Dancing in the Dark (4:02)

“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.