"Walk the Dinosaur" is a song by Was (Not Was), released in 1987, from their album What Up, Dog?

Song info

The tune features a tight, funky sound, punctuated by horns and a cowbell. When released in the UK in 1987, the song reached No. 10 on the singles chart, becoming the group's first UK top 10 hit. The music video features four scantily clad 'cavewomen' dancing while a Flintstones-style TV plays clips from Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur. Towards the end of the video, a group of modern-day humans dance to the song's chorus. The video received heavy rotation on MTV. The song reached No. 7 on the US chart on April 1, 1989, two years after its UK success and became the band's biggest hit single in their home country. 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. It became a dance (anthem) 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.'"

Track listing

Remixes

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

In popular culture

The original recording of "Walk the Dinosaur" appears on the soundtrack of the 1994 film The Flintstones. A version performed by George Clinton appears on the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack in 1993, and is also featured in the credits. The song is one of the songs that can be heard playing at DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It is one of sing-along songs with only a few of the lyrics that have been changed for Flik's Musical Adventure at Disney's Animal Kingdom (1999) from the Disney Sing-Along Songs series. It can also be heard during the Electrical Water Pageant. The song was heard in promotional spots for the 2000 Disney film Dinosaur. In the movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs a version of the song by Queen Latifah (who also voices Ellie in the Ice Age franchise) is featured during the film and the credits. This version featured minor lyrical changes to make the song more family-friendly, notably substituting the word "slave" with "friend".