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Terry Hall was the lead singer of The Specials, the Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, Terry, Blair and Anouchka and Vegas. He released his first solo album, Home, in 1995. He has also worked with The Lightning Seeds, Stephen Duffy, Gorillaz and Tricky and appeared live with The Ordinary Boys.

Hall was an active member of the Coventry music scene of the 70s, playing in local punk band Squad and being credited as a composer on their single Red Alert/£8 a week.

As the frontman for The Specials, Hall primarily struck it big in Britain in the late 70's when John Peel played their single Gangsters on his Radio One show, while still remaining somewhat unknown in the United States. The Specials' first self-titled album features some of Hall's most recognizable and notable performances, including Little Bitch, Nite Klub, Concrete Jungle, and Gangsters. This debut album also displays Hall's writing talent alongside with Jerry Dammers. Hall's trademark sardonic, wry and deadpan vocals combined with sarcastic kitchen-sink lyrics still raise a smile today, seemingly a direct precursor to the dour poetic wit of Morrissey.

In October of 1980, The Specials released their second album, More Specials. While singing such fan-favorites such as Enjoy Yourself, Rat Race, and Hey, Little Rich Girl, Terry successfully helped the band recreate the upbeat music that the first album possessed. The next album The Specials produced, 1984's In The Studio, did not include Hall.

After The Specials' last single with Terry, Ghost Town, Hall left the band to start a new wave pop group, Fun Boy Three, with two other Specials members, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples. Fun Boy Three's first hit single occurred in late-1981, entitled The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum), then followed-up in early-1982 with It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It), a duet with Bananarama. In February of 1983, Fun Boy Three released Waiting, consisting of the top ten hits The Tunnel of Love and Our Lips Are Sealed, a song Hall wrote with Jane Wiedlin, who already made it into a hit the previous year with her group, the Go-Go's.

In 1985, Hall's Coventry-based 'The Colourfield' project generated a critically acclaimed album, Virgins & Philistines, and a fine single in the form of Thinking of You (a UK #12 hit single). For many, this marked-out his new direction which would culminate in successful collaborations with the Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie, contributing a number of songs to the Seeds' Sense (1992), Jollification (1994), Dizzy Heights (1996) and Tilt (1999) albums. Hall also co-wrote the song 'Smoke Rings' for Broudie's debut solo album 'Tales Told'. The track was subsequently released as the lead track on the 'Smoke Rings EP'.