The Story and Meaning Behind the 1980s Anthem “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by Wang Chung

We can understand putting the name of your group within a song. I mean, The Clash did it, and they were as cool as you can get it. But turning the name into an action verb? What kind of insanity is that?

Well, that gambit worked brilliantly for the British outfit Wang Chung. Their self-name-checking, partying hit “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” succeeded in part because it cleverly contradicted the serious image their previous songs had portrayed. Not only did they wind up with the biggest hit of their career, but they also delivered a bona fide ’80s anthem in the process.

What’s in an Ever-Changing Name?

The ironic thing about Wang Chung using their band name to such memorable effect is they couldn’t decide on a name for much of the first several years of their existence. They were the Intellektuals (their spelling, not ours), then 57 Men (even though there were only six of them at the time).

To make matters even more confusing, even the band members often performed with stage names. For a while they were Huang Chung, until about 1983 when they changed the spelling at the suggestion of a record company exec. By the time they reached 1986, when the song we’re highlighting here was released, they were essentially a duo (Jack Hues and Nick Feldman) surrounded by session musicians and special guests.

Their most popular songs up to that point might best be described as moody. They enjoyed a Top-20 U.S. hit with “Dance Hall Days” (more melancholy than its title suggest) in 1984, and then scored some acclaim with the theme song to the crime flick To Live and Die in L.A. Ironically, their biggest hit almost went in a somber direction as well.

“Fun” Times

Here’s where the story of “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” gets somewhat bizarre. Hues and Feldman conceived of the song as a slow one. The idea was to counteract the sentiments of the lyrics with somewhat stately musical backing. But the band’s producer Peter Wolf (not the same Peter Wolf from the J. Geils Band) convinced them otherwise, as Hues explained on the Just My Show podcast (as reported by Songfacts):

“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. 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 No. 2 on the U.S. pop charts in 1986. The song almost immediately cemented itself in the world of pop culture, with even the fictional TV character Frasier Crane singing its praises.

Behind the Meaning of “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”

Maybe you never noticed any of the other lyrics beyond that unforgettable couplet: Everybody have fun tonight / Everybody Wang Chung tonight. But Hues and Feldman fill out the song with a plea for positivity, if only so mind can win out over matter: The words we use our strong / They make reality.

In the bridge, Hues sings a different tune about the state of the universe: On the edge of oblivion / And all the world is Babylon. He suggests that we’re partying to avoid hard truths: And all the love and everyone / A ship of fools sailing on.

But that’s just a blip, and then we’re right back to bopping and chanting along with the chorus. “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.

Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images