Pop Goes the World

Pop Goes the World
Studio album by Men Without Hats
Released	June 29, 1987
Recorded	1986-1987
Genre	New wave
Label	Mercury
Producer	Zeus B. Held
Men Without Hats chronology
Freeways (1985) Pop Goes the World (1987) The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century (1989)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Pop Goes the World is the third studio album by Canadian new wave band Men Without Hats, released in 1987. It contained the single "Pop Goes the World", which reached the top twenty in Canada (achieving Gold status)^[2] and the United States. The album went Platinum in Canada.^[3]

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull makes a guest appearance and plays the flute on the track "On Tuesday."

Track listing

The album itself bears the credit "All songs written by Men Without Hats". The BMI songwriting database lists the sole author of each song as Ivan Doroschuk.

1. "Intro" (1:49)
2. "Pop Goes the World" (3:43)
3. "On Tuesday" (4:08)
4. "Bright Side of the Sun" (0:42)
5. "O Sole Mio" (3:57)
6. "Lose My Way" (3:10)
7. "The Real World" (4:24)
8. "Moonbeam" (3:37)
9. "In the Name of Angels" (3:49)
10. "La Valse d'Eugénie" (1:28)
11. "Jenny Wore Black" (2:57)
12. "Intro/Walk on Water" (5:43)
13. "The End (Of the World)" (3:23)

Personnel

The original outer LP sleeve lists the album personnel as:

• Ivan - vocals
• Jenny - bass
• Johnny - guitar
• J. Bonhomme - drums

In reality, the album was performed by Ivan and Stefan Doroschuk, with additional keyboards by Lenny Pinkas. "Jenny" and "Johnny" were actually characters from the opening song "Pop Goes The World"—the album graphics were designed to reference their roles in the song, which opens with the line "Johnny played gee-tar, Jenny played bass." The album follows a loose conceptual thread, and Johnny and Jenny go on to appear as characters in numerous other songs on the disc, being mentioned by name in "Jenny Wore Black" and "The End (Of The World)". The role of "Johnny" on the album cover (and in videos) was played by Stefan Doroschuk, the band's actual guitarist.

Drummer "J. Bonhomme" is also referenced in the song "Pop Goes The World" (as "a big bonhomme"). A Bonhomme de neige is a snowman; a character known as "Bonhomme" (a man in a stylized snowman costume with a top hat) is a common mascot at Quebec winter carnivals. The album cover shows the character Bonhomme as the band's drummer. The initial J. would seem to be a multi-lingual pun, referencing both the French phrase "Joyeux bonhomme", as well as the English rock drummer John Bonham.

The only credited musician aside from the Doroschuk brothers and Pinkas is Ian Anderson of the rock group Jethro Tull. Anderson plays flute on track 3, "On Tuesday".

Other songs

Early in recording sessions, a song called "The Same Halo" was recorded by the band for the album but was ultimately replaced by "Lose My Way" on the album. "Jenny Wore Black" was first performed live in 1985-1986 during the "Freeways" tour.

Another song left over from these sessions was "A Funny Place (The World Is)", which was given to Mitsou who recorded and released it in 1991.

A French-language demo called "Pyjamarama" was recorded the following year.

Singles

Along with the title track, two other singles from this album were released, but neither got much notice. These singles were "Moonbeam", which featured a complementing music video, and "O Solo Mio" that was backed by "Lose My Way" as a promo single.

Uses

The song "Pop goes the world" was used by Tide in TV advertisements for their "Pods" in 2012.

References

1. Pop Goes the World at AllMusic
2. http://www.musiccanada.com/GPSearchResult.aspx?st=pop%20goes%20the%20world&ica=False&sa=men%20without%20hats&sl=&smt=5&sat=-1&ssb=Artist
3. http://www.musiccanada.com/GPSearchResult.aspx?st=pop%20goes%20the%20world&ica=False&sa=men%20without%20hats&sl=&smt=2&sat=-1&ssb=Artist