Dancing In the Dark

The first single off of Springsteen’s seminal album Born In The U.S.A., this track was written two years after most of the other songs on the album. Producer Jon Landau thought the new album lacked a guaranteed hit and pushed Springsteen to draft one more song. The two men got into a brief altercation, after which Bruce wrote “Dancing in the Dark” about his ‘difficulty writing a hit single and his frustration trying to write songs that will please people’. Its music video contains an early appearance by actress Courtney Cox. It also helped introduce Springsteen to a younger audience, setting the stage for a seven-single run of top 10 hits from the album. “Dancing In The Dark” became Springsteen’s highest charting single the Boss has ever had, spending four weeks in the #2 position of the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1984, held from the top spot by Duran Duran “The Reflex” and Prince “When Doves Cry”. It also spent six weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart. This single is also Springsteen’s only to be certified platinum. Dancing in the Dark is a 1984 song, written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. According to the Dancing in the Dark Songfacts, Springsteen wrote this after his manager, Jon Landau, demanded a hit single from the album. After a brief altercation, he complied and wrote this that same night. Adding up-tempo synthesizer riffs and some syncopation to his sound for the first time, it became his biggest hit and, as the first single released from Born in the U.S.A., started it off to becoming the best-selling album of Springsteen's career. "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 at trying to complete the album quickly poured out into the lyrics. Released as a single prior to the album's release, the song spent four weeks at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart (his highest charting song to date) in June–July 1984 (it was kept off the #1 spot by Duran Duran's "The Reflex" and that year's song of the summer, Prince's "When Doves Cry"). It did reach #1 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart. 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 #1 spot for six weeks on Billboard's Top Tracks chart. 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. It spent a total of 64 weeks in the Top 100.[citation needed] In the UK, "Dancing in the Dark" originally reached number 28 in the UK Singles Chart when released in May 1984. However, the song was re-released in January 1985 and subsequently reached number 4 in the charts, becoming the 27th 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. 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. 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. 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, assorted 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 the Billboard 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." The biggest hit of Bruce Springsteen. It reached the number-two position on the Billboard Hot 100. The album this track belongs to is the best-selling album of his career. The music video for this song features Courteney Cox appearance as a fan pulled by Bruce Springsteen on stage at the end of the song. It was shot during a concert at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on the 29th of June 1984. Springsteen thought that she was just a pre-selected fan, and found out only afterwords that she was a professional actress brought in from New Your for the occasion. The video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance in 1985 With "Dancing In The Dark" Bruce Springsteen won his first Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1985. During the 2012 tour Bruce Springsteen's mother, Adele, did the 'Courteney Cox' dance at The Spectrum in Philadelphia during this song, and his daughter Jessica danced on stage with him in Paris on the 5th of July.

Bruce Springsteen Lyrics "Dancing In The Dark" I get up in the evening And I ain't got nothing to say I come home in the morning I go to bed feeling the same way I ain't nothing but tired Man, I'm just tired and bored with myself Hey there baby, I could use just a little help You can't start a fire You can't start a fire without a spark This gun's for hire Even if we're just dancing in the dark Message keeps getting clearer Radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place I check my look in the mirror I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face Man, I ain't getting nowhere I'm just living in a dump like this There's something happening somewhere Baby, I just know that there is You can't start a fire You can't start a fire without a spark This gun's for hire Even if we're just dancing in the dark You sit around getting older There's a joke here somewhere and it's on me I'll shake this world off my shoulders Come on, baby, the laugh's on me Stay on the streets of this town And they'll be carving you up all right They say you gotta stay hungry Hey, baby, I'm just about starving tonight I'm dying for some action I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book I need a love reaction Come on now, baby, gimme just one look You can't start a fire Sitting 'round crying over a broken heart This gun's for hire Even if we're just dancing in the dark You can't start a fire Worrying about your little world falling apart This gun's for hire Even if we're just dancing in the dark Even if we're just dancing in the dark Even if we're just dancing in the dark Even if we're just dancing in the dark Hey, baby Produced By Little Steven, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck Plotkin & Jon Landau Written By Bruce Springsteen Recording Engineer Toby W. Scott Mixed At Power Station (New York City) Recorded At Power Station (New York City) & The Hit Factory (New York City) Record Label Columbia Records Mastering Engineer Bob Ludwig Design Andrea Klein Art Direction Andrea Klein Piano Roy Bittan Percussion Clarence Clemons Synthesizer Roy Bittan Saxophone Clarence Clemons Organ Danny Federici Guitar Bruce Springsteen Glockenspiel Danny Federici Vocals Bruce Springsteen Photography Annie Leibovitz Assistant Engineer Zoë Yanakis, Billy Straus, Bruce Lampcov, Jeff Hendrickson & Otis Blackwell Mixing Engineer Bob Clearmountain Harmony Vocals Little Steven Mandolin Little Steven Acoustic Guitar Little Steven Bass Garry Tallent Background Vocals Max Weinberg, Garry Tallent, Clarence Clemons & Roy Bittan Recorded At Power Station and The Hit Factory Release Date May 3, 1984