Sing Me A Story> Karma Chameleon

So this advertisement was recently all over the place. I’m not sure why it stopped.

The song is performed by Drew Love, who appears in this and other versions of the ad campaign. He is not, however, the original performer of the song. A single from the album Colour By Numbers, “Karma Chameleon” was originally produced in the 1980s by Culture Club, with one of the songwriters being front man Boy George in his “random items I got from the clearance racks” fashion phase. While not as strange as some other choices for songs (there was that one to promote schoolteachers by using a song trashing the school system as propaganda, back when that claim came from the left instead of the right), it’s one of those songs that, in context, makes you wonder what they were thinking. Love’s version may have more of a party feel to it, but the song doesn’t really scream “party on the ocean”.

So what is this song about? If I were to base it just on the lyrics I’d say it was a man (without conviction) dealing with his lover’s changing attitudes. It won’t surprise you to hear the lover (not his rival) was another man, one of the other band members. Back then you had to be in the Village People to get away with being gay in the music industry. (Poor saps didn’t know that in 2024 their gag depiction of homosexuals would be how Hollywood depicts all gay men. No, I’m not saying they weren’t gay, but they were playing exaggerated versions of stereotypes for the bit.) Specifically, he was involved with drummer John Moss. From Songfacts:

• Boy George explained in The Billboard Book of #1 Hits by Fred Bronson, “The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It’s about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren’t true, if you don’t act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that’s nature’s way of paying you back.”
• Songwriting in Culture Club was mostly a group effort, with Boy George writing the lyrics. Many of his words were inspired by his relationship with the group’s drummer, Jon Moss, with whom he had an affair during the height of the group’s fame. George admitted that their first single “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” was about Moss, and their difficult lover-professional relationship was the inspiration for the line, “You’re my lover, not my rival” in “Karma Chameleon.” The relationship was hidden to the public and Jon never admitted it during the ’80s, so in a way Boy George was communicating with him through their songs.

None of that really says “ocean voyage party”, does it? Did he, or Virgin’s ad campaign, change anything in this song?

They changed “a man” to “someone”. The sound effects probably come from the full music video, but I went with the official audio only version, per Sing Me A Story’s methodology of focusing on the song, not the music video. So to sell your cruise package you chose a song about not being a lying hypocrite. I don’t know if Love did a cover of this and Virgin just got the rights to use it in the ads, having him on-screen to sing it. I did find a version without the sounds, so I don’t know what Virgin’s YouTube channel people were thinking, but I like using official stuff whenever possible. It’s just one of those funny choices made by ad makers that I find amusing.

Also, I kind of like Love’s version better. Is that wrong?