This Time - The First Four Years

Infobox Album |
Name = This Time - The First Four Years
Type = compilation album
Artist = Culture Club


Released = 1987
Recorded = 1982-1986
Genre = new wave,
pop/rock,
reggae, ballad,
Motown style, country,
white soul
Length = 48:07 (LP);
62:15 (CD/MC)
Label = Virgin Records
Producer = Steve Levine
Reviews =
* Amazon.com [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EGCTAE link to editorial and customer reviews]
Last album = "From Luxury to Heartache" (1986)
This album = "This Time - The First Four Years"
(1987)
Next album = "Greatest Moments - VH1 Storytellers Live"
(1998)

This Time – The First Four Years is the first official collection of British new wave group Culture Club, released, by Virgin Records, in 1987, one year after the band split up for the very first time, soon after their fourth album, "From Luxury to Heartache" (1986) had just come out. A proper Greatest Hits album, actually, This Time - The First Four Years exclusively includes, in its vinyl edition, the band's most successful hits, till then promoted as singles in the various countries of the world, omitting all minor hits as well as, obviously, flops. The one track which was never available in single format is the stand-out ballad "Black Money" (originally on their second album, "Colour by Numbers", containing 10 songs, 6 of which are included in the 1987 compilation), which should have been the promotional 45 RPM for the collection, but never actually came out as such. Besides more than half "Colour by Numbers" track listing, the record also includes a wide selection of tracks taken from all the albums up to then produced by Culture Club: the big hit debut album "Kissing to Be Clever" (which produced three American Top Ten singles, the first debut album reaching such an outcome, after the legendary Beatles' record, in the Sixties), and the not as lucky "Waking Up with the House on Fire" and "From Luxury to Heartache", third and fourth album, respectively, which issued a hit and two flops each. The collection finally contains the major track from the "Electric Dreams" movie soundtrack, the soulful ballad "Love Is Love" (a very successful hit single especially in Japan and in Italy). For all countries, except America, it was the first time that their hit Time (Clock Of The Heart) was included on any long-player.

Two additional tracks are featured on the CD and cassette version: the remix of "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" and the long medley segueing the remixes of "It's A Miracle" and "Miss me Blind". Either the former remix and the medley, both sub-titled as «U.S. 12" Remix», were very successful in the United States. Of course, all editions of This Time - The First Four Years include Culture Club's two worldwide Number One singles: sweet Lovers Rock reggae ballad "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and the Delta country-oriented singalong smash "Karma Chameleon". the latter was the best selling single of the whole 1983 in the UK. Both tracks reached the top in almost all charts worldwide, between 1982 (the year of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" English triumph) and 1983 (when "Karma Chameleon" topped the American charts).

Infos on tracks and on related albums

* "Karma Chameleon" - Topped the British charts for 6 weeks in Autumn 1983 and became a worldwide hit - gold in France and New Zealand, platinum in Sweden and triple platinum in Canada. This record sold 1.300.000 copies in Britain alone. It was included on the album "Colour by Numbers", which went gold in Mexico, The Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Italy, double gold in France, Norway and Sweden, platinum in Japan, triple platinum in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and 10 times platinum in Canada! "Colour by Numbers" totally sold almost 5.000.000 copies worldwide, reaching Number 89 in the Best Selling Album Chart of the Eighties, following the joint researches of American RIAA and British BPI.

* "Church of the Poison Mind" - Also included on "Colour by Numbers", this single was released several months before the album, making the Number 2 spot in the UK for two weeks in April 1983. The B-side of the maxi single contained the Japanese-only single "Mystery Boy", also featured on an oriental ad for whiskey.

* "Miss Me Blind" - Again from "Colour by Numbers", this was never released as a single in Great Britain, but in April 1984 it reached Number 5 in the USA, making it Culture Club's 6th consecutive Top 10 hit there. The song includes in its lyrics the line "kissing to be clever" (title of the band's first album), while the B-side to the single contains the non-album track "Colour by Numbers" (title-track for their second album).

* "Time (Clock of the Heart)" - Never before included on a Culture Club's album, until 1987, this song reached the British Top 3 at Christmas 1982. It was released as a follow-up to the group's first worldwide hit, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", and added to the American edition of the first album, "Kissing to Be Clever", which became a worldwide hit and went triple platinum in Canada.

* "It's a Miracle" - This reached Number 4 in the UK in Spring 1984, and a 12" remix of this track together with "Miss Me Blind" (so-called "It's a Miracle/Miss Me Blind" «U.S. 12" Remix») was also released in the United States, and included in the CD/MC edition of the collection. Both tracks are taken from "Colour by Numbers".

* "Black Money" - Originally included on "Colour by Numbers", this popular track was never released as a single. Its release on such format was scheduled for April 1987, along with the Greatest Hits, but since Culture Club had just split up at the end of 1986 and were on very bad terms, and due to Boy George being fully involved in promoting his first solo album, "Sold", the release was first postponed, until, when both parts made it clear that it was pointless to keep working together, it was definitively belated.

* "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" - This is the track that suddenly made Boy George a household name and turned Culture Club in one of the world's most successful groups. It was their third single ("White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", having barely caused a ripple, climbing not higher than Number 114 and Number 100, respectively) and, after reaching Number 1 in the UK, it officially leapt to the top in no fewer than 17 countries. Taken from "Kissing to Be Clever".

* "Move Away" - The first single to be taken from "From Luxury to Heartache", it was a minor hit (following the band's usual multi-million selling standard), only reaching the lower parts of the Top Ten, and getting to Number 7 in March 1986.

* "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" - Originally included on "Kissing to Be Clever", this was Culture Club's 3rd consecutive Top 10 hit in the United States. The track, never released as a single in the UK, was also released in America in a 12" remix (called «U.S. 12" Remix» and only contained in the Greatest Hits CD/MC edition), also becoming very popular there.

* "Love Is Love" - Never released as a single in Great Britain, this song was a hit for Culture Club in Japan and in Italy. Taken from the hit soundtrack album for the film "Electric Dreams", also including a song by the band's historical backing singer Helen Terry. The B-side to the Italian edition of the single is "Mistake No. 3", the only ballad included on the group's third album, "Waking Up with the House on Fire", which was released as an independent single in America, but never in their homecountry, producing one of Culture Club's most suggestive videoclips.

* "The War Song" - Reaching Number 2 in October 1984, this became Culture Club's 7th consecutive Top 5 single in the UK. Taken from the album "Waking Up with the House on Fire", which went gold in France, 5 times gold in Japan, platinum in Australia and New Zealand, and double platinum in Canada.

* "Victims" - When this historical ballad reached Number 3 as a single in the UK, at Christmas 1983, though it didn't get much airplay, Culture Club had been in the singles chart 36 weeks that year. Closing track of "Colour by Numbers". The maxi single B-side featured an instrumental orchestral version of the song plus, again, the non-abum title-track.

Track listing

# "Karma Chameleon" - 4:01 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett)
# "Church of the Poison Mind" - 3:31 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "Miss Me Blind" - 4:29 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "Time (Clock of the Heart)" - 3:43 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "It's a Miracle" - 3:25 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett)
# "Black Money" - 5:19 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" - 4:24 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "Move Away" - 4:10 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett)
# "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" - 2:35 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "Love Is Love" - 3:52 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "The War Song" - 3:59 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "Victims" - 4:55 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss)
# "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" (U.S. 12" Remix) - 4:40 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) [CD/MC bonus track]
# "It's a Miracle/Miss Me Blind" (U.S. 12" Remix) - 9:12 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) [CD/MC bonus track]

Credits

Band/Musicians

*Boy George: lead vocals and lyrics
*Roy Hay: guitars, keyboards, sitar, synth guitar
*Mikey Craig: bass
*Jon Moss: drums and percussion
*Helen Terry: female lead and background vocals

* for the other musicians, see Culture Club's first four albums

taff/Production

*Steve Levine: production except 8
*Arif Mardin, Lew Hahn: production 8
*Assorted
cover
*David Levine, Jamie Morgan, Mark LeBon, Kate Garner, Stevie Hughes: photography
*Mitaka: booklet Japanese translation

* for the other members of staff and production, see Culture Club's first four albums

Release details

External links

* [http://www.fnacmusic.com/album/69a45d97-3cd8-4989-bf2d-6deb8b9c5d92.aspx FnacMusic.com where it is possible to listen to short samples of all tracks on the collection]
* [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002ZZ2L Amazon.com Use the "Search" box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections]
* [http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,928771,00.html Artist Direct Use "Search" box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections]
* [http://rateyourmusic.com/view_album_details/album_id_is_166000 Rate Your Music Use search box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections]