Interestingly, the original recording of House Of Fun was entitled Chemist Facade
and didn't even have a chorus. Before the single release, Stiff Records
demanded that Madness come up with a chorus to ensure good sales, and
so band member Mike Barson created the "Welcome To The House Of Fun"
chorus on his piano.
The song spent nine weeks in the UK singles chart and featured on the band's first greatest hits album Complete Madness,
which spent a whopping 99 weeks in the album charts and peaked at #1.
The single was the ska/2 tone band's only #1 single, although they had a
total of eight top five hits during the 80s, including Wings Of A Dove (#2), Baggy Trousers (#3), My Girl (#3), Driving In My Car (#4), Embarrassment (#4), Grey Day (#4), It Must Be Love (#4) and The Sun And The Rain (#5).
