Artist Name
Boys Don't Cry

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Members
members icon 5 Male

Origin
flag England

Genre
genre icon Pop

Style
style icon Rock/Pop

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Born

born icon 1983

Active
calendar icon 1983 to Present...

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2 users heart off Boys Don't Cry - I Wanna Be a Cowboy


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Artist Biography
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The band was formed in 1983 as the brainchild of lead vocalist/keyboardist Nick Richards, who had just purchased Maison Rouge Recording Studios in London. An early version of the group released their debut EP Don't Talk to Strangers on independent UK label Legacy Records in Britain in 1983. By the mid-1980s, the band's lineup had stabilized around principal members Richards and keyboardist Brian Chatton (born Brian Charles Chatton, 19 July 1948, in Bolton, Lancashire), along with Jeff Seopardi on drums, Nico Ramsden on guitar, and Mark Smith on bass. Chatton had previously had a brief stint on keyboards with 1970s progressive band Jackson Heights, contributing heavily to their Ragamuffin's Fool LP.

Boys Don't Cry were discovered by Paul Oakenfold, who was a talent scout for Profile Records in London in the mid-'80s. Best known for being Run DMC's record label at the time, Profile signed the band for the U.S. market and Legacy retained the rights to the band's UK releases. Mercury Records won the bidding for Canada and Intercord Tonträger GmbH handled their releases in Germany.

The single "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was released in 1986. A novelty song with deadpan humour and kitschy references, the song has been described as the perfect musical realization of a spaghetti western movie. It hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 13 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart in 1986–1987, and was R&R No. 8. "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was also a top 10 hit in Australia and South Africa. The video featured a cameo appearance by Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead.

They would go on to release two full-length albums: a self-titled debut in 1986, which included "I Wanna Be a Cowboy", and a follow-up the following year titled Who the Am Dam do You Think We Am. The second album was simply released in America as Boys Don't Cry, creating some confusion there, since the band now had two consecutive self-titled albums released within a year of each other. The follow-up single to "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" was (necessarily perhaps) a complete departure; "Cities On Fire", an energetic rush of synth-rock which was released in 7" and 12" remix form, received early attention from MTV but failed to connect with fans of the novelty hit and didn't receive enough airplay to create a new fanbase.

On July 30, 1997, co-writers Nick Richards and Brian Chatton sued Paula Cole, Warner Brothers Records, and Imago Records, along with remix producers DJ EFX, Big Ed, and the E-Team, for $7 million in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claiming that Cole's remix of "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" used the phrase "I wanna be a cowboy" 24 times in the same style and syntax as their song and constituted copyright infringement.
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Last Edit by Aliade Records
18th Mar 2024

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