Men Without Hats – The Safety Dance

Terrible remix of a great pop single. Pressing is not good either. Avoid!!

Two good songs from this group. Decent little single is you like the 80's dance stuff.

The very first record I ever bought. I couldn’t afford the 12”.

The 4:32 "Extended 'Club Mix'" version found on the 12" was the version predominately played on the radio, at least in the Northeastern US, in the summer of 1983. I hadn't heard the 2:45 single/album/video version until it finally debuted on American Top 40 and got played by Casey Kasem, which was weeks after it was already getting heavy airplay. Even then, his show was the only time I ever heard that version, as radio kept playing the remix right on thru to "recurrent" status in the late fall. These days if you catch it on an "80s at 8" show or whatever, it always seems to be the single version. They're very different--almost different songs--so if you purchase the 12", you should know that you're not just getting a longer version of the single. But, if you were listening to the radio back when it was a hit, the 12" version will be the one most familiar to you.

An unabashed silly, bordering on nonsensical, just slightly to the left of being outrightly stupid … yet throughly infectious and entertaining, though truth be told, after all these years, I still have no idea what the video was attempting to represent, and looking at this bit of vinyl that was given to me as a gift (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), I’m still wondering why in the world I’ve saved this after all these years.

The song was an outcry for freedom of expression regarding club bouncers to stop harassing people from pogo dancing during the heyday of new wave music, where it was considered that pogoing was one step removed from slamdancing … and no, the lead singer Ivan Doroschuk explains, “The song was not about safe sex, nor was it about being anti-nuclear.”

The music, matter of fact, all of the band’s music is comprised of synth instrumentations and rapid fire delivery with an upbeat tempo laced with energetic lyrics, a sort of fusion if you will, a combination of Disco meets Punk, handing out a sound that holds nothing back, marking “Safety Dance” as an enduring timeless anthem from the early years of the decade.

You are certainly not going to find anything at all redeeming on this record, it’s a sugar rush, a can of syrupy Coca Cola sucked dry though a Pixie Straw, though even ing this song brings an ear to ear smile to my face, [laughing] reminding me of a few years from the last century that I would not care to relive.

*** The Fun Facts: The video was a combination of May-Pole and Punch & Judy activity, with Ivan being the only member of the actual band to perform in the production, with the other male dancers being part of the Chippenhanm Town Morris Men dancers, preforming a dance known as the Monkton Park. Of course the big question has always surround the tee shirt being sported by the dwarf (little person), which images the band’s first album cover Rhythm of Youth. The other question of course regards the identity of the fetching woman doing the quirky Safety Dance, who’s actuality was kept secret for over thirty years, being Louise Court, a British journalist and editor of Cosmopolitan.

Review by Jenell Kesler

On what version can one find the 9+ minutes extended remix?

On the Statik Records ‎– STAK 1 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Shaped Picture Disc, the side with the text is the B-side.
"The Safety Dance" is on the other side with no printed text (A-side). This pressing sounds great!

lol "bewildering array of b-sides" is right

at least 10 words

Has anyone rung the number yet? I'm dying to know who is on the other end!