"Karma Chameleon" is a song by English band

Culture Club Culture Club are an English pop band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New ...

, featured on the group's 1983 album ''

Colour by Numbers ''Colour by Numbers'' is the second album by the British new wave group Culture Club, released in October 1983. Preceded by the hit single "Karma Chameleon", which reached number one in several countries, the album reached number one in the UK ...

''. The single was released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

in September 1983 and became the second Culture Club single to reach the top of the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, after " Do You Really Want to Hurt Me". The record stayed at number one for six weeks and became the UK's biggest-selling single of the year 1983, selling 955,000 copies (according to Official Charts Company sales data confirmed in March 2021 for the Channel 5 show ''Britain's Favourite 80s Songs''). To date, it is the 38th-biggest-selling single of all time in the UK, selling over 1.52 million copies. It also spent three weeks at number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in early 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US number-one single among their many top-10 hits. The single sold over 7 million copies globally. In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's ninth favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.

Background

In an interview, Culture Club frontman

Boy George George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singe ...

explained: "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren't true, if you don't act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that's nature's way of paying you back." In response to claims from singer-songwriter Jimmy Jones that the song plagiarizes his hit " Handy Man", George stated, "I might have heard it once, but it certainly wasn't something I sat down and said, 'Yeah, I want to copy this.'" In an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Boy George said that he wrote the song while he was on vacation in Egypt, and that the other members of Culture Club were initially hesitant to record it as they felt it sounded like a

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whi ...

song. The

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

part was played by

Judd Lander Judd Lander (born 1 March 1948) is an English harmonicist. Originally from Liverpool, Lander was previously a member of the band The Hideaways. He has experienced success as a prolific session musician, record industry executive, and company dire ...

, who had been a member of

Merseybeat Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffle ...

group The Hideaways in the 1960s. The song was originally to be called "Cameo Chameleon"; the band was recorded in interviews in mid-1983 stating this was to be the title of their next single. "Karma Chameleon" is written in the key of

B major B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and ...

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' said that "with Boy George’s smooth lead (and the catchy background vocals), it has the air of an immediate Stateside hit." The song won Best British Single at the 1984

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

. In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 9th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.

Other appearances

The group performed the song as a finale when they appeared in the 1986 episode "Cowboy George" of ''

The A-Team ''The A-Team'' is an American action-adventure television series that ran on NBC from January 1983 to March 1987 about former members of a fictitious United States Army Special Forces unit. The four members of the team were tried by court ma ...

''. Likely because of the line "I'm a man without conviction" and the chorus, which includes the word ''

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

'', "Karma Chameleon" has been used by several politicians in political adverts. In 2006, Britain's Labour Party used "Karma Chameleon" as the theme song for a series of political advertisements against

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

leader

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

in the 2006 UK local elections.

Music video

The music video, directed by Peter Sinclair, was filmed at

Desborough Island Desborough Island is a manmade island in the River Thames on the reach above Sunbury Lock in Surrey, England. It was formed in the 1930s by the digging of a channel – the Desborough Cut – by the Thames Conservancy as a meander cutoff of ...

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

during 1983. The video is set in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in 1870. It depicts a large multiracial group of people in 19th century dress, including some dressed in red, gold, and green (as referenced in the lyrics). Boy George is dressed in what would be known as his

signature look Trademark look or signature look is the characteristic clothes or other distinguishing signs used by a certain character or performer, making the person more recognizable by the audience. Politicians may also have trademark signs, such as the sui ...

: colourful costume, fingerless gloves, long braids, and a black bowler hat. A pickpocket and jewelry thief is seen wandering through the crowd, stealing from unsuspecting victims. The band and everyone board a riverboat, ''The Chameleon'', as Boy George continues to sing. While four men are playing

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game wa ...

, the thief is discovered cheating by giving himself the Royal Flush, and is forced to return all his ill-gotten gains and walk the plank at the points of ladies' parasols, falling into the river. As the video ends, day has turned to evening and the party continues on the boat as it cruises down the river.

Single cover artwork

The sleeve features work from the photographer

David Levine David Levine (December 20, 1926 – December 29, 2009) was an American artist and illustrator best known for his caricatures in ''The New York Review of Books''. Jules Feiffer has called him "the greatest caricaturist of the last half of th ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Sales and certifications

Parodies

In 1984,

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artists Moe Bandy and

Joe Stampley Joe Stampley (born June 6, 1943) is an American country music singer. He had success as the lead singer of a rock group, in a country duo with Moe Bandy and as a solo performer. Stampley has released over 20 albums and more than 60 singles in ...

recorded "Where's the Dress", a satirical song about Boy George which sampled "Karma Chameleon". The song reached number 8 on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...

chart. The

United Australia Party The United Australia Party (UAP) was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. The party won four federal elections in that time, usually governing in coalition with the Country Party. It provided two prim ...

created "Palmer Chameleon", a parody of "Karma Chameleon" promoting the party and leader Clive Palmer in particular, as part of the soundtrack of their "Clive Palmer: Humble Meme Merchant" mobile video game. Boy George and Culture Club's manager have said that the unauthorised use of the song constitutes copyright infringement, and have stated that their record label would be dealing with the matter.

References