Welcome to the House of Fun!

Madness, originally known as The Invaders, opted for a seemingly bashful name change after inspired by song of ska hero Prince Buster. In 1979, The Specials launched 2 Tone records and Madness was invited to cut the single “The Prince” resulting in their debut hit.
Madness continued to hone their appealing mixture of ska – which is non-existent today, music hall, pop, R&B, visual comedy and potent social commenta ry. Madness subsequently became one of the most consistent UK hitmakers of the 1980’s and but largely dismissed by the American market probably due to the overtly British lyrical content and appearance. They lost out in any case…bloody impudent colonial subjects!
The memorable “House of Fun” was released as a once-off single on 30 April 1982, reached #1 in the UK and spent nine weeks in the charts. It was originally recorded under the obscure title “Chemist Façade”, without the familiar “Welcome to the House of Fun” chorus. Stiff Records boss Dave Robinson then intervened by demanding that they add a chorus to ensure that the song was a hit. Band member Mike Barson immediately responded by writing the chorus refrain on his piano.
Since the song was already recorded, management decided not to re-record the whole song but to introduce an intricate editing process. Well, in those days they worked with tape making editing quite tricky resulting in the word “Welcome” being cut off sounding like “Elcome”. Suggs, the gentleman in the suit who holds the mic, was then forced to overdub the word “Welcome”. It was eventually pulled off and after this minor studio miracle the Americans still did not take them seriously.