High Hat (album)

Overview

Since neither Tense Nervous Headache or Boyfriend are any longer available, High Hat remains the only place to find any of Boy George’s songs from 1988-89. While High Hat has only ten tracks, the two other albums together included eighteen tracks: nine on the vinyl and twelve on the CD and tape for Tense Nervous Headache; plus eight for Boyfriend, one of which (the hi-energy remix of "No Clause 28", also known as "Pascal Gabriel Mix") would later re-surface on Jesus Loves You’s The Martyr Mantras album.

Tense Nervous Headache was shelved in the UK shortly after release of the first single due to lack of interest (or, as George put it in his autobiography, after it "died a solitary death"), despite the singer getting to #1 in the UK Singles Chart the previous year with "Everything I Own". Half of the ten tracks on High Hat were quite unsuccessful singles either taken from Tense Nervous Headache or Boyfriend: "Don’t Cry", "Whisper", "Don’t Take My Mind on a Trip", "You Found Another Guy" and "Whether They Like It or Not".

The only track actually taken from High Hat as an independent single in America was the U.S. remix of the opener "Don't Take My Mind on a Trip", the version of which included on High Hat is slightly different from that originally opening Boyfriend. "High Hat" was also released in Australia (V2555) and Mexico (LEMP-1640). "Don’t Take My Mind on a Trip" was a club hit in Canada and the US, charting at #5 on the Billboard R&B charts. "You Found Another Guy" went into the top 40 of the same charts also. High Hat nonetheless did a little better than its US predecessor Sold, reaching number 126 on the Billboard charts.

Boy George was not proud of many of the tracks on that release, especially those on the Boyfriend album, which he first rejected. Finally, after the flop of Tense Nervous Headache, Virgin Records didn’t ask him about the track listing of Boyfriend and High Hat.

Track listing

1. "Don't Take My Mind on a Trip" (U.S. Remix) - 5:21 (Griffin)
2. "Whisper" - 5:40 (O'Dowd, Maidman, Bobby Z)
3. "Whether They Like It or Not" - 5:10 (Griffin, O'Dowd, Bell)
4. "You Found Another Guy" - 4:27 (Griffin, Bell, Middleton)
5. "You Are My Heroin" - 6:21 (O'Dowd, Maidman, Nightingale, Stevens, Fletcher)
6. "I'm Not Sleeping Anymore" - 4:20 (Griffin, O'Dowd)
7. "Kipsy" - 6:06 (O'Dowd, Nightingale, Dewar, Geary)
8. "Don't Cry" (single version) - 4:09 (O'Dowd, Maidman, Bobby Z)
9. "Girl with Combination Skin" - 6:00 (O'Dowd, Fletcher, Maidman, Nightingale)
10. "Something Strange Called Love" (edit) - 3:59 (O'Dowd, Vincent, Dewar)

Personnel

Tracks 2, 5, 7–10

Tracks 1, 3, 4, 6