Was (Not Was) ‎– Walk The Dinosaur (1988)

“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?.

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 nuclear Armageddon.

According to an interview with co-writer Randy Jacobs: it “was an infectious sing-along with a Flintstonesque video that probably got played on MTV way too much. But even that seemingly good-time anthem had a dark side.

The song’s about nuclear Armageddon, Jacobs says. “It became a dance because of the video. They connected it with the girls in the little Pebbles and Bam-Bam outfits. All the sudden it became, like, ‘do the mashed potato’ or ‘the twist.’”

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—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. chart in 1989, two years after its UK success. The song is the biggest hit single for the band in their home country.

Bruce Forest provided the remixes on the US 12″single.

Walk The Dinosaur (The New York Dangerous Version)              6:58

Walk The Dinosaur (Bruce’s Prehistoric Dub)                            6:43

Walk The Dinosaur (The Debunking Of Uri Geller Mix)                4:30

Walk The Dinosaur (7″ Version)                                               3:38

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