Dancing in the Dark

"Dancing in the Dark" is a 1984 song, written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. Adding up-tempo synthesizer riffs and some syncopation to his sound for the first time, it became his biggest hit and was the lead-off track on the album Born in the U.S.A..

History

"Dancing in the Dark" was the last song written and recorded for Born in the U.S.A. Springsteen's producer and manager Jon Landau liked the album but wanted a sure-fire first single, one that was fresh and directly relevant to Springsteen's current state of mind (as much of Born in the U.S.A. had been written two years earlier). Landau and Springsteen got into an argument, but later on Springsteen wrote "Dancing in the Dark", and his irked mood from the day's argument combined with the frustrations in his career in the last couple of years quickly poured out into the lyrics.

Chart success

Released as a single prior to the album's release, the song peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in July 1984 (and was kept off the #1 spot by that year's song of the summer, Prince's "When Doves Cry"). It was also the first of a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles to be released from Born in the U.S.A.

Although the song only peaked at #5 in Australia, it remained on the charts for most of 1984 and was that country's highest selling single of the year.

The recording also won Springsteen his first Grammy Award, picking up the prize for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1985. It also won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance. In the 1985 Rolling Stone readers poll, "Dancing in the Dark" was voted "Song of the Year". The track has since gone on to earn further recognition and is as such listed one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Music video

The Brian DePalma-directed video, set at a live performance, is perhaps best remembered for the appearance of Courteney Cox as a fan who is invited on stage by Springsteen, and dances with him. Cox was subsequently cast in Misfits of Science and Family Ties, and would later go on to be one of the stars of NBC's hit sit-com Friends. Although Cox had previously appeared in television commercials and had other roles, it is thought that her part in the video played a large role in launching her career.

The video was filmed in June 1984 at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, before and during the initial show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. The completed video was first aired on MTV on July 10, 1984. It received heavy airplay on MTV, and thus helped introduce Springsteen's music to a new, younger, and wider audience.

Remixes

In a first for Springsteen in an effort to gain dance and club play for his music, and more non-whites in his audience, remix maestro Arthur Baker created the 12-inch "Blaster Mix" of "Dancing in the Dark", wherein he completely reworked the album version. Overdubbed were tom-toms, dulcimers, glockenspiel, assortied backing vocals, bass and horn sythesizer parts, and gunshot sounds. Springsteen's vocal part was chopped up, double-tracked, echoed and repeated, with certain lines such as "You sit around getting older" and "Heeey, baby!" made even more prominent. The remix was released on July 2, 1984.

The result generated a lot of media buzz for Springsteen, as well as actual club play; the remix went to #7 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and had the most sales of any 12-inch single in the United States in 1984. However, many of Springsteen's hard-core rock fans, who had been suspicious of the new sound of "Dancing in the Dark" to begin with, despised the remix. Baker was subsequently quoted in angry response: "I got really offended. What is so different? It has a fucking glockenspiel, which Bruce has used before, background vocals ... it's no different. See, if any of those mixes had come out before, with no one knowing the other version, no one would have said a word."

Track listings

7-inch single

Dancing in the Dark - 3:59
Pink Cadillac - 3.33

The B-side of the single, "Pink Cadillac", was a comic rockabilly tale about the virtues (and vices) of a colorful Cadillac; in 1988 it became a #5 hit for Natalie Cole.

12-inch single

Dancing in the Dark - "Blaster Mix" - 6:09
Dancing in the Dark - "Radio" edit - 4:50
Dancing in the Dark - "Dub" edit - 5:30

Live performance history

"Dancing in the Dark" was a featured song throughout the 1984-1985 Born in the U.S.A. Tour, usually being played as the second song of the second set. Echoing the music video, the song's outro would be extended while Springsteen searched the front rows of the audience for a (usually cute young) woman to pull up onstage and dance with. This became quite the prize for the female faithful, and considerable jostling for position with stage security and each other could take place. Once up, some fans danced well, others wanted hugs more than steps, and some just froze.

During the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express Tour, the song was usually the next-to-last song of the second set, but it was played much the same and the same pull-the-girl-on-stage routine took place. However, by the start of the 1992 "Other Band" Tour, the song was drastically reshaped as a slow, tired harangue on solo electric guitar with no fan and no dancing. This interpretation only lasted a dozen or so performances before it was dropped from the set list.

Though it was his biggest hit, "Dancing in the Dark" gradually disappeared from Springsteen concerts for a decade, until it resurfaced as a regular encores selection shortly after the start of the 2002-2003 Rising Tour. Now presented in a more rock-oriented arrangement, it was warmly received by fans and stayed in the show for the balance of the tour, after which it went back into retirement for Springsteen's subsequent not-rock-band tours.

The song found its revival on Springsteen's Magic Tour in Fall of 2007, where it replaced Waitin' on a Sunny Day as the penultimate encore song for the later shows on the tour.

Cover versions

In 1985, Tina Turner performed the song as a show-stopping closure for a special concert, in Tokyo, Japan and other locations on her Private Dancer Tour. The song was delivered in her usual cutting-edge, rock'n'roll, powerhouse fashion and was later included in the album Tina Turner - Live in Tokyo.

Los Angeles-based novelty band Big Daddy, who specialized in recording contemporary hits with circa 1959 pop/rock arrangements, covered "Dancing In The Dark" in 1985. The cover — done in the laid-back style of Pat Boone — became a surprise UK Top 40 hit that same year.

Adam Sandler performed the song during a 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live which Courteney Cox was hosting. Sandler dressed in tight denim jeans and a cut off white shirt, poking fun at the music video in which Cox appeared alongside Springsteen.

Folk singer Mary Chapin Carpenter performed the song on an acoustic tour in the late nineties, giving what Rolling Stone called "a soft-yet-thrilling take on the Boss hit that allowed the lyrics to breathe for a change."^[1] Her live version was released as the B-side of her 1999 single "Almost Home."

Pete Yorn did his take on the song on his 2002 album Musicforthemorningafter.

In the fifth season of American Idol, eventual winner Taylor Hicks performed the song in the "final three" show, after Idol-related record executive Clive Davis personally asked Springsteen for permission to use it in the show.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Tegan and Sara regularly cover the song in their live sets; Leo reportedly asked to use the song on his cover-filled Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead EP but couldn't afford Springsteen's asking price, more than the other three covers used combined.^{[citation needed]}

Tegan and Sara recorded the song on the compilation album Like a Version: Volume Two.

Oregon band The Snuggle Ups performs the song on the Arena Rock Recording Co. compilation album, Bridging the Distance: a Portland, OR covers compilation.

Footnotes

^ Dansby, Andrew. "Mary Chapin Carpenter", Rolling Stone, 1998-11-24. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.

References

Born in the U.S.A. Tour (tour booklet, 1984), Springsteen chronology.
Born in the U.S.A. The World Tour (tour booklet, 1985), Tour chronology.
Marsh, Dave. Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s. Pantheon Books, 1987. ISBN 0-394-54668-7.

External links

Dancing In The Dark: Lyrics and detailed info + lyrics to several live versions
"Dancing In The Dark" music video with lyrics

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