| "Walk the Dinosaur" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Was (Not Was) | ||||
| from the album What Up, Dog? | ||||
| Released | September 1987 | |||
| Genre | Funk, Pop | |||
| Length | 4:22 | |||
| Label | Chrysalis Records (UK) Capitol Records (US) |
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| Writer(s) | David Was, Don Was, Randy Jacobs | |||
| Producer | David Was, Don Was (1987 version) Cool & Dre (2009 "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" version) |
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| Was (Not Was) singles chronology | ||||
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"Walk the Dinosaur" is a hit single recorded and released by the band Was (Not Was) in 1987, later featured on their hit 1988 album, What Up, Dog?
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The song features a tight, funky sound, punctuated by horns and cowbell, along with what sounds like cavepeople chanting in the background, while the lyrics relate to life in prehistoric times.
When released in the UK in 1987, the song reached #10 on the charts, becoming the group's first Top 10 hit there. After the music video to the song (which featured four scantily clad cavewomen dancing to the song, a Flintstones-style TV playing clips from Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur, and then modern people dancing to the song in the "Everybody kill the dinosaur" part) received heavy rotation on MTV, the song reached #7 on the U.S. charts in 1989, two years after its UK success. The song is the biggest hit single for the band in their home country.
George Clinton recorded a cover of "Walk the Dinosaur" which was the theme song for the 1993 film Super Mario Bros., with slightly modified lyrics to reference the film.
This song appeared on the soundtrack of The Flintstones in 1994.
"Walk the Dinosaur" featured in the soundtrack of 1989 comedy movie The Dream Team.
Queen Latifah cut a cover version of the song for the Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs feature-length animated film (which also featured John Leguizamo, who previously appeared in Super Mario Bros., which the song appeared in). However, Queen Latifah's cover for the movie never made it onto the official soundtrack (also, the lyric "slave" was replaced with "friend" to make it more family-friendly). It was produced by Miami hitmakers Cool & Dre.
Recently, samples of the song have been used at the end of commercial breaks on The Stephanie Miller Show, and also, a hint of the chorus was sampled by Tony Cha Cha and Sidney Samson for their 2009 song 'Get On The Floor'.
Also, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked the song at #61 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, warning the listeners to look out for a meteor, followed up with a "Boom! Boom! Aka-lacka-lacka-boom!" and the exaltation that the song "is knocked into extinction. Our ears are saved!"[1]
The song is used as background music in a shock site known as "Walk the Dinosaur" which depicts two dinosaurs in the 69 Position.
In summer of 2011, a cover of Walk the Dinosaur was included in the animatronic show at Chuck E. Cheese's. The band members poked fun at the ambiguity of the name Was (Not Was).
As of October 2011, the song can be heard in the prehistoric area of Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. As well, a snippet of the tune can be heard during the Electrical Water Pageant float parade at Walt Disney World Resort in the Seven Seas Lagoon.
| Chart (1987) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.K. Singles Chart[2] | 10 |
| Irish Singles Chart[3] | 11 |
| Chart (1989) | Peak position |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 7 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 11 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales | 36 |
| U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks | 30 |
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