MEN WITHOUT HATS

'Men Without Hats' were a pop group from Montreal, Quebec who 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".

Contents

History

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

Ivan solo albums

Music videos

DVDs

Trivia

Covers

See also

External links

History

'Men Without Hats' were always, at the core, Ivan Doroschuk and his brother Stefan, with various other members, including his 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. 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 Hate" by a francophone MC in Montréal. Though that tale may be unconfirmed there is fact 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 hit single "The Safety Dance" from their debut album ''Rhythm of Youth''. They charted once again with the title track from their 1987 album, ''Pop Goes the World''. 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

★ ''Folk of the 80's'' (1980) (EP)

★ ''Rhythm of Youth'' (1982)

★ ''Folk of the 80's (Part III)'' (1984)

★ ''Freeways'' (1985) (EP)

★ ''Pop Goes the World'' (1987)

★ ''The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century'' (1989)

★ ''Sideways'' (1991)

★ ''No Hats Beyond This Point'' (2003)

Compilations

★ '' (1996)

★ '' (1996)

★ '' (2006)

Ivan solo albums

★ ''The Spell'' (1997)

Music videos

★ "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
:This DVD has been pulled and is now a 'bootleg'. Stefan reports that the company that released the DVD did not get permission from the record company and has been pulled off shelves as of late December, 2006. This DVD is in fact available on at least one popular on-line retailer as of August 2007.

Trivia

★ Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson played flute on the song "On Tuesday" on ''Pop Goes the World''.

★ The little person 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 are referring to their son wanting to dance instead of playing football with his friends.

★ 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 are 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 little person.

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"

See also

★ List of Quebec musicians

★ Music of Quebec

★ Culture of Quebec

★ List of number-one dance hits (United States)

★ List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

External links

★ Men Without Hats official site

★ Lazlo's Discography Machine: Men Without Hats

★ Men Without Hats at UBL.com