"Our House" by Madness

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May 112012
 

Mad­ness released “Our House” on Novem­ber 12, 1982. The song reached #5 on the U.K. Sin­gles Chart and peaked at #7 on the U.S. Bill­board Hot 100 in early 1983. The song won an Ivor Nov­ello award at the 1983 cer­e­mony, which is an award given by the British Acad­emy of Song­writ­ers, Com­posers and Authors (BASCA).

In the United States, Mad­ness is often con­sid­ered a one-hit won­der, even though they had already scored 12 Top 20 sin­gles and four Top 10 albums in the U.K. between 1979 and 1982. How­ever, after the suc­cess of “Our House,” Gef­fen Records released their 1981 sin­gle “It Must Be Love,” which reached #33 on the Bill­board Hot 100.

“Our House” was included on Mad­ness’ The Rise & Fall album in the rest of the world, but Gef­fen Records opted to released a com­pi­la­tion, Mad­ness, which included the hits from their albums One Step Beyond …, 7, The Rise & Fall, and their two stand-alone singles.

While the rest of the world received an extended ver­sion of “Our House” on the 12″ sin­gle, North Amer­i­can record-buyers were treated to a spe­cial remix by New York D.J. Mark Kamins, best known for pro­duc­ing Madonna’s first sin­gle, “Every­body,” as well as work with David Byrne, Karen Fin­ley, the Beastie Boys, Sinéad O’Connor, and UB40.

In 2002 a stage musi­cal, Our House, pre­miered in London’s West End that fea­tured the songs of Madness.

Ver­sions
Our House 3’30
Our House [Spe­cial Mix — Extended Ver­sion] 5’58
Our House [Spe­cial Remix — Extended Dance Ver­sion] 5’02
Our House [Stretch Mix] 3’45

Music Video
The music video for “Our House” shows the band play­ing their instru­ments while Suggs sings, inter­spersed with scenes of the them dressed as var­i­ous fam­ily mem­bers muck­ing about. The band said they took their inspi­ra­tion for the comic bits of the video from The Flint­stones and Benny Hill and the Key­stone Kops.

Mem­o­ries
“Our House” was all-over Top 40 radio and on the var­i­ous music video T.V. shows in Dallas/Fort Worth back in early 1983. The song was catchy and the strings really enhanced the melody, result­ing in it bounc­ing around the inside of your head even after it had faded out. The lyrics stood out to me, because they told a story. I really liked that. The music video, like many by British bands at that time, used a lot of imagery from 1950s Eng­land. “Bad Boys” by Wham! stands out in my mind.

I’d for­got­ten about Mad­ness until I ran across their Divine Mad­ness com­pi­la­tion CD in an import store in Dal­las. I bought it and was sur­prised to dis­cover that their ear­lier work sounded more ska than pop. I liked it, though, and began to explore sim­i­lar bands, like the Specials.

What are your mem­o­ries of “Our House” by Madness?