#1: Pop Goes The World by Men Without Hats
City: Burnaby, BC
Radio Station: CFML
Peak Month: January 1988
Peak Position in Burnaby ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #9
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #20
YouTube: “Pop Goes The World”
Lyrics: “Pop Goes The World”
Men Without Hats is a band formed in 1977 in Montreal. Founder Ivan Doroschuk, was born in Champaign, Illinois, in 1957. His parents are Ukrainian-Canadian. After growing up in Montreal from the age of five, Doroschuk graduated from high school and studied in Film and Communications at McGill University. Initially, Men Without Hats was a punk band, as this was the edgy sound in 1977. There were changes in the lineup and by 1980 the bandmates joining Ivan were Jérémie Arrobas on vocals and keyboards, and Ivan’s brothers Stefan Doroschuk on bass guitar, and Colin Doroschuk on guitar. The group’s name came about because the brothers, following a self-described principle of “style before comfort”, refused to wear hats during Montreal’s cold winters, calling themselves “the men without hats.”