Where's the Love for Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days"?

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(*arms at sides, palms facing out*)
"Anyone? Anyone??"

Personally I've always loved it.

Take your baby by the wrist / And in her mouth an amethyst / And in her eyes two sapphires blue / And you need her and she needs you

― ClevelandPat, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm more of a "Fire in the Twillight" guy, actually. "To Live and Die in L.A." weren't bad either.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck Wang Chung. Alex, this is the kind of crap you make fun of other people for liking all the time, but you'll notice I'm taking the high road by not saying that you're drowning in a Lake Shitticaca of absolute 100% unadulterated syphilis-ridden wrongness here.

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:15 (twenty-one years ago)

You're entitled to your opinion, of course. I hope you're happy with wallowing naked in a septic tank of tepid inaccuracy, because ulltimately that's all you're doing.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay so much for the high road then.

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:22 (twenty-one years ago)

this song's dandy

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Alex OTM! [much choking from Sourpuss] I'd forgotten all about "Fire In The Twilight". Huge favorite. Much more love for that than anything else of theirs, for me anyway. "Dance Hall Days" always seemed a little sinister or creepy. Something in that flat delivery of his [shudders].

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Warmer Side Of Cool" cd from 1989 is my personal favorite by this group. There is a sophistication that wasn't always prevalent on earlier releases. And the drumming is just superb on certain tracks.

― bahtology, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

look at me now!

― dave q (listerine), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

wang chung? wtf.

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

yes! this song is great. i like the flat delivery

― jake b. (cerybut), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

is there a funnier phrase in english than "Fuck Wang Chung"? no, no there isn't.

― f--gg (gcannon), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 04:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd prefer the song be remixed as "Rocks in Ya Mouf."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

love ethis song.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 06:19 (twenty-one years ago)

this song is from the holy year of pop that was 1984, ergo i does love it!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 06:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Wang Chung was an active k'ao-cheng scholar. He received patronage from high officials such as Pi Yuan (1730-97) and Chu Yun (1729-81). He was one of the few k'ao-cheng scholars who combined Classical studies with social criticism. In his hands philology became a powerful weapon for ridiculing social follies.

― jake b. (cerybut), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 07:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Eisbãr's OTM about 1984. And as for loving it...well, it's not bad, certainly better than "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". For some reason, I always associate this with another '84 song that I like a lot more, "Listen To The Radio" by the Pukka Orchestra. Dunno exactly why those two are linked, they sound nothing alike. Maybe their videos appeared around the same time - MuchMusic debuted in Canada that year, and I saw a LOT of videos over the next year or so until I lost track.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

wait, wasn't this song put to use in _Real Genius_? which flick had this in it?

― kingfish van pickles (Kingfish), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005AVS9.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

BACHELOR PARTY! THAT WAS IT! Tom Hanks' finest moment since _Mazes & Monsters_

― kingfish van pickles (Kingfish), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 08:03 (twenty-one years ago)

my girlfriend used to think 'Dance Hall Days' was by David Bowie. i bring it up from time to time, if she needs bringing down a peg or two.

― Lee F# (fsharp), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

But given the quality of Bowie's output in that time frame (1984, Tonight) it could have been Bowie.

Except that "Dance Hall Days" is better than "Blue Jean."

― ffirehorse, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i just saw to live and die in LA the other day. what an unpleasant movie.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Useless piece of celebrity trivia - the bloke out of Wang Chung is the father of Jack Ryder (Jamie off Eastenders/Mr Kym Marsh out of Hear'say).

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

(song is utterly meh)

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

-- s1ocki i just saw to live and die in LA the other day. what an unpleasant movie.

One of the best car chases, and most downbeat endings. Too bad for Everybody Have Fun, because that nullifies Wang Chung's great one hit wonder status.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

And as for loving it...well, it's not bad, certainly better than "Everybody Have Fun Tonight"
OTM

― Quit glaring at Ian Riese-Moraine! He's mentally fraught! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I love "Dance Hall Days."

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

and i

― wang, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

you

― chung, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

and everyone we knew

― wang, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

we believed

― chung, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

too

― wang, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

in sharing what was true

― chung, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

and i said

― wang, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

da da na na na (da na na, da na na da na na)

― jake b. (cerybut), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

dance hall days, love

― chung, Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

the singer looked EXACTLY like Dr. Smith on Lost in Space.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Thursday, 17 March 2005 11:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahahahahahaha.....this is true.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

this song is great and will remind me forever of 8th grade.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Another song I love listening to in GTA Vice City while running over Cuban gang members.

― David Allen (David Allen), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember watching an interview with the lead dude (Dr.Smith) on MTV back in the bronze age, and they asked him who some of his favorite artists were, and he said "XTC". You'd certainly be hard-pressed to hear any influence from XTC in Wang Chung's music, but I think that particular proclamation of fandom for a band I'm especially fond of made me think better of them (though "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" is inexcusably dire....though I'm sure it made them lots of money). "Dance Hall Days" doesn't really do much for me (decent video, though, especially the cracking mirror-ball dancer thingamajig), but --once again -- "Fire in the Twillight" and "To Live & Die in L.A." are both great. Perhaps they should've just stuck to contributing to soundtracks.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i saw them when they were still HUANG chung!!

(wow two degrees of sep from my lovely kym marsh!!)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 17 March 2005 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

No one can find the love for this song because it's been buried beneath a giant boulder in the middle of the desert. The song was good for 100 plays and then it met its demise. Thank you and goodnight.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 18 March 2005 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

That said, Everybody Have Fun Tonight is actually much much worse and people with the nerve to play that within 500 miles of my ears are going to be escorted out the door and into the slammer very quickly.

Everybody will NOT have FUN TONIGHT

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 18 March 2005 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I really wonder how anyone could not like this song.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Friday, 18 March 2005 04:04 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

The CHUNG and how to WANG it

― Michael B, Friday, 5 March 2010 15:08 (sixteen years ago)

I love the bit in a Cheers episode where Fraiser comes into the bar for somebodys b-day and says something like, 'i heard a charming little ditty on the radio as i drove here and i felt it was apt for this special occasion. everybody have fun tonight, everybody.......wang chung tonight'.

― Michael B, Friday, 5 March 2010 15:10 (sixteen years ago)

my bad! acc. to wikipedia --- In the "To all the Girls I've Loved Before" episode of Cheers, Fraser Crane says, at the beginning of his bachelor party, "I remember the lyrics of one of those tribal songs: 'Everybody have fun tonight, everybody Wang Chung tonight'".

― Michael B, Friday, 5 March 2010 15:16 (sixteen years ago)

Was trying to find William Friedikin's liner notes for the To Live and Die in L.A. soundtrack, and then tried to find "Lullaby" on YouTube, but neither is out there on the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9AF_vTq9po

― can it compete with the wagon wheel (Eazy), Friday, 5 March 2010 15:16 (sixteen years ago)

five years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuu33TOdJPg

― Kibbutzki (Jaap Schip), Sunday, 22 March 2015 02:14 (eleven years ago)

Enjoyed that, thank you.

First record that I can remember being laughed at in school for buying. Fuck em, I still like it.

― cgi bubka (NickB), Sunday, 22 March 2015 07:29 (eleven years ago)

I love this song! it is also fun to sing along to in your bedroom, I think partially because the Wang Chung guy already sounds like someone singing along to Bowie in his bedroom

― soref, Sunday, 22 March 2015 08:00 (eleven years ago)

Always liked the heavily processed, all chorused out guitar sound on this.

― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 22 March 2015 18:05 (eleven years ago)

Chorused guitar pretty much the rule of the '80s. I just noticed the other day, in fact, that even pretty much every song on "London Calling" features chorus.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 March 2015 18:24 (eleven years ago)

They still play this all the time on satellite radio. It's aged well, as opposed to Everybody Have Fun Tonight.

― kornrulez6969, Sunday, 22 March 2015 20:52 (eleven years ago)

This is a great song. Really like how it's produced those opening bars sound huge.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 22 March 2015 20:56 (eleven years ago)

This is one of those great songs that (in the US at least) belies the band's one hit wonder status in great style. Greg Kihn's "Breakup Song" is another.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 March 2015 21:03 (eleven years ago)

Got to thank GTA: Vice City for introducing me to this.

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