I don't believe you wanna get up and dance...

May 21, 2021 4:11 AM

Oops Upside Your Head is a disco funk song recorded by The Gap Band in 1979, which became an international hit. It is notable for being one of the first funk songs to use hip-hop style monologues. In Britain it's notable for something else. The traditional way to dance to this song over here is to sit on the floor in ranks and perform a rowing motion.

Here's the Manchester Police doing it during Gay Pride 2017. Some Derbyshire residents doing it in the middle of their street during lockdown. Guinness recognises the current official 'Oops Upside Your Head Dance' world record as 406 people, held by Rainford Picnic in the Park.

This appears to be unique to the UK. Here are examples of international audiences dancing normally to the song.

Nobody is quite sure how this started. It is said that the first crowd to do it was at Southend's Zero 6 nightclub, and it caught on from there. Either way, when The Gap Band themselves first performed 'Oops Upside Your Head' in England, they had no idea what was going on; when the audience all sat down, they thought they just didn't like the song.

posted by Cardinal Fang (20 comments total)

Oops Upside Your Head

One of the oddest ‘dances’ of recent decades, anyone who went to a club in the ‘80s would have been greeted by the bizarre sight of this hit song by US funkateers The Gap Band being “danced” by clubbers sitting on the floor in rows, performing a rhythmic rowing action.

The origin of this unusual dance, is credited to Isle Of Wight DJ Alex Dyke, who in the early summer of 1980 after a regatta on the island played The Gap Band’s tune and urged the crowd to sit down on the dancefloor and “row the boat home.”

The dance spread like wildfire and remains the most popular move for those who need a welcome sit down after dancing all night.

[Source]
posted by chavenet at 4:23 AM on May 21, 2021 [3 favorites]

I'm very pleased that this is still a thing. I watched my brothers doing it in the very early 80s. We all did it at university in the late 80s/early 90s, which given the state of a British university dancefloor towards the end of the night could be a rather beery/sticky experience. Still, we knew what we were in for, or didn't care, since everyone had spent the evening spilling the beer. A couple of hundred drunk people all trying to sit down/stand up at the same time is also excellent entertainment, like wobbly dominoes.
posted by dowcrag at 5:19 AM on May 21, 2021 [4 favorites]

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

I've been a huge fan of The Gap Band since my old rollerskating days in the early 80s. I have never heard of this dance before - I'll definitely check it out.
posted by sundrop at 6:05 AM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Interesting. In the Netflix show Derry Girls (set in Northern Ireland during the mid-90s), they do this exact same dance to "Rock the Boat" by the Hues Corporation.

Another sign of disagreement between the English and the Northern Irish?
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:14 AM on May 21, 2021 [10 favorites]

credited to Isle Of Wight DJ Alex Dyke

A third claimant is Nigel Tolley, an Essex DJ, as quoted on page 200 of this book.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 6:24 AM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yay Gap Band!

Maybe ten years ago I was in Ithaca on a gorgeous spring day with my very uptight mother and sister, who dragged me along on day trips to help with Mom’s wheelchair while they shared a frontseat world of their own. I was silent in the back as we rolled through the Cornell campus when I heard a familiar beat and shouted “STOP!”. We were just above a hillside full of students listening to the Gap Band live from an outdoor stage, and at that moment Oops Upside Your Head began to play; I shouted “I’ve GOTTA dance this one!” to my shocked family members and that is what I did as my sister frowned and Mom angrily demanded I get back in the car immediately. Neither had ever seen me dance at all before and they stared open-mouthed and wide-eyed.

Song ended, I got back in the car with some new grass stains and we drove away in silence without comment from either one. The incident was never mentioned again.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:39 AM on May 21, 2021 [25 favorites]

What an amazing, really weird and strangely moving thing.
posted by mumimor at 6:54 AM on May 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

When I discovered a while ago that this is a thing that only happens in the UK I felt a strange and intense mingling of utter embarrassment and a deep sense of pride that I guess has become emblematic of being British. What a load of stupid twats we are. Wouldn't change a thing.
posted by fight or flight at 7:24 AM on May 21, 2021 [9 favorites]

Honestly I hate this dance, for the main reason that the last time I encountered it I was at a family wedding and I actually wanted to *dance* to this song,but instead everyone sat down in rows and started patting the ground, to my bewilderment and dismay - there was no room on the dancefloor for anyone else!
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 7:48 AM on May 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

Wait. You mean most people don’t do this?!? My mind is blown.

Next you’ll tell me that Tainted Love and Love Cats aren’t always played as a pair.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 8:40 AM on May 21, 2021 [5 favorites]

The (slightly) odd thing is that in my nightclubbing days in the north of England in the first half of the 80s this song was played a lot and nobody ever sat on the floor to it. We just danced (in my case, it's a very loose definition of dancing) normally.

It makes sense that the claimants for inventing the rowing dance are all in the south - in those days, it could take years for things to spread from one region to another, if at all.

Also, hardy tough northerners aren't going to be seen doing that, or ruining our kecks on the filthy floor, are we?

posted by YoungStencil at 8:47 AM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

I like Steel Pulse's (kinda) cover version.
posted by jeremias at 9:25 AM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh this takes me back to my nightclubbing days in 1980s Essex where, yes, this all started.

And it takes me back to pretty much every English wedding reception I've been to in the last 35-odd years when everyone - bride, groom, guests, grannies, kids, the whole shebang, would get down on the floor when "the rowing boat song" was played.

There's also another bizarre English tradition where wedding receptions end with Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York", everyone standing round the edge of the dancefloor, arms linked, and doing a slow kick to the beat of the music, as they sing along at the tops of their voices. I have no idea how or why this started, but it's definitely A Thing.
posted by essexjan at 10:09 AM on May 21, 2021 [11 favorites]

I'm sorry what
posted by General Malaise at 11:21 AM on May 21, 2021 [5 favorites]

It looks like an excuse to do a little spooning to me. That's what dancing is all about.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:53 PM on May 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

I can imagine that this confused the Gap Band.
posted by shoesietart at 3:39 PM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

What on earth.

I don't even want my feet to touch some dance floors.
posted by ZaphodB at 3:46 PM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

I was in Ithaca on a gorgeous spring day - I see what you did there.
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 6:48 PM on May 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ah, so many good memories of family parties and weddings. Hadn't ever occurred to me that it wouldn't be a thing elsewhere.

Was also not expecting to encounter my home village here, although Picnic in the Park only became a thing after I left.
posted by amcewen at 4:00 PM on May 22, 2021

The only time I ever rowed to this dance was at a convention. Where we also did the Star Trekking dance, among others.
posted by Pentickle at 1:50 PM on May 23, 2021