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Wang Chung - To Live And Die In LA

Wang Chung - To Live And Die In LA Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: To Live And Die In LA
Released: 1985

To Live And Die In LA Lyrics

To Live And Die In LA

This is the title track to William Friedkin's 1985 crime drama To Live and Die in LA Wang Chung wrote the original score for the film (which included this song).

According to the DVD commentary on To Live and Die in L.A., director William Friedkin didn't want a theme song for the movie, but Jack Hues and Nick Feldman of Wang Chung wrote one anyway, which was this song. Friedkin liked it and decided to use it in his movie.

In an interview with Eric Greenberg on the Just My Show podcast, Jack Hues of Wang Chung explained: "It all has to do with the opportunity to explore a new genre. I started out just a kid in love with the Beatles music and learning to play guitar, but when I got around 18, I wanted to go to university. And at that time you had to do classical music if you wanted to do music in university. So I got into classical music, and that whole thing of long form composition - outside of a three-minute pop song - was something I really, really wanted to do. So the opportunity for To Live and Die in LA was ideal for me creatively. It gave me the chance to really expand ideas instead of always having to pare them down and try and fit them into that three-minute format."

Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days

Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Points On A Curve
Released: 1984

Dance Hall Days Lyrics

Take your baby by the hand
And make her do a high handstand
And take your baby by the heel
And do the next thing that you feel

We were so in vies
In our Dance Hall Days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love !

Take your baby by the hair
And pull her close and there, there, there
And take your baby by the ears
And play upon her darkest fears

We were so in vies
In our dance hall days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love

Take your baby by the wrist
And in her mouth an amethyst
And in her eyes two sapphires blue
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you
And you need her and she needs you

We were so in vies
In our dance hall days
We were cool on cries
When all you and everyone we knew
Could believe, do, and share in what was true

Dance hall days love
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love
Dance hall days
Dance hall days love

Writer/s: JACK HUES, NICHOLAS FELDMAN, DARREN COSTIN
Publisher: SPIRIT MUSIC GROUP
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Dance Hall Days

Jack Hues of Wang Chung told Eric Greenberg on the Just My Show podcast: "It begins quite innocent: 'take your baby by the hand,' and then the last verse with 'take your baby by the wrists, and in her mouth an amethyst,' it's all a bit more hallucinogenic in a way, how things that start off simple get complex.

My dad was a musician, and he had a band that played in an old-fashioned dance hall. I used to play with him in that band, so maybe there's sort of the nostalgia that's in the track. It's all quite real, actually, as far as experiences that I had when I was first starting out playing, and playing in public.

Musically, it's that sort of rhythm and that kind of shuffly beat. Technically it's sort of like 3 against 2 (laughs), but we're not gonna talk about all that. It's a particular feel that was sort of unusual at the time, I suppose. It was partly inspired by one of the Adam and the Ants tracks, and that's part of the thinking of using Chris Hughes, who produced Adam's Kings of The Wild Frontier album. I think the record company were keen that we sort of met up with him, and Chris and I have been friends ever since that time - Chris works with me on my jazz records that I've made in the last couple of years. It's been one of the most important friendships of my life."

Even though they are British, this was Wang Chung's only hit in the UK. After it proved to be a bigger hit in the US and was featured in the film To Live And Die In LA, they decided to ignore the UK market and concentrate on the US. This proved an astute decision as they recorded two more American top 10 hits, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" (#2 in 1986) and "Let's Go!" (#9 in 1987), whilst not even recording a minor chart placing in the UK.

Hues explained on Just My Show: "I think it has perhaps created a slight air of unreality around it. Because Wang Chung in Britain is sort of obscure '80s band. I think 'Dance Hall Days' was a fairly substantial hit over here, although it didn't chart high, it was in the charts for a long time. It took a long time going up, and a long time going down, like a proper record should do. And we did Top of the Pops a couple of times, which was a big BBC show where promising bands - or not so promising bands - got their exposure. But I think the divide between the US and the UK for me probably worked, in that I'm quite a private person, and at the time of 'Dance Hall Days' I had three children, and I wasn't married at the time, but my family life is very important to me. Being able to come home and be low key was great. I could leave all of the craziness behind in the States and just be myself, as it were, when I got back here."

This was featured in the 1997 movie Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

Wang Chung frontman Jack Hues' real name is Jeremy Ryder. He took the stage name as a persona, which British musicians like Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten were doing at the time. He is the biological father of British actor Jack Ryder, who played Jaime in the British Soap Opera Eastenders. (thanks, Dave - Ipswich, England)

When this song was on the charts, Wang Chung was touring in America as the opening act for The Cars, who were supporting their album Heartbeat City.