The Safety Dance

Infobox Single
Name = The Safety Dance


Artist = Men Without Hats
B-side = "Security"
from Album = Rhythm of Youth
Released = 1982 (US) 1983 (UK)
Format = 7" 12" CD
Recorded = 1982
Genre = Pop
Length = 2:41
Label = Virgin
Writer = Ivan Doroschuk
Producer =
Last single = -
This single = "The Safety Dance" (1982/1983)
Next single = "Living in China" (1983)

"The Safety Dance" was the biggest-selling single by the 1980s synth pop group Men Without Hats, written by frontman Ivan Doroschuk. Released in the United States in 1982 and in the United Kingdom in September 1983, the song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on Cash Box. In the United Kingdom the song also proved successful, reaching number six. It was actually released three times before sparking an interest on radio play. The song would prove to be the only major international hit for the group. Their follow-up album, "Folk of the 80's (Part III)", reached no higher than #127 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart.

The music video for the song is notable for its medieval imagery. It was filmed in the village of West Kington, near Bath, in south-west England. Ivan Doroschuk is the only member of the band to actually perform in the video; the other band members can be seen standing in the entry to one of the buildings in the town square. The dwarf in the video has been identified as actor Mike Edmonds. The Morris Dance side performing in the video was Chippenham Town Morris from Wiltshire. The video was popular enough on MTV to have a brief snippet of it shown on an episode of "Kidd Video" and the entire video on, of all shows, "Captain Kangaroo".

Track listing

12" maxi version

# "The Safety Dance" (Extended Version)
# "I Got the Message"
# "Antarctica"

7" single version

# "The Safety Dance"
# "Security"

12" promotional version

# "The Safety Dance" (Extended Club Mix)
# "Antarctica"

In popular culture

The song and its accompanying dance have been referenced or featured in numerous movies and television shows, including America's Funniest Home Videos, "Bio-Dome", "The Rick Mercer Report", "Streethawk", "Futurama" (where it is remarked that the dance "is not as safe as they said."), "The Simpsons" (Homer: "You can dance, you can dance, everybody look at your pants...") "South Park" (in episode Asspen, Butters dancing with this song), "Scrubs" (briefly sung by Donald Faison in episode "My Day at the Races"), and "Feed the Need", a 2007 skateboarding video by Osiris Shoes. The song is referenced in the title of an episode of the show "Grounded for Life" in Safety Dance, where Sean and Claudia have to chaperone a dance at Lily's high school.

In the "That '70s Show" episode "It's a Wonderful Life", an angel (played by Wayne Knight) comes to Eric Forman and takes him forward to the 1980s. Beforehand though, he plays a brief snippet of the Safety Dance to which Eric responds, "Good God, what is that?" The angel replies, "You'll find out."

The song also appears as a lounge music cover on the Jaymz Bee and the Royal Jelly Orchestra album "Cocktail: Shakin' and Stirred".

The Canadian teen drama named one of its after this song.

It is the first song danced at the jPod prom in the episode "Senseless Prom Death" "List of jPod episodes"

Parodies

*"Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the song as "The Brady Bunch" on the album "Weird Al Yankovic in 3-D".
*Kidd Chris parodied the song as "Sulu Dance".
* "Shrek the Third" parodied the song as "Donkey Dance".

External Links

* [http://www.menwithouthats.com Men Without Hats – Official Site]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=west+kington&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=86.595945,109.335938&ie=UTF8&ll=51.493455,-2.280296&spn=0.002184,0.003337&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr&om=1 Satellite image of West Kington, where the Safety Dance video was filmed]
* [http://www.chippenhammorris.com/ Chippenham Town Morris]