#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 Italian Singles chart ~ #5
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.

In 1985, Fine Young Cannibals released a self-titled debut album. The debut single was “Johnny Come Home”.

“Johnny Come Home” was cowritten by David Steels and Roland Gift. The song follows the story of a runaway who learns the harsh reality of a life on the streets. The title refers to his parents’ desperate plea for him to come home and was likely inspired by the 1975 TV documentary about London runaways, Johnny Go Home: The Murder of Billy Two-Tone. “Johnny Come Home” was featured in the thrillers Someone to Watch Over Me (1987) and The Handmaid’s Tale (1990). The parents declare, “Johnny, we’re sorry. Won’t you come home? We worry.” The lines “What is wrong in my life that I must get drunk every night?”has Johnny reflecting on his own situation. Meanwhile, the father implores Johnny to “Use the phone. Call your mom. She’s missing you badly.”

“Johnny Come Home” peaked at #1 in Montreal, Los Angeles, #3 in Annapolis (MD), #4 in Boston, Garden City (NY), #5 in Toronto, #8 in Ottawa, and #10 in Calgary. Internationally, the song reached #5 in Italy, #6 in Israel, #8 in Belgium and the UK, #10 in Ireland and the Netherlands, #13 in New Zealand, #14 in Australia, #16 in Canada and West Germany, and #26 in Finland. It stalled on the Billboard Hot 100 at #76.

The followup from the album was “Blue”. It reached #13 on the Australian pop chart, and #9 on the Billboard Dance Club chart. In 1987, “Ever Fallen In Love” was part of the soundtrack for the comedy film Something Wild. It reached number-one in South Africa, and the Top Ten in Ireland and the UK. However, it was with the release of the album The Raw & The Cooked that the band had an international breakout. Their single “She Drives Me Crazy” topped the pop charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the USA. It was also a #2 hit in Belgium, Ireland and West Germany, #3 in Iceland, the Netherlands and Switzerland, #4 in Luxembourg and Sweden, #5 in Finland and the UK, and#6 in Norway. In 1990, the group received a Grammy Award nomination for Record of the Year for “She Drives Me Crazy”. It lost out to “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler. “She Drives Me Crazy” was named the International Hit of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards in 1990.

A second release from The Raw & The Cooked, “Good Thing”, topped the charts in Canada and the USA in 1989. It was also a Top Ten hit in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, the UK and West Germany. “Don’t Look Back” reached the Top Ten in several countries, while “I’m Not the Man I Used to Be” was a Top 40 hit in a half dozen nations. The Raw & The Cooked earned the Fine Young Cannibals the British Album of the Year at the Brit Awards in 1990. They were also nominated at the Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, but lost out to Bonnie Rait.

In 1990, the Fine Young Cannibals contributed a cover of the Cole Porter classic “Love For Sale” toward an AIDS charity album Red Hot + Blue.

The band dissolved in 1992. After the end of his work with Fine Young Cannibals, David Steele went on to play a variety of other roles in the music industry. He co-produced two tracks on Gabrielle’s album Find Your Way, which reached #8 on the UK Albums Chart in 1993, as well as the soundtrack to the film The Truth About Cats & Dogs  in 1996. He has appeared on more than two dozen other albums, most commonly as a backing vocalist, but also as a guitarist, drummer and mixer. In 2001, Steele became part of a duo named Fried who have released two studio albums.

In 2002, Andy Cox formed Cribabi with Japanese vocalist Yukari Fujiu and released the album Volume.

In 1987, Roland Gift starred in the British romantic comedy Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.

1987 poster for Sammy & Rosie Get Laid

In 1989, Gift starred in the historical drama about the British political Profumo Affair Scandal that took place in the early 60s. To date, Roland Gift has appeared in eight films. In 2025, Roland Gift announced a two-show tour in 2025 billed as “Roland Gift Presents Fine Young Cannibals”.

November 2, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
Mary Anne O’Callaghan, “Cannibals Has Single Cooking,” Kentucky New Era, March 1, 1989.
Dave Simpson, “Fine Young Cannibal Roland Gift: ‘I went back to where being pretty didn’t matter’,” Guardian, December 3, 2020.
Dave, “January 25 – Andy Got More Than Two Tones Out Of His Six Strings,” Sound Day, January 25, 2025.
Dave Tannenbaum, “Chewing The Fat With Fine Young Cannibals,” Rolling Stone, April 20, 1989.

The Rock of Toronto | CHUM 1050-AM Toronto (ON) | April 26, 1986