Score another mod for MotD member Rob P., who suggested this tune:
The UK’s Wang Chung had a few huge new wave/pop hits in the 80s, including “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” (1986). “’When we came up with the original line, I then went away and wrote with a Hey Jude-style ballad around it, trying to be ironic,” (American Songwriter). “And then when we got in the studio with Peter Wolf, he was like, This is an amazing dance hit, you rock the tempo, you’ve got to really deliver what the title suggests.’
By leaning into the good-timey vibes of the title with a big old synths-and-horns production, Wang Chung danced all the way to #2 on the U.S. pop charts in 1986. The song almost immediately cemented itself in the world of pop culture … Everybody Have Fun Tonight’ rebuilt Wang Chung’s image in one fell swoop. It might have taken them a while to settle on that band moniker, but they wielded it like a weapon on their biggest hit.”
The verse and choruses seem pretty straightforward, but then the bridge (2:32) catches us off guard with a few distinct sections — and two modulations — before returning to the original key at 3:29.