“I Eat Cannibals” by Toto Coelo

"I Eat Cannibals" was the first single from Toto Coelo, the British new wave outfit that Americans met as Total Coelo, and it arrived in 1982 like a costume party crashing a playground. Paul Greedus, Roy Nicolson and Barry Blue wrote it, and Blue produced it, with pounding drums and a chanted, sing-song hook that's impossible to shake.

It turned up the following year on Man o' War, the group's only studio album, split in two, with Part One opening the record and Part Two closing it. It was a hit across the map: number two in Sweden, three in South Africa, four in Australia and Denmark, eight in the UK, and 66 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its video drew a nomination at the Fifth Annual Billboard Music Video Conference.

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