Men Without Hats -- "Pop Goes the World"

(Debuted October 31, 1987, Peaked #20, 20 Weeks on the Chart)

I really wasn't much of a fan of "The Safety Dance" when that was a hit in 1983. Even though I was in the sixth grade at the time, the song seemed a little goofy. In early 1988, I noticed the picture sleeve for "Pop Goes the World" at a mall record store and thought, "Oh great...them again" with all the sarcasm a 15 year-old can muster. A short time later, I heard the song on the radio without the benefit of the artist name and liked it a little bit.

Today, though...it seems like a quaint little pop song; not great, not awful, but still infused with an annoying "pop" gimmick that is repeated throughout the song. The music video (shown in the YouTube clip below) featured the word "Pop!" and other interjections in a cartoon style, similar to the way certain sound effects appeared in the fight sequences of the 1960s Batman TV show. The lyrics read like a jumbled mess of abstract thoughts but appeared to make an analogy between a man and woman playing in a band to getting together and starting a family.

For a single from 1988, it's okay...like I said earlier, not great because it's watered down by the faux-symphonic electronic music that pervaded the era but not terrible either. Though it's been largely overlooked in the U.S., "Pop Goes the World" was #2 in Canada. It would be the biggest hit they ever had in their own country.