Editing Culture Club (section)

=== 1983–1984: ''Colour by Numbers'' ===
[[File:Culture Club 1983.jpg|thumb|upright=1.13|Culture Club in 1983]]
The band's second album, ''[[Colour by Numbers]]'' (UK No.&nbsp;1, US No.&nbsp;2), was released in 1983. The first single, "[[Church of the Poison Mind]]", featuring backing vocalist [[Helen Terry]], reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "[[Karma Chameleon]]", gave the band their biggest hit, hitting No.&nbsp;1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best-selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5&nbsp;million copies there to date.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/daft-punks-get-lucky-becomes-one-of-the-uks-biggest-selling-singles-of-all-time-2315/|title=UK Official Charts Company (Top Selling Singles of All-Time)|website=Officialcharts.com|access-date=26 October 2018}}</ref> It also peaked at No.&nbsp;1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No.&nbsp;1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold seven million copies worldwide,<ref>{{cite web|first= Eric |last= Bodrero |year= 2005 |title= The Culture Club - Greatest Hits Review |work= antiMusic |access-date= 13 September 2024 |url= http://www.rocknworld.com/features/05/cultureclub.shtml}}</ref> with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer [[David Levine (photographer)|David Levine]].

The album ''Colour by Numbers'' would spawn more hits including "[[Miss Me Blind]]" (#5 US), "[[It's a Miracle (Culture Club song)|It's a Miracle]]" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "[[Victims (song)|Victims]]" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 [[Brit Award]] for Best Group and the [[Grammy Award]] for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thank you, America. You've got taste, style, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."

The group's back-up singer, [[Helen Terry]], began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the [[The Beach Boys (album)|Beach Boys' album]]. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie ''[[Electric Dreams (film)|Electric Dreams]]''. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada, Japan and South America, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Brazil. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by [[P. P. Arnold]]. The song was written with [[Phil Pickett]] (former member of the 1970s band [[Sailor (band)|Sailor]]) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.

Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.