Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, Culture Club

Do You Really Want to Hurt Me is a song written and recorded by Culture Club. The single was released in September 1982 and is taken from the group's platinum-selling debut album Kissing to Be Clever, it was also the band's first UK No.1 hit single.

I didn't think anyone was going to buy Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? It was really personal not a hit record, I thought. I wanted us to sound completely different. Shows how much I knew.

The song rose rapidly in the UK charts after the group's first appearance on Top of the Pops, which resulted in Boy George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity making newspaper headlines.

Boy George... I remember writing it in a flat in central London. Jon’s friends were smoking weed, and that’s where the idea was formed. I jotted some lyrics down on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket. The opening section, which is a very high falsetto, I only ever sang once – during the recording. Once I’d done it, I knew I’d never do it again. When the tape broke, there was talk about me having to redo it. I said no, fix the tape.

Jon Moss... When we played it to Virgin, everyone at the meeting stood up and started clapping. It seemed obvious we had a massive hit on our hands. What was weird about the band back in the early 1980s was that we didn’t have a manager. But I knew it would be all right: the stars seemed to be coming into alignment.

There are two stories about how the group were asked to appear on Top of the Pops the night before the show, one being that Shakin' Stevens pulled out and the other that Elton John had refused.

The video for the song, directed by Julien Temple, featured lead singer Boy George on trial in a courtroom, with flashbacks to the Gargoyle Club, Soho in 1936 and the Dolphin Square Health Club, Pimlico in 1957. 

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