"Dancing in the Dark" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Bruce Springsteen | ||||
from the album Born in the U.S.A. | ||||
B-side | "Pink Cadillac" | |||
Released | May 9, 1984 [1] | |||
Recorded | February 14, 1984 [2] | |||
Studio | Hit Factory, New York City [2] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:59 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bruce Springsteen | |||
Producer(s) |
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Bruce Springsteen singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Dancing in the Dark" on YouTube |
"Dancing in the Dark" is a song written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. Adding uptempo synthesizer riffs to his sound for the first time, the song spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 [7] and sold over one million singles in the U.S. It was the first single released from his 1984 album, Born in the U.S.A. , and became his biggest hit, helping the album become the best-selling album of his career.
"Dancing in the Dark" was also successful worldwide, becoming Australia's highest-selling single of 1984 (despite peaking at number five on the Kent Music Report), peaking at number one in Belgium and the Netherlands, and charting within the top 10 in seven other countries. The song is listed among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. [8]
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. [9] [10]
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." [11]
Released as a single prior to the album's release, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart on May 26, 1984, at no. 36, and spent four weeks at No. 2 (his highest-charting song to date) beginning June 30, 1984 (it was kept off the No. 1 spot by Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and that year's song of the summer, Prince's "When Doves Cry"). [12] [13] It did, however, reach No. 1 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart. [14] 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. [15] The song reached No. 1 on the Radio & Records CHR and AOR airplay charts. [16]
In the UK, the song peaked at No.4. It was the 29th-best-selling single of the year. [17]
The recording also won Springsteen his first Grammy Award, picking up the prize for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1985. [18] In the 1984 Rolling Stone readers poll, "Dancing in the Dark" was voted "Single of the Year". [19] 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. [20]
In a first-for-Springsteen effort to gain dance and club play for his music, Arthur Baker [21] 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, [22] and had the most sales of any 12-inch single in the United States in 1984. [21]
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, the second 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 [23] that she was a professional actress, brought in from New York City, who had already played in As the World Turns . [24] 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. [25]
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. [25] In September 1985, the video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance [26] 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 . [27]
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. When played live in recent years, the song features a harder, guitar-driven sound, with the distinctive synthesizer riff being supplied by Soozie Tyrell's violin.[ citation needed ]
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. [28] [29] [30] 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, [31] and daughter Jessica dancing on stage with him in Paris on July 5. [32]
According to authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon: [33]
(*Car-shaped picture disc released in the UK, featuring a pink Cadillac on the front side)
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [63] | 7× Platinum | 490,000‡ |
Canada (Music Canada) [64] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [65] | Platinum | 90,000‡ |
Italy (FIMI) [66] | Platinum | 100,000‡ |
Mexico (AMPROFON) [67] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
Portugal (AFP) [68] | Gold | 20,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [69] | 2× Platinum | 1,200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [70] | 4× Platinum | 4,000,000‡ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Bruce Springsteen's synth-rocking frustration anthem "Dancing In The Dark," his highest-charting single, peaked at #2...
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). CHUM.Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984, by Columbia Records. The album was recorded with the E Street Band and producers Chuck Plotkin and Jon Landau over the course of several years, while Springsteen was also working on his previously released album, Nebraska (1982). It features tighter songs with a brighter, more pop-influenced sound than Springsteen's previous albums, and prominent synthesizer, while its lyrics explore themes of working-class struggles, disillusionment, patriotism, and personal relationships. The cover features a photograph of Springsteen from behind, taken by Annie Leibovitz, and has since become one of Springsteen's most iconic images.
"When Doves Cry" is a song by American musician Prince, and the lead single from his sixth studio album Purple Rain. According to the DVD commentary of the film Purple Rain (1984), Prince was asked by director Albert Magnoli to write a song to match the theme of a particular segment of the film that involved intermingled parental difficulties and a love affair. The next morning, Prince had composed two songs, one of which was "When Doves Cry". According to Prince's biographer Per Nilsen, the song was inspired by his relationship with Vanity 6 member Susan Moonsie.
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song featuring Santa Claus, written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and first recorded by Harry Reser and His Band. When it was covered by Eddie Cantor on his radio show in November 1934 it became a hit; within 24 hours, 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records were sold. The version for Bluebird Records by George Hall and His Orchestra was very popular in 1934 and reached the various charts of the day. The song has been recorded by over 200 artists including Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, the Crystals, Neil Diamond, Fred Astaire, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Mitch Miller, Boxcar Willie, Bill Evans, Chris Isaak, the Temptations, The Pointer Sisters, the Carpenters, Michael Bublé, Luis Miguel, Michael Bolton, and the Jackson 5.
American rock musician Bruce Springsteen has released 21 studio albums, 23 live albums, 77 singles, and 66 music videos. Widely referred as "The Boss" by the media, Springsteen has sold over 150 million records worldwide, listing him among the best-selling music artists in history. Billboard ranked him as the 24th Greatest Artist of all time. According to Recording Industry Association of America, he has sold 65.5 million albums in the United States, making him the 7th best-selling male soloist of all time. Born in the U.S.A. remains the best-selling album of his career, selling more than 30 million copies around the world.
"War" is a counterculture-era soul song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for the Motown label in 1969. Whitfield first produced the song – a self-evident anti-Vietnam War statement – with The Temptations as the original vocalists. After Motown began receiving repeated requests to release "War" as a single, Whitfield re-recorded the song with Edwin Starr as the vocalist, with the label deciding to withhold the Temptations' version from single release so as not to alienate that group's more conservative fans. Starr's version of "War" was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970, and is not only the most successful and well-known record of his career, but it is also one of the most popular protest songs ever recorded. It was one of 161 songs on the no-play list issued by Clear Channel following the events of September 11, 2001.
"Because the Night" is a rock song written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith that was first released in 1978 as a single from the Patti Smith Group album Easter. This version rose to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as No. 5 in the United Kingdom, and helped propel sales of Easter to mainstream success.
"The Boys of Summer" is a song by the American musician Don Henley. The lyrics were written by Henley and the music was composed by Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was released on October 26, 1984, as the lead single from Henley's album Building the Perfect Beast. It reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, number one on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart, and number 12 in the UK Singles Chart.
"Nightshift" is a 1985 song by the Commodores and the title track from their album of the same name. The song was written by lead singer Walter Orange in collaboration with Dennis Lambert and Franne Golde as a tribute to soul/R&B singers Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye, both of whom died in 1984. The song was released as the album's first single in January 1985 by Motown Records. "Nightshift" was recorded in 1984 and became the Commodores' first hit after Lionel Richie's departure from the group.
"Born in the U.S.A." is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, and released in 1984 on the album Born in the U.S.A. One of Springsteen's best-known singles, it was ranked 275th on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and in 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed the song 59th, remaining a favorite in classic rock. The song addresses the economic hardships of Vietnam veterans upon their return home, juxtaposed ironically against patriotic glorification of the nation's fighting forces.
"Fire" is a song written by Bruce Springsteen in 1977 which had its highest profile as a 1978 single release by the Pointer Sisters. The song was also released by Robert Gordon and Springsteen himself.
"Hungry Heart" is a ballad written and performed by Bruce Springsteen on his fifth album, The River. It was released as the album's lead single in 1980 and became Springsteen's first big hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart peaking at number five.
"Streets of Philadelphia" is a song written and performed by American rock musician Bruce Springsteen for the 1993 film Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks, an early mainstream film dealing with HIV/AIDS. Released as a single by Columbia in 1994, the song was a hit in many countries, including Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, and Norway, where it topped the singles charts. In the United States, the single peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Springsteen's 12th and latest top-10 hit.
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"Pink Cadillac" is a song by Bruce Springsteen released as the non-album B-side of "Dancing in the Dark" in 1984. The song received a lot of airplay worldwide and appeared on the Billboard Top Tracks chart for 14 weeks, peaking at No. 27. The song was also a prominent concert number during Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. Tour.
"I'm Goin' Down" is a rock song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was released on August 27, 1985 by Columbia Records as the sixth single from his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. The song was recorded with the E Street Band in May 1982 at Power Station studio in New York City, and co-produced by Springsteen, Jon Landau, Chuck Plotkin, and Steve Van Zandt. Although Springsteen had changing ideas about the songs to put on the album, "I'm Goin' Down" was ultimately selected for inclusion.
"I'm on Fire" is a song written and performed by American rock performer Bruce Springsteen. Released in 1985, it was the fourth single from his album Born in the U.S.A.
"Glory Days" is a song written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. In 1985, it became the fifth single released from his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A.
"Human Touch" is a song recorded by the American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. It was the first single from his 1992 album of the same name and was released on March 9, 1992. The song features future American Idol judge Randy Jackson on bass guitar and Toto's Jeff Porcaro on drums.
"Secret Garden" is a song by American musician Bruce Springsteen. It was originally released as a single from his Greatest Hits album on February 27, 1995, on Columbia Records. Upon its initial release, it peaked at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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