"Dance Hall Days" is a song by English new wave band Wang Chung. It was originally released as a single in 1982 when the band was called Huang Chung, then it was re-recorded and re-released a year later in 1983 for the studio album ''

Points on the Curve ''Points on the Curve'' is the second studio album by English new wave band Wang Chung, released in July 1983 by Geffen Records. Background ''Points on the Curve'' is Wang Chung's first studio album since changing their name from Huang Chun ...

.'' It was the band's only single to make the top 40 charts in the UK, narrowly missing the top 20. In the US, it peaked at No. 16 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and went to number one on the Dance Club Songs chart.

Background

Lead vocalist Jack Hues said,

Music videos

Two different

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

s were made to promote the single. The first version of the video, directed by

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

, is a collection of home movies with the majority of the

archive footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

consisting of a stage show with swimmers and fountains, and other

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

-era material. Apparently, the footage is courtesy of the director's father, who was one of the first people to use a colour home movie camera. The toddler in the home movie footage is the director himself as a child. The home movies are interspersed amid footage of Jack, Nick, and Darren, lip-synching and playing the violin. The band are also dressed up as characters from '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1900) at the end of the video, with

Jack Hues Jeremy Allan Ryder, better known as Jack Hues, (born 10 December 1954) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician, who is best known for forming and fronting the 1980s English new wave band, Wang Chung. Hues was also a member of the one-o ...

as the Tin Man,

Nick Feldman Nicholas Laurence Feldman (born 1 May 1955) is an English musician best known for forming the British new wave band Wang Chung in 1980. Feldman was half of the duo Promised Land, which also featured Jon Moss of Culture Club. He was a founding ...

as the

Scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley ...

, and Darren Costin as the Lion. The second version of the video is the most well-known, and received heavy rotation airplay at MTV. It is a magical fantasy concept video set in the 1940s, the heyday of

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub. The majority of towns and cities in ...

s. The video begins in black and white, with Jack Hues stopping in front of a closed-down hall, setting down the suitcase he carries, and picking up a flyer. The scene shifts to

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

, featuring the band performing in the packed hall with the backing of a

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

as couples dance (played by heavily made-up children from a local dancing school). Later, a

disco ball A disco ball (also known as a mirror ball or glitter ball) is a roughly sphere, spherical object that reflects light directed at it in many directions, producing a complex display. Its surface consists of hundreds or thousands of facets, nearl ...

descends to the floor and breaks open, allowing a mirror-covered dancer to emerge. The video ends in black and white, with Hues walking past the hall and down the street; he leaves his suitcase behind, but it sprouts legs and hurries off after him. This version was nominated for

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

at the

1984 MTV Video Music Awards The 1984 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 14, 1984. The inaugural ceremony honored the best music videos released between May 2, 1983 and May 2, 1984, and was hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler at the Radio City Music Hall in New ...

, losing to "

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British new wave music duo Eurythmics. It is the title track of their album of the same name (1983) and was released as the fourth and final single from the album in early 1983. The song became t ...

" by Eurythmics.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 1982 songs 1982 singles 1984 singles Geffen Records singles Wang Chung (band) songs Songs written by Jack Hues Song recordings produced by Ross Cullum Song recordings produced by Chris Hughes (record producer) Songs about dancing