Music

7 Tarzan Dan and The Hit List memories

by Mark Teo

In the early ’90s on Canadian TV, just one of the many TV music personalities truly had our hearts: It was all Tarzan Dan. It wasn’t because he was an over-the-top personality. It wasn’t because he offered rare musical insights. Heck, it wasn’t even about the incredible musicians he interviewed on his show, The Hit List. (Though honestly, kudos to him for catching Weird Al on the upswing.)

No, it wasn’t necessarily about him. It was about us. The Hit List was aimed at the tweenage set, and for many, it was our introduction to pop-music: There, we discovered Take That, or the Backstreet Boys, or Alanis (not Morrisette—just Alanis). There, we discovered the chart-style ranking system that would shape the psyche of music fans forever and ever and ever. The Hit List—even if, truthfully, I don’t remember it lucidly—was where we discovered pop music, and for that (Ed note: and for the discman and autographed postcard I won from him once!), we have Dan—who is currently a DJ at Kool 101.5 in Calgary and runs a photography business—and, to an extent, his contemporaries to thank. Here’s a few Hit List VHS memories we’ve managed to dig up.

TARZAN DAN’S INTRO FROM 1991

A few things we love about this video: It features an introduction from a permed-up, pre-angsty Alanis. It features the show’s signature cluttered backdrop (which resembled the dream bedrooms of our youth). And it hints at the fact that they’ll be playing Eric Clapton and Big Audio Dynamite videos on the show, meaning that, in 1991, The Hit List seemed to target scrunchie-toting tweens and Pixies tee-rocking rock dads equally.

THE HYPEST TV SHOW

In which Tarzan Dan announces that he has “TV’s hypest video show, fresh and in the flesh, the best videos of the week to make you freak.” And in case you weren’t sure about what those videos were, please refer to YouTube user Sparkle365’s playlist, titled “Remember YTV’S Hit List?”

TARZAN DAN INTERVIEWS WEIRD AL (THEN VICE VERSA)

OK, does this video open on Weird Al in a fat suit, or are we just seeing things?

BACKSTREET BOYS APPEAR ON THE HIT LIST

And in a signature moment of Tarzan Dan humour, he calls them the “Back Hair Boys.” Oh, Dan!

TARZAN DAN INTRODUCES TAKE THAT TO CANADA

And here, in one of the show’s more akward moment, he asks the Take That’s Gary Barlow, a genuine international boy-band star, to “show me your legs to find out who’s hairier.” Um…

O-TOWN TAKES A ‘ROMANTIC QUIZ’

While this clip wasn’t hosted by Tarzan Dan—it’s from 2001, five years after he left the show—it does plenty to demonstrate the show’s fluffy interview style. Here, O-Town tackle the hard-hitting questions, like “What colour represents true love?” and “Who was your first kiss?” And here we were, thinking that O-Town was all about chronic obsessive masturbation. 

AVRIL LAVIGNE EXPLAINS THE FIRST SONG SHE EVER SANG

And the chorus? “Jesus Loves Me.”