"I Like" by Men Without Hats

Song#:  1687
Date:  11/12/1983
Debut:  93
Peak:  84
Weeks:  3
Genre:  Synthpop, New Wave



Pop Bits:  This band hit big when their song "The Safety Dance" reached #3 on the Pop chart and #1 at Dance. The tune was from their full-length debut album Rhythm of Youth as was this follow-up single. Unfortunately, this song couldn't dig itself out of the basement of the chart and after three short weeks it disappeared. A third single was issued ("I Got the Message"), but no one was interested and it didn't chart. The band now had the difficult task of trying to follow-up their lone big hit. They would finally grab another chart hit, but it would take them almost four years to do it.

ReduxReview:  It was gonna be hard for them to follow-up such a quirky hit as "The Safety Dance." The song was different sounding and almost leaned slightly towards novelty. Coming up with something equally as good would be a major task and unfortunately they really couldn't do it. However, that's not to say that their other songs were bad. The Rhythm of Youth album was really good and contained some interesting songs, but none could match the appeal of "Safety." This song was probably the most likely candidate as it had a feel close to what Missing Persons was doing. It just didn't capture people's attention like "Safety" did.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  So, what's up with that band name? One story is that three of the band's members, brothers Ivan, Stefan, and Colin Doroschuk, were rather fashionable gents and they had the philosophy that style outweighed comfort. This became difficult during the cold Canadian winters, but they apparently would choose to be stylish and would typically not wear hats. Therefore, they were men without hats. However, lead singer/songwriter Ivan Doroschuk mentioned in an interview that he had a theory that every person wears a uniform and if you remove the hat, everyone looks the same. Put the hat on and people can identify you. Somehow they considered themselves "men without hats" and it became the band's name.

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