Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen song)

Writing and recording

Springsteen wrote "Dancing In the Dark" overnight, after Jon Landau convinced him that the album needed a single. According to journalist Dave Marsh in the book Glory Days, Springsteen was not impressed with Landau's approach. "Look", he snarled, "I've written seventy songs. You want another one, you write it." Despite this reaction, Springsteen sat in his hotel room and wrote the song in a single night. It sums up his state of mind, his feeling of isolation after the success of his album The River, and his frustrations of trying to write a hit single. Six takes of "Dancing in the Dark" were recorded on February 14, 1984, at The Hit Factory, and after 58 mixes, work was completed on March 8, 1984. The 12-inch single was released May 9, 1984, and was the highest-selling 12-inch single in the US that year.

Reception

Cash Box said that the song "is classic Springsteen: gutsy vocals set to a hard-driving backbeat" and "an added surprise is the addition of the synthesizer to the inspired playing of the E-Street Band."

Chart performance

Released as a single prior to the album's release, the song entered both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Cash Box Top 100 charts on May 26, 1984, at No. 36 and No. 25 respectively. On June 30, 1984, it began its four week stay at No. 2 on Billboard, behind "The Reflex" by Duran Duran and "When Doves Cry" by Prince, which was 1984's song of the summer. That same week, it reached No. 1 on Cash Box, where it stayed for two weeks. It was also the first of a record-tying seven top 10 hit singles to be released from Born in the U.S.A. "Dancing in the Dark" also held the No. 1 spot for six weeks on Billboard's Top Tracks chart. The song reached No. 1 on the Radio & Records CHR and AOR airplay charts.

"Dancing in the Dark" also had worldwide success. It became Australia's highest-selling single of 1984 (despite peaking at number five on the Kent Music Report), peaking at No. 1 in Belgium and the Netherlands, and charting within the top 10 in seven other countries.

In the UK, the song peaked at No. 4. It was the 29th-best-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. In the 1984 Rolling Stone readers poll, "Dancing in the Dark" was voted "Single 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.

In 2024, the song was re-popularized by English football fans during the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament who sang it with adapted lyrics paying tribute to midfielder Phil Foden. As a result, Springsteen's original recording returned to the UK singles chart, reaching No. 36.

Remixes

In a first-for-Springsteen effort to gain dance and club play for his music, Arthur Baker created the 12-inch "Blaster Mix" of "Dancing in the Dark", wherein he reworked the album version. 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 the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and had the most sales of any 12-inch single in the United States in 1984.

Music video

Directed by Brian De Palma, the video was shot at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on June 28 and 29, 1984. The first night was a pure video shoot, and the second night was on the opening date of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed the song twice during that show to allow De Palma to get all the footage he needed. The video is a straight performance video, with Springsteen not playing a guitar, allowing him to invite a young woman from the audience, performed by Courteney Cox, to dance along with him on the stage at the end. Although De Palma had told him that it was she whom he was supposed to select, Springsteen thought she was just a pre-selected fan attending and did not know until afterward that she was a professional actress, brought in from New York City, who had already played in As the World Turns. Despite this Cox has stated that she was one of many that Springsteen could have selected and that she was secretly hoping to not be picked.

The video initially included a storyline in which Cox and several of her friends were getting ready to go to the concert with one of them getting picked. Vignettes were shot for this although they remained unused. and was nominated for Best Overall Performance. Actor Alfonso Ribeiro later claimed to have drawn inspiration from Cox's dancing in the video in developing "The Carlton" for his character in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Live performances

On the 2009 Working on a Dream Tour, the song appeared intermittently during the encores. However, Springsteen for the first time played a number of music festivals during the routing, and "Dancing in the Dark" closed all of them: Pinkpop Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Glastonbury Festival, and Hard Rock Calling.

During the 2012 tour the song again became a regular at live shows with audience members selected to dance not just with Springsteen (reenacting the Courteney Cox scene from the video), but with other band members too, especially new band member Jake Clemons. Springsteen family members appeared on stage for this song on occasion, with mother Adele doing the "Courteney Cox" dance at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia at the start of the tour, and daughter Jessica dancing on stage with him in Paris on July 5.

Personnel

According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon, and the album's liner notes:

• Bruce Springsteen – vocals, guitar
• Roy Bittan – synthesizer
• Clarence Clemons – saxophone
• Garry Tallent – bass
• Max Weinberg – drums

Track listings

7": Columbia / 38-04463

1. "Dancing in the Dark" – 3:59
2. "Pink Cadillac" – 3:33

7": CBS / WA-4463 *

1. "Dancing in the Dark" – 3:59
2. "Pink Cadillac" – 3:33 (*Car-shaped picture disc released in the UK, featuring a pink Cadillac on the front side)

12": Columbia / 44-05028

1. "Dancing in the Dark" (Blaster Mix) – 6:09
2. "Dancing in the Dark" (Radio) – 4:50
3. "Dancing in the Dark" (Dub) – 5:30

12": CBS / TA4436

1. "Dancing in the Dark" (Extended Remix) – 6:09
2. "Pink Cadillac" – 3:33

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

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Footnotes

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. .

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