Boys Don't Cry (band)
Encyclopedia
Boys Don't Cry are a British
pop
/rock
band
known for the hit single "I Wanna Be a Cowboy", which peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 in 1986
and charted around the world. They are considered a one-hit wonder
, though they released an EP, two albums and several singles.
/keyboardist
Nick Richards
, who had just purchased Maison Rouge Recording Studios in London
. An early version of the group released their debut EP
Don't Talk to Strangers on independent UK label Legacy Records in Britain
in 1983. By the mid-1980s, the band consisted of principal members Richards and keyboardist Brian Chatton (born Brian Charles Chatton, 19 July 1948, in Bolton, Lancashire), along with Jeff Seopardi on drums, Nico Ramsden on guitar, and Mark Smith on bass. Chatton had previously had a brief stint on keyboards
with 1970s progressive band Jackson Heights
, contributing heavily to their Ragamuffin's Fool LP
.
, who was a talent scout for Profile Records
in London
in the mid-80s. Best known for being Run DMC's record label at the time, Profile signed the band for the U.S. market and Legacy retained the rights to the band's UK releases. Mercury Records won the bidding for Canada and Intercord Tonträger GmbH handled their releases in Germany.
The single "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was released in 1986. A novelty song
with deadpan
humour and kitsch
y references, the song has been described as the perfect musical realisation of a spaghetti western
movie. It hit #12 on the Billboard Hot 100
and #13 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart in 1986-1987, and was R&R #8. "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was also a top 10 hit in Australia
and South Africa
.
They would go on to release two full-length albums: a self-titled debut in 1986, which included "I Wanna Be a Cowboy", and a follow-up the following year titled Who the Am Dam do You Think We Am. The second album was simply released in America as Boys Don't Cry, creating some confusion there, since the band now had two consecutive self-titled albums released within a year of each other. The follow-up single to "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was (necessarily perhaps) a complete departure; "Cities On Fire", an energetic rush of synth-rock which was released in 7" and 12" remix form, received early attention from MTV
but failed to connect with fans of the novelty hit and didn't receive enough airplay to create a new fanbase.
On July 30, 1997, co-writers Nick Richards
and Brian Chatton sued Paula Cole
, Warner Brothers Records
, and Imago Records, along with remix producers DJ EFX, Big Ed, and the E-Team, for $7 million in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claiming that Cole's remix of "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" used the phrase "I wanna be a cowboy" 24 times in the same style and syntax as their song and constituted copyright infringement.
's song
/album
of the same name. Rather, the name has its origins in some whispered lyrics from fellow British band 10cc
's hit song "I'm Not In Love
" (specifically, "be quiet... big boys don't cry"). However, the band were evidently completely aware of (and perhaps amused by) the confusion surrounding their name, and they even included an instrumental bonus track titled "The Cure" on their second album as a joke. (source: Brian Chatton himself, in an online discussion originally found at www.onehitwondercentral.com)
to write a brand new album. The first single from the album, "Don't Call Me a Country Singer" peaked at #7 on the FMQB a/c
radio charts, leading people to wonder whether Boys Don't Cry would be the first ever "one-hit wonder band" ever to make a comeback 23 years later and have another hit record. Richards put together a new Boys Don't Cry lineup, featuring Doug Gild on bass, Mike Licata on drums, Aaron McClain and James Richards on guitars, and Teddy Rae Richards on backing vocals. Barbara Baker has taken over the management. This incarnation later planned to tour with Red Entertainment on an "Eighties Retro" tour.
On 30 October 2009 the band's former bass player, Mark Smith, died at his home in London
. Mark was just 49 years old, and he had originally been tapped to join the band for the following year's touring.
The anthology album, White Punks on Rap is now available to download. It is a solid history of the band from 1983 - 1995.
The band played a New Year's Eve show in Hollywood with special guest stars including Roy Hay from Culture Club
and Nina Hagen
. They have also released a brand new 6-track EP
entitled Blow Me, which is only available as a download.
Others
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
/rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
known for the hit single "I Wanna Be a Cowboy", which peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 in 1986
1986 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1986.-January-June:*January 23 – The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place...
and charted around the world. They are considered a one-hit wonder
One-hit wonder
A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...
, though they released an EP, two albums and several singles.
Beginnings/Early years
The band was formed in 1983 as the brainchild of lead vocalistLead vocalist
The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
/keyboardist
Keyboardist
A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
Nick Richards
Nick Richards
Nick Richards is a British singer/musician who is perhaps best known internationally as the frontman for the 1980s synth pop/new wave band Boys Don't Cry...
, who had just purchased Maison Rouge Recording Studios in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. An early version of the group released their debut EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Don't Talk to Strangers on independent UK label Legacy Records in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1983. By the mid-1980s, the band consisted of principal members Richards and keyboardist Brian Chatton (born Brian Charles Chatton, 19 July 1948, in Bolton, Lancashire), along with Jeff Seopardi on drums, Nico Ramsden on guitar, and Mark Smith on bass. Chatton had previously had a brief stint on keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
with 1970s progressive band Jackson Heights
Jackson Heights (band)
Jackson Heights were an English rock band, led by bassist and vocalist Lee Jackson, that ran from 1970 to 1973. Other players included Brian Chatton , Dave Watts playing keyboards and King Crimson's drummers Michael Giles and Ian Wallace.Their debut album King Progress included a reworking of...
, contributing heavily to their Ragamuffin's Fool LP
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
.
Aspirations of cowboyhood
Boys Don't Cry were discovered by Paul OakenfoldPaul Oakenfold
Paul Mark Oakenfold is a British record producer and a trance DJ.-Early Career: 1979–84:Paul Oakenfold's career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band. He describes his early life as a "bedroom deejay" in a podcasted interview with Vancouver's 24 Hours, stating he grew...
, who was a talent scout for Profile Records
Profile Records
Profile Records was a record label that specialized in many types of urban-oriented music, such as hip hop, active until 1996..- History :In 1980, at 23 years old, after working briefly for MCA, Cory Robbins was looking to start a record label. He invited his songwriter friend Steve Plotnicki to be...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the mid-80s. Best known for being Run DMC's record label at the time, Profile signed the band for the U.S. market and Legacy retained the rights to the band's UK releases. Mercury Records won the bidding for Canada and Intercord Tonträger GmbH handled their releases in Germany.
The single "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was released in 1986. A novelty song
Novelty song
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...
with deadpan
Deadpan
Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...
humour and kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
y references, the song has been described as the perfect musical realisation of a spaghetti western
Spaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
movie. It hit #12 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and #13 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart in 1986-1987, and was R&R #8. "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was also a top 10 hit in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
They would go on to release two full-length albums: a self-titled debut in 1986, which included "I Wanna Be a Cowboy", and a follow-up the following year titled Who the Am Dam do You Think We Am. The second album was simply released in America as Boys Don't Cry, creating some confusion there, since the band now had two consecutive self-titled albums released within a year of each other. The follow-up single to "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was (necessarily perhaps) a complete departure; "Cities On Fire", an energetic rush of synth-rock which was released in 7" and 12" remix form, received early attention from MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
but failed to connect with fans of the novelty hit and didn't receive enough airplay to create a new fanbase.
On July 30, 1997, co-writers Nick Richards
Nick Richards
Nick Richards is a British singer/musician who is perhaps best known internationally as the frontman for the 1980s synth pop/new wave band Boys Don't Cry...
and Brian Chatton sued Paula Cole
Paula Cole
Paula Cole is an American singer/songwriter. Her single "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and the following year she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.-Early life:...
, Warner Brothers Records
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, and Imago Records, along with remix producers DJ EFX, Big Ed, and the E-Team, for $7 million in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claiming that Cole's remix of "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" used the phrase "I wanna be a cowboy" 24 times in the same style and syntax as their song and constituted copyright infringement.
Origin of Name
Contrary to popular belief, the moniker "Boys Don't Cry" did not actually come from The CureThe Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
's song
Boys Don't Cry (song)
"Boys Don't Cry" was the second single to be released by The Cure, released in June 1979. It was released in the UK as a stand-alone single, and was included as the title track on Boys Don't Cry, the American equivalent to Three Imaginary Boys....
/album
Boys Don't Cry (album)
Boys Don't Cry is a U.S. debut album by The Cure, released in February 1980 in the UK and in August 1980 in the U.S. It is a compilation of songs from Three Imaginary Boys, but replacing five of that album's tracks with "Jumping Someone Else's Train", "Boys...
of the same name. Rather, the name has its origins in some whispered lyrics from fellow British band 10cc
10cc
10cc are an English art rock band who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1970s. The band initially consisted of four musicians -- Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme -- who had written and recorded together for some three years, before assuming the "10cc" name...
's hit song "I'm Not In Love
I'm Not in Love
"I'm Not in Love" is a song written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman of the English group 10cc, from the album The Original Soundtrack. The lyric reveals a narrator in denial about the title's ostensible theme.-The 10cc version:...
" (specifically, "be quiet... big boys don't cry"). However, the band were evidently completely aware of (and perhaps amused by) the confusion surrounding their name, and they even included an instrumental bonus track titled "The Cure" on their second album as a joke. (source: Brian Chatton himself, in an online discussion originally found at www.onehitwondercentral.com)
Recent Times
2009 has seen Nick Richards and Brian Chatton teaming up again in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to write a brand new album. The first single from the album, "Don't Call Me a Country Singer" peaked at #7 on the FMQB a/c
Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music....
radio charts, leading people to wonder whether Boys Don't Cry would be the first ever "one-hit wonder band" ever to make a comeback 23 years later and have another hit record. Richards put together a new Boys Don't Cry lineup, featuring Doug Gild on bass, Mike Licata on drums, Aaron McClain and James Richards on guitars, and Teddy Rae Richards on backing vocals. Barbara Baker has taken over the management. This incarnation later planned to tour with Red Entertainment on an "Eighties Retro" tour.
On 30 October 2009 the band's former bass player, Mark Smith, died at his home in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Mark was just 49 years old, and he had originally been tapped to join the band for the following year's touring.
The anthology album, White Punks on Rap is now available to download. It is a solid history of the band from 1983 - 1995.
The band played a New Year's Eve show in Hollywood with special guest stars including Roy Hay from Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...
and Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...
. They have also released a brand new 6-track EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
entitled Blow Me, which is only available as a download.
Albums
- 1983: Don't Talk To Strangers (5-track mini LP, UK release only)
- 1986: Boys Don't Cry (became known in America simply as "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" due to its inclusion of the hit single of that name)
- 1987: Who the Am Dam do You Think We Am (released in America simply as Boys Don't Cry)
Others
- 2009: White Punks on Rap (recorded with unreleased songs during 1983-1999)
Singles
- 1983: "Heart's Bin Broken"
- 1984: "Turn Over (I Like It Better that Way)"
- 1984: "Don't Talk to Strangers"
- 1986: "I Wanna Be a Cowboy"
- 1986: "Cities on Fire"
- 1987: "Who the Am Dam Do You Think You Am?"
- 1988: "We Got the Magic"