I think it's about coming of age, I can't remember much about because when it happened to me it was a long time ago. Madness guitarist Chris Foreman commented jokingly about the song: The confused chemist behind the counter eventually informs the boy that the establishment is not a joke shop, and directs him towards the 'House of Fun'. However, the boy is misunderstood by the chemist, as he asks for the condoms using slang euphemisms, such as 'box of balloons with a featherlight touch' and 'party hats The UK age of consent is 16, and he makes a point of stating that he is '16 today and up for fun'. The lyrics tell the story of a boy on his 16th birthday attempting to buy condoms at a chemist. The song begins solely with eight drum beats, before the keyboard, bass guitar, electric guitar, trumpet and saxophone are all introduced simultaneously. The song is written in simple verse-chorus form, ending with a repeating chorus fade out (the original 7' release version/mix ends with a sudden keyboard 'crash', followed by fairground organ music). It is a pop song which moves at an upbeat 126 beats per minute. 'House of Fun' is composed in the key of D, written in common time. Although this proved to be a tough task, it was completed successfully. Due to this, the chorus seemed to begin 'Elcome to the House of Fun', so lead singer Suggs was forced to overdub the word 'Welcome'. This proved to be difficult, mainly due to technical limitations at the time, and it resulted in the first part of the word 'Welcome' being cut off. Instead, the recording was edited, and the chorus instruments and vocals dubbed onto the recording. Īt this point, the song had already been recorded, and the management decided not to re-record the whole song. While the song was being recorded, head of Stiff Records Dave Robinson insisted that the song should have a chorus, so band member Mike Barson immediately wrote the 'Welcome to the House of Fun' refrain on his piano.

The song was originally recorded under the title 'Chemist Facade', without the 'Welcome to the House of Fun' chorus. It is the band's only number one single in the UK and in 2015 the British public voted it as the nation's 8th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV. The song was re-released in 1992, reaching number 40. It was released as a one-off single on and reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, spending nine weeks in the charts. ' House of Fun' is a song by English ska/pop group Madness, credited to Mike Barson and Lee Thompson. For the television channel, see House of Fun TV. This article is about the Madness single.

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