We Love You (1998)
- "In the Ghetto", Elvis Presley
cover on Apache Indian album
Karma (2000)
- "Radio One" (as The Hampstead Bowie Clone) digital release
(2002)
- "Who Am I Today", collaboration with Erick Morillo, on album My World
(2003)
- "Poverty", collaboration with Hi-Gate on
their album Split Personality (2003)
- "Breakdance Hunks" collaboration with Canadian band Kids On TV (2005)
- "Dragging Me Down", collaboration with Adam
Sky, on neo.pop.06 (2006)
- "Idiot Crowd", collaboration with Punx Soundcheck, on When Machines Ruled
the World (2007)
- "American Heart", collaboration with Danish electronic duo Bliss on No
One Built This Moment (2009)
- "J'ai toujours porte Bonheur aux hommes", duet with French
singer Regine (2009)
Cameos on charity tracks
Notes
References
- De
Graaf Kasper, Garret Malcolm (1983), When Cameras Go
Crazy, London
, UK
, Virgin Books & New York
, NY
, USA
, St. Martin's Press; ISBN 0-312-17879-4
(Culture Club's official biography)
- Boy
George with Spencer Bright (1995), Take It Like a Man,
London
, Sidgwick &
Jackson (Boy George's first official autobiography)
- Boy
George with Paul Gorman (2004), Straight, London
, Century (Boy George's second official autobiography
- republished in 2007 with updates - first edition includes EP of
the same name)
External links