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Ever wonder what 1983's "Safety Dance" by Canada's Men Without Hats was really about?
Well, the backstory was pretty unique, but not what most people assumed it was: a call for either safe sex or ban on nuclear weapons.
Nope: It was written by lead singer Ivan Doroschuk after a bouncer threw him out of a disco club because he was "pogo dancing." In other words: wildly jumping up and down in the same spot on the dance floor like a pogo stick.
"Pogoing" was a "new wave" fad and Ivan was told he was bounced for the SAFETY of disco dancers who might get injured by his antics.
Seriously.
I an interview with VH-1, Ivan said people were reading way too much into it. The song, if anything,, was a call for freedom of expression, and nothing more.
Whatever people thought about "The Safety Dance," it became a worldwide hit in 1983, reaching the Top 10 in 11 countries, and just missing in Canada at #11.
Here in the US, it topped Billboard's Dance Club Chart and reached #3 on the Hot 100.
In 1984, Weird Al released a parody of the song, called "The Brady Bunch," of all things...and most recently it was used on an episode of "Glee" in a story that centered around the wheelchair-bound character of Artie. Ivan himself praised the episode as a meaningful way to to introduce the song to a new generation.
"The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats: It might not be what you thought it was...but it's still a Great Song of 1983.
Tomorrow: Legroom on the Top 10.
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