Culture Club – Karma Chameleon

When The Band Laughed At Boy George’s Holiday Melody

Released in September 1983, “Karma Chameleon” shot to number one in its second week on the UK Singles Chart and stayed there for six weeks. It became the biggest-selling single of 1983 in Britain, selling 955,000 copies that year alone and eventually topping 1.52 million. Boy George had written the melody while on vacation in Egypt, and when he sang it to the rest of Culture Club at drummer Roy Hay’s flat, they laughed at him.

The track dominated charts worldwide, reaching number one in 20 countries. In the United States, it spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984, becoming Culture Club’s only American number one. In Canada, it held the top spot for seven weeks and became the first single by a group to sell a million copies in that country. The song helped propel Colour by Numbers to quadruple platinum status in America, selling over five million copies globally and beating out UB40’s million-selling “Red Red Wine” for the UK crown.

Boy George later explained the song’s meaning to Billboard magazine as being about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. The line “You’re my lover, not my rival” was inspired by his then-secret relationship with drummer Jon Moss, adding a layer of personal tension beneath the pop sheen. George said it was about trying to suck up to everybody, and that if you aren’t true to yourself, then you get karma-justice. The band members initially hesitated because they thought it sounded too much like a country song, though George insisted on recording it.

Recording took place in May 1983 at Red Bus Studios in London with producer Steve Levine. The backing vocals became a production headache, with each vocal part tracked up to eight times before being bounced to stereo. Backing vocalist Helen Terry handled much of the layered harmonies, while Phil Pickett contributed the low bass vocals that were sped up slightly using Varispeed. Judd Lander, a Liverpool native who had studied under Sonny Boy Williamson and been a member of 1960s Merseybeat group The Hideaways, played the distinctive harmonica part that opens the track. Percussionist Graham Broad added additional elements to flesh out the sound.

The song appeared as the standout track on Culture Club’s second album Colour by Numbers, which was released in October 1983 and reached number one in the UK and number two in the US. The album spawned four other hit singles including “Church of the Poison Mind”, “Victims”, “It’s a Miracle”, and “Miss Me Blind”. The success helped Culture Club win Best British Group and Best British Single at the 1984 Brit Awards, plus the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where Boy George famously said via satellite: “Thank you, America. You’ve got taste, style, and you know a good drag queen when you see one.”

The song has been covered by numerous artists over the decades and continues to appear in films, television shows, and commercials. It’s been featured in movies like Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Rock Star, and Scary Movie 4. In 2015, the British public voted it as the nation’s ninth favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV. The track also attracted controversy when Britain’s Labour Party used it in 2006 political advertisements against Conservative leader David Cameron, playing on the “chameleon” imagery.

“Karma Chameleon” remains Culture Club’s signature song and Virgin Records’ biggest-selling single of all time. Despite its massive success, Boy George has had a complicated relationship with the track. He told Piers Morgan in 2017 that wherever he goes in the world, someone sings it to him—at Moroccan carpet markets, at the Pyramids, up the Himalayas. In 2025, he compared performing it to something far less pleasant, saying people think that’s all he’s ever done. Yet the song’s infectious melody and message about staying true to yourself continues to resonate more than four decades after those band members stopped laughing at the tune their frontman brought back from Egypt.