French Canadian synth-pop foursome who are best remembered for their 1983 hit 'The Safety Dance', popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Whatever you're attitude to electro-pop, this was a haunting foot-tapper of a song which you just couldn't help moving along to! Proud Quebecers, the band were actually formed as long ago as '77 and fronted by the baritone-voiced Ivan Doroschuk. However, it was in the early to mid-'80s that they enjoyed their heyday, with their debut album 'Rhythm of Youth' released in '82. The group's line-up changed regularly and often over a 15-year period, with no less than 18 musicians being past one-time members to date (sadly one of them, Allen McCarthy, succumbed to AIDS in '95). With their second album 'Pop Goes The World' attaining huge success in North America and Austria, the band initially split up in '92. BUT that was far from the end- Ivan and his brother Stefan came back together as a duo in 2003 to release a third album 'No Hats Beyond This Point', and the band was reformed in 2010- they are still performing to this day. A lot of their tracks are haunting, mesmeric and fascinatingly skip between a major and a minor key, although many of their songs have irritatingly nonsensical lyrics and can come across as pretentious. Nevertheless, the band can't go without a mention on this site, and their contribution to putting Canada on the popular music map cannot be underestimated.
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Do You Remember Men Without Hats?
Do You Remember Men Without Hats?