Everything about Men Without Hats totally explained
Men Without Hats are a
pop group from
Montreal,
Quebec that achieved their greatest popularity in the early to mid
1980s. They were characterized by the deep, expressive
vocals of their lead singer
Ivan and their elaborate use of
synthesizers and electronic processing. Their most-remembered single was titled "
The Safety Dance."
History
At the core, Men Without Hats consisted of
Ivan Doroschuk and his brother
Stefan, with various other members, including a third brother,
Colin Doroschuk, as well as
Jeremy Arrobas,
Tracy Howe,
Roman Martyn,
Mike Gabriel,
Jean-Marc Pisapia,
Lenny Pinkas, and
Allan McCarthy. They emerged with an EP called
Folk of the 80's (1980). Tracy Howe was only with the band briefly, but long enough to be credited on a reprint of
Folk of the 80s, despite not appearing on it; he later achieved some success with his new band,
Rational Youth. Pisapia went on to form
The Box, and later, Arrobas and Gabriel left to work with him for a while, eventually founding their own group,
Isinglass.
A popular but unconfirmed tale is that the name originated from a misread announcement to one of their early gigs as "Men Without Pants" by a francophone MC in Montréal. Though that tale may be unconfirmed the fact is that Men Without Hats first started off in bars as Men With Hats, but they decided to change the name to Men Without Hats as they always threw their hats off at the end of a performance.
The band erupted onto the international scene a couple of years later with their worldwide hit single "
The Safety Dance" from their debut album
Rhythm of Youth. The song spent four weeks at number three on the
Billboard Hot 100, and was also a major hit in the
UK (#6), in
Canada (#12), in what was
West Germany (#2), in
South Africa (#1), in
Austria (#7), in
Sweden (#3), in
Norway (#3), and in
Switzerland (#4). They charted once again with the
title track from their 1987 album,
Pop Goes the World, which reached #20 in the US, #3 in South Africa, and #1 in Austria and Sweden. The song was also featured in the movie
Date with an Angel (1987), starring
Phoebe Cates,
Emmanuelle Béart and
Michael E. Knight. The next album
The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century, released in 1989 featured a cover of
ABBA's song "
SOS".
Their 1991 album
Sideways, dominated by processed
electric guitars instead of keyboards, revealed a dramatically different sound for the band. The album failed to attract an
American label, and the band broke up.
Following the break-up, Ivan released a solo album,
The Spell, in 1997. Stefan and Mack MacKenzie (of 3 O'Clock Train) released
Ride of Glory, a post-modern Western-themed CD.
Stefan and Ivan regrouped to release
No Hats Beyond This Point in 2003.
Discography
Studio albums
Compilations
(1996)
(1996)
(2006)
Ivan solo albums
The Spell (1997)
Music videos
"Security"
"Antarctica"
"Nationale 7"
"The Safety Dance"
"I Like"
"Where Do the Boys Go?"
"Pop Goes the World"
"Moonbeam"
"Hey Men"
"..In the 21st Century"
"Sideways"
"Open Your Eyes" (Ivan)
"SuperBadGirls" (Ivan)
DVDs
Live Hats (Le Spectrum show, from Freeways tour) released in June 2006
Trivia
Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson played flute on the song "On Tuesday" on Pop Goes the World.
The dwarf in the music video "The Safety Dance" is actor Mike Edmonds (Return of the Jedi, Time Bandits, Flash Gordon).
In an episode of US comedy Scrubs, Turk sings 5 lines from "The Safety Dance" while discussing the problems of parenthood with his fiancee, Carla. In this case they're referring to their son wanting to dance instead of playing football with his friends.
In an episode of US Comedy South Park, Butters dances to part of the song.
In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer makes fun of the song Safety Dance by singing "Everybody look at your pants!" In another episode, Safety Dance is played on the radio, and they're referred to by the KBBL broadcasters as "Men without Jobs."
In an episode of Family Guy, Brian makes fun of the band by referring to them as "Men Without Jobs."
In Futurestock, an episode of Futurama Fry meets another guy from his own time, and they discuss Safety Dance. Fry doesn't think that the dance is safe at all, while the other guy keeps imitating the keyboard part throughout the episode.
In Bio-Dome, the Safety Dance video is in part recreated by the cast of the movie, complete with the dancing midget.
Covers
The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century featured a cover of Abba's "S.O.S."
Sideways featured a cover of The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" (subtitled "'No You're Not', Said Little Nicola").
The Collection and Greatest Hats compilations featured a cover of Roxy Music's "Editions of You"Further Information
Get more info on 'Men Without Hats'.
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