Fine Young Cannibals

Combining the punch of punk with the languid grooves and passionate vocals of classic soul, Fine Young Cannibals came together in Birmingham in 1984, when David Steele and Andy Cox of ska-punk legends The Beat joined forces with vocalist and actor Roland Gift. The band’s 1985 self-titled debut made waves thanks to the jittery New Wave cut “Johnny Come Home” and a peppy take on “Suspicious Minds”. Four years later the trio followed it up with The Raw & The Cooked, which spawned six hit singles, including the spiky “Don’t Look Back”, the doo-wop-tinged “Good Thing” and—perhaps most famously—“She Drives Me Crazy”, which paired Gift’s soaring falsetto with jagged guitars and hiccuping rhythms and which went to No. 5 in the UK and topped pop charts around the world. After releasing The Raw & The Remix, which featured reworks of Cooked songs by the likes of Youth and Derrick May, Fine Young Cannibals dissolved in 1992.