After signing to Geffen Records and changing their name to the more pronounceable Wang Chung, the band finally hit the charts with e re-recorded version of their earlier single 'Dance Hall Days', and in 1984 they opened for The Cars on their "Heartbeat City" tour. Following this tour, drummer Darren Costin left the group to form his own band, Heroes, which released the studio album 'Here We Are' on RCA Records in 1987. In late 1983, Jack Hues and Nick Feldman collaborated in a one-off project with vocalist David Van Day of duo Dollar, and a demo of the track 'Ringing The Bell' was submitted to Van Day as one of many songs for consideration by him as a possible follow up to his single 'Young Americans Talking', and although it was recorded in November 1983, it remained unreleased for some time before eventually surfacing under the band name Music Academy in 1985. Wang Chung followed up the release of 'Points On The Curve' with a spate of soundtrack work, and director William Friedkin specifically sought out the group to score his 1985 film 'To Live and Die in L.A.'. The resulting soundtrack became the group's third studio album, and is recognizable as one of their more mainstream works, reaching the top ten on the US Billboard chart for soundtracks. The band also recorded 'Fire In The Twilight' for the 1985 John Hughes film 'The Breakfast Club' and contributed 'There Is A Nation' for the soundtrack to 'First Born'.
With Costin gone, Hues and Feldman continued to record new material, employing producer Peter Wolf as their new drummer, although he never became an official member of the band. In 1986 they released their fourth studio album, 'Mosaic', and the single from it, 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' became one of their biggest hits, reaching No. 2 in the US, while the follow-up 'Let's Go!' got to No. 9. Their final US top 40 single was 'Hypnotize Me', which also featured on the soundtrack of the 1987 film 'Innerspace'. Wang Chung released their fifth studio album, 'The Warmer Side Of Cool', in 1989, and the single extracted from it was 'Praying To A New God', which charted but was not a hit, only reaching No. 63 in the charts. The album was considered a commercial disappointment, and so Hues and Feldman then went on to other projects and the band effectively disbanded in 1990. Feldman joined up with drummer Jon Moss of Culture Club to form the band Promised Land, and subsequently released their self-titled debut studio album, 'Promised Land', in 1992, while Hues worked on various film soundtracks, including 'The Guardian'. He was signed to a solo deal by Sony Records in the early 1990s', but his intended debut solo studio album, 'The Anatomy Lesson', was shelved by the label and remains unreleased.
In 1997 the release of the greatest hits collection 'Everybody Wang Chung Tonight: Wang Chung's Greatest Hits' prompted the band to reform and tour North America to promote both the album and the 'Space Junk' single taken from it. In March 2005, Wang Chung (once again consisting of Hues and Feldman) contributed 'Akasha', a previously unreleased song, to the 'Of Hands And Hearts' compilation, in response to the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami crisis, and in June they appeared on the reality TV series 'Hit Me Baby One More Time', performing a cover version of 'Hot in Herre' by Nelly. They released songs intermittently over the next ten years, including a double CD set in mid-2011, which consisted of four re-recordings of previous hits, and four new songs, and in December 2012 they released 'Tazer Up!', their first studio album in 23 years. This second post from band collects together b-sides and curiosities from their Wang Chung years, right up to the recording of a Covid version of their 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' hit in 2020, plus some live tracks from 2024.
Track listing
Disc I - 1984-1997
01 Ringing The Bell (single by Music Academy 1984)
02 Dance Hall Days (Part 2) (b-side of 'Wait' 1984)
03 Hard Times (b-side of 'Wait' 1984)
04 Fire In The Twilight (single 1985)
05 Dreaming In The Hills Of Heaven (b-side of 'Fire In The Twilight' 1985)
06 The Reggae (Instrumental) (b-side of 'Fire In The Twilight' 1985)
07 Take Me To The River (from BBC 'Sight And Sound In Concert' 1984)
08 Fun Tonight: The Early Years (b-side of 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' 1986)
09 ABC Sports 1988 (TV Jingle based on 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' 1988)
10 Space Junk (single 1997)
11 Zero Gravity (b-side of 'Space Junk')
Disc II - 2005-2024
01 Akasha (from the 'Of Hands And Hearts' tsunami disaster fund album 2005)
02 To Live And Die In L.A. (acoustic) (from the 'Abducted By The 80's' EP 2011)
03 Dance Hall Days (unplugged 2012)
04 Girls And Boys (Blur cover from '80's Recovered' TV Show 2015)
05 River (Joni Mitchell cover 2016)
06 Everybody Stay Safe Tonight (Covid version 2020)
07 Hot In Herre (Nelly cover from the 'Re-Discovered 80's' TV show 2021)
08 3rd Planet (Modest Mouse cover from Alvin UnterCover Youtube Channel 2021)
09 Everybody Have Fun Tonight (live acoustic) (from 'The Courtney Show' 2024)
10 Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover live at West Springfield 2024)
11 Wangjabi MC (Mash up of Punjabi M.C. and 'Dance Hall Days' 2013)
Thanks again to geofmcm for providing the inspiration and music for this post.
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