The Fine Young Cannibals
 

They were big in the 80's and I saw them on Tin Men a 1987 Danny Devito Richard Dreyfuss flick.

What happened to them?

I remember this song was played nonstop and I would always changed the station back in 1989 whenever it came on.

Roland Gifts voice sounded like Jimmy Fallons SNL Barry Gibb impression.

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Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

Most annoying singing voice ever. I still change the station when it comes on the radio.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

when i was a teen and my dad couldnt get me to wake up he would put their cd on full blast. "good thing" and "she drives me crazy" would have me running for the stereo to turn that shit off. such an awful band.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

I'd rather drill holes in my face rather than listen to that ****stain sing ever again.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

Oh man, couldn't disagree more---I think Roland Gift's voice is totally unique and fantastic. I haven't explored their/his catalog as much as I'd like to, but they did some REALLY great tunes:

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Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

The funny thing is that their debut album is great, but their second one is their big breakthrough album and those singles do really bite.

The good stuff:





And their excellent Buzzcocks cover from Something Wild:

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

Yes--love that Buzzcock's cover. I forgot about that one. I didn't think their big hits album sucked, but I would agree it was a bit more bland, and it got overplayed at the time.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

It's kind of strange that they never recorded a follow-up to "Raw and the Cooked" though. After seeing this thread, I looked them up on wiki fully expecting to see them suffer the same fate as many other "flash in the pan" 80s groups - the follow-up tanking because the fickle audience moved on. But they just kind of stopped (except for a couple of new songs for a 1996 "Best of" release).

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

First album is great. The Raw and the Cooked is great, but the songs that were pushed as singles, Good Thing and She Drives Me Crazy, aren't that great. I always thought Don't Look Back was the best single on the album.

I dug this album out about 2 years ago, I hadn't listened to it since it was new, and I was blown away by As Hard As It Gets. What a great song! His vocals are perfectly suited to the song it.

Also the Buzzcocks cover is better than the original version of that song.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

Didn't Roland Gift have a cameo appearance in "Scandal" or some other British film from around that time period? Also, I see he did eventually release a solo album. I always enjoyed them at the time and was eagerly wondering what FYC would put out after "Raw and the Cooked", but looks like they went their separate ways.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

:lol: The Jimmy Fallon comparison is a pretty good one. For all the hate for the She Drives Me Crazy song, I remember it was a big hit. I'm sure much of the hate is because they played that song into the ground.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

I actually came in to defend FYC but that "Suspicious Minds" cover is abhorrent.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

I liked the band, but yeah, that song. I remember trying to sleep in a Vancouver BC hotel as the bar below kept playing it over and over.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

Absolutely not a sucky band. As others stated, they were more than just the hits. You get massive bonus points from time spent in English Beat as well.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

I always liked their version of Suspicious Minds. He's not Elvis -- but no one is. But they had the balls to take him on, and did a pretty good job of it.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

I love their Suspicious Minds cover. The 12" version is even better.

Re: The Fine Young Cannibals
 

Good gawd, She Drives Me Crazy is the single worst song of the 80's which is not an easy title to wrangle from Tom's Diner a year prior.

It was horrendous the first time I heard it and only got incredibly worse by the one millionth time.