Throwback Video Of The Week: Wang Chung “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”
Believe it or not, one of the great party anthems of the ’80s started out as something very different. According to Songfacts, Nick Feldman and Jack Hues of Wang Chung initially wrote “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” as a ballad. Thankfully, their producer convinced them to boost the tempo and transform the song into dance hit it became.
Released as a single in 1986, “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” cracked the top-10 on pop and dance charts in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. It even made it to number 25 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. However, Wang Chung’s video for the song was problematic for some people.
The video was produced using up to four takes of the same shot and extremely quick cuts in between. The jittery editing effect literally made some viewers sick. In 1987, the Los Angeles Times reported that the video for “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” was banned by the BBC after a medical expert in the U.K. warned that it could possibly trigger epileptic seizures. Proceed with caution.
