Songoftheday 2/11/15 - I'll drive a million miles to be with you tonight, so if you're feeling low turn up your radio...

"Everybody Have Fun Tonight" - Wang Chung
from the album Mosaic (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day comes from the British new band Wang Chung, who had success with their second album Points On A Curve, with an American top-20 pop hit "Dance Hall Days". They followed that with the critically heralded soundtrack to the film To Live And Die In L.A., but the title track and lead single stalled right under the top-40 in 1985. The following year, the act (now a duo of Jack Hues and Nick Feldman) regrouped to record their fourth album, Mosaic, with pop producer Peter Wolf (Starship and Heart, not the J. Geils singer) at the helm to steer them into a much more commercial vein. The first single from the set, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", gave them "meme"-like status using their band name as a verb, commanding you to "Wang Chung tonight" whatever that may be. The frenetic video was directed by Godley & Creme, the former 10cc bandmates that became video superstars...

"Everybody Have Fun Tonight" became the band's first American top-10 hit, stopping at the runner-up position on the pop chart in December of 1986. The single also crossed over to the Mainstream Rock radio list at #25, and reached #4 on Billboard's Damce Club Play list. Internationally, while the single also went to #2 in Canada, in their native Britain the single surprisingly tanked at #76.

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Here's the band performing the song live on the Tonight Show in 1987...

Here's the Jellybean remix that made the top-5 on the dance charts...

and finally, the band in concert...

Up tomorrow: An overflow of liberation from a British singer.