Boys Don't Cry

Boys Don't Cry started in 1983 as the pet project of singer and keyboardist Nick Richards, who had just bought Maison Rouge Recording Studios in London. An early version of the band, Richards with guitarist Richard Taee, drummer Steve Creese and a few session hands, put out the EP Don't Talk to Strangers that year on the small British label Legacy Records.

By the middle of the decade the lineup had settled around Richards and keyboardist Brian Chatton, one of those session players and a veteran of the '70s progressive band Jackson Heights, with Nico Ramsden on guitar and Mark Smith on bass. Paul Oakenfold, then scouting talent for Profile Records in London, was the one who found them.

The song that made their name was "I Wanna Be a Cowboy", from their 1986 self-titled album, and it's gloriously daft: a galloping new wave novelty that swaps the synth-pop gloom of the day for spaghetti western twang and a chorus built for hollering. In 1986 it reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it was a hit well beyond America too. It's the kind of record that sneaks onto the radio, refuses to leave, and still sounds just as ridiculous, and just as much fun, every time it comes back around.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.