Terry Hall - Terry Hall: The Collection '1992

Tracks list

Tracklist:

1. The Special AKA – Gangsters (02:47)
2. The Specials – Nite Klub (03:09)
3. The Specials – Ghost Town (Extended Version) (05:59)
4. The Specials – Friday Night, Saturday Morning (03:34)
5. Fun Boy Three – The Lunatics (Have Taken over the Asylum) (03:14)
6. Fun Boy Three – It Ain't What You Do It's the Way That You Do It
(02:52)
7. Fun Boy Three – Summertime (03:09)
8. Fun Boy Three – The Tunnel of Love (03:09)
9. Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (02:51)
10. The Colourfield – The Colour Field (02:53)
11. The Colourfield – Take (04:09)
12. The Colourfield – Thinking of You (03:28)
13. The Colourfield – Castles in the Air (03:39)
14. Terry Hall – From Dawn to Distraction (03:37)
15. Terry Hall – She (03:17)
16. Terry Hall – Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme (04:04)
17. Terry Hall – Missing (04:42)
18. Terry Hall – Beautiful People (04:18)


 moreHall was singing with a new wave band called the Squad when Jerry
Dammers recruited him to sing with the Specials. "Gangsters," the first single
the Specials released, went into the Top Ten upon its release, establishing both
the group and its independent label, 2-Tone, as a major pop force in England.
For the next two years, the Specials were one of the most popular and
influential bands in the U.K., scoring a streak of seven straight Top Ten
singles. Their popularity culminated with the prophetic "Ghost Town," which
spent three weeks at number one in the summer of 1981. The "Ghost Town" single
was the last to feature Hall and the original lineup; after its release, Hall
split with the group's other two vocalists, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples,
to form Fun Boy Three.

Where the Specials were a ska revival band, Fun Boy Three were a new wave pop
group with distinctly weird, skeletal, and experimental overtones. The band
released their first single, "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum),"
shortly after they departed from the Specials. The single peaked at number 20
late in 1981. Early in 1982, the group charted again with "It Ain't What You Do
(It's the Way That You Do It)," a duet with Bananarama on an old Jimmie
Lunceford song. The Fun Boy Three finally released their eponymous debut in the
spring of 1982. That summer, they had a hit with a cover of George Gershwin's
"Summertime." The group recorded a second album with Talking Heads leader David
Byrne late in 1982. The resulting album, Waiting, appeared in the spring of
1983, concurrently with the Top Ten singles "The Tunnel of Love" and "Our Lips
Are Sealed," a song Hall wrote with Jane Wiedlin, who already made it into a hit
the previous year with her group the Go-Go's.

By the summer of 1983, the Fun Boy Three were peaking in popularity, and Hall
disbanded the group. Hooking up with ex-Swinging Cats members Toby Lyons and
Karl Shale, Hall moved to Manchester and formed the Colour Field, a more lush
and melodic outfit than the Fun Boy Three. In January of 1984, the band released
their first single, "The Colour Field," which just missed the Top 40. It was
followed later that summer with "Take," which didn't even come close to the Top
40. The Colour Field had its first hit in January of 1985, when "Thinking of
You" reached number 12. It was followed by "Castles in the Air," another failed
single that preceded the release of their debut album, Virgins and Philistines,
by just a few weeks. Like the band's singles, Virgins and Philistines failed to
gain a large audience for the Colour Field. The band released a second album,
Deception, in the spring of 1987. During the sessions, Lyons left the band,
leaving Hall to finish the album by himself; to complete the album, Hall hired
Raquel Welch's band.

After the Colour Field imploded, Hall formed a trio with an American actress
called Blair Booth and a jeweler called Anouchka Groce. Terry, Blair, and
Anouchka explored Hall's love for '60s pop, as well as kitschy mainstream pop,
as evidenced on the trio's cover of Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us
Together." "Missing," the group's first single, was released in the fall of 1989
and it didn't make much of an impact, peaking at number 75 on the British
charts. The trio's second single, "Ultra Modern Nursery Rhyme," didn't even
chart. Terry, Blair, and Anouchka's debut album, also called Ultra Modern
Nursery Rhyme, was released in February of 1990 to little attention.

Two years later, Hall returned with Vegas, a one-shot collaboration with Dave
Stewart from the Eurythmics. Vegas' eponymous album was released in the fall of
1992 and yielded three minor U.K. hits: "Possessed," "She," and "Walk Into the
Wind." Vegas wasn't particularly successful and the duo disbanded in early 1993.
Hall released his first official solo, Home, in the spring of 1995 to mild
interest. After its release, he collaborated on a new single, "Chasing a
Rainbow," with Blur's Damon Albarn. The single was a minor hit and was added to
a re-release of Home later in the year. Early in 1996, Hall was featured in
Tricky's side project Nearly God, singing on the single "Poems." ~ Stephen
Thomas Erlewine

Related artists