#89: Johnny Come Home by Fine Young Cannibals
City: Toronto, ON
Radio Station: CHUM
Peak Month: April 1986
Peak Position in Toronto ~ #5
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ airplay – did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~#76
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Israeli Singles chart ~ #6
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #8
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #10
Peak Position on Dutch Singles chart ~ #10
YouTube: “Johnny Come Home”
Lyrics: “Johnny Come Home”
The Fine Young Cannibals are a band that formed in 1984 in Birmingham, UK. The lead singer was Roland Gift who was born in 1961 in Birmingham. Gift’s first recording was as a saxophonist with a ska band from Hull in 1980. Gift’s band, Akrylykz toured with the Beat. The Beat were a ska revival (or 2-tone) band who successfully covered Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Tears Of A Clown” and Andy Williams’ “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”. When the Beat folded in 1983, Andy Cox and David Steele of The Beat asked Roland Gift to join their new band Fine Young Cannibals. Andy Cox was born in Birmingham in 1956. At the age of 22, he founded The Beat in 1978. With David Steele, he co-wrote some of The Beat’s bigger hits including “Mirror in the Bathroom” and “Hands Off, She’s Mine”. David Steele was born in 1960 in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Steele’s bass lines in the Beat took the Jamaican style of ska and added a harder, punk rock-influenced style. The Beat song, “Mirror in the Bathroom”, is largely built on top of the driving, eighth-note bass line that runs through the entire song. Roland Gift, Andy Cox and David Steele joined together in 1984 to become the Fine Young Cannibals.