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Do You Really Want to Hurt Me

"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.jpg
Single by Culture Club
from the album Kissing to Be Clever
Released 6 September 1982 / November 22, 1982 (US)
Genre New wave, blue-eyed soul, reggae
Length 4:22
Label Virgin
Epic (US)
Writer(s) Roy Hay, Boy George, Mikey Craig, Jon Moss
Producer(s) Steve Levine
Culture Club singles chronology
"Mystery Boy"
(Japan)
(1982)
"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
(1982)
"Time (Clock of the Heart)"
(1982)
"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
Do you really want to hurt me (Blue Lagoon version).jpg
Single by Blue Lagoon
from the album Club Lagoon
B-side Extended version
Released February 13, 2005
Format CD single
CD maxi
Length 3:29
Label Kon$um, SME
Writer(s) Michael Craig
Roy Hay
Jon Moss
George O'Dowd
Producer(s) Felix J. Gauder
Blue Lagoon singles chronology
"Break My Stride"
(2004)
"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
(2005)
"Heartbreaker"
(2005)

"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" is a song written and recorded by the British new wave band Culture Club. Released as a single in September 1982 from the group's platinum-selling debut album Kissing to Be Clever, it was the band's first UK #1 hit. In the United States, the single was released in November 1982 and also became a huge hit, reaching #2 for three weeks.

"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" was the third single released in Europe by Culture Club and their debut release in the United States and Canada. The song was picked up by BBC Radio 2 and became a UK #1 single for three weeks in October 1982. The song entered the American Pop chart the week ending December 4, 1982. It hit #1 in Cash Box magazine and held at #2 for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March and April 1983 (kept from the #1 spot by Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"). The single achieved sales of 900,000 US copies and also hit #1 in Canada. It was also number one in Australia.

This was Culture Club's first success, after their first two releases, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me" charted in the UK at #114 and #100 respectively. According to Boy George, it was their last chance to get an album deal.

The song rose rapidly in the UK charts after the group's first appearance on Top of the Pops, which resulted in George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity making newspaper headlines. The group were only asked to appear on Top of the Pops the night before the show, after Shakin' Stevens pulled out.

In a retrospective review, Allmusic journalist Jose F. Promis described "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" as "a simple masterpiece, resonating with an ache that harked back to the classic torch songs of yesteryear."

In 2007, Boy George said that the song was "not just about Culture Club's drummer Jon Moss, my boyfriend at the time. It was about all the guys I dated at that time in my life."


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Wikipedia

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