100 Greatest Songs of the 80’s #68 Fine Young Cannibals – Funny How Love Is

Released : 1985

Following on from the disintegration of The Beat, in search of a new singer Andy Cox and David Steele listened to hundreds of demo tapes before the voice of Roland Gift cut through dramatically.

Born in the West Midlands but by then located in unglamorous Hull, Gift had majored on the work of Otis Redding in his youth before becoming enthralled by punk. Unconventional in both sound and appearance, the band the trio formed struggled to get a deal before a captivating appearance on The Tube which featured the hit-to-be Johnny Come Home did the trick.

Johnny..would make the Fine Young Cannibals eponymous debut – at the time a suitably awkward proposition for record buyers with it’s tinges of ska, jazz and soul – a modest hit, but it’s best song has long since been lost; Funny How Love Is, with it’s gentle bossa, impeccable trumpet and Gift’s voice seemingly at breaking point is a lost love song so perfect that it had the power to stop the clocks. FYC would become that rarity of a British band who crossed the Atlantic sucessfully years later, but Funny How Love Is is the heart break you may never have heard of yet.