by Mark Nobes, chief editor
"Dancing In The Dark" was the first of seven single releases from Bruce Springsteen's best-selling album of the 80's (and his career!) Born In The U.S.A., and the song was written and co-produced by Springsteen.
Interestingly, it was the last track to be written for the album, but the first single to be released from it!
The song reached #2 in the U.S. and #4 in the UK in 1984. Five more hits singles from the album were to follow; "Cover Me" (#16), "Born In The USA" (#5), "I'm On Fire" (#5), "Glory Days" (#17) and "Hometown" (#9).
Dancing In The Dark - Vinyl Single Sleeve
The song became one of Springsteen's biggest and best known hits, achieving platinum sales in both the UK and U.S. It spent four weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The B-side featured the track "Pink Cadillac", a non-album track that was originally titled "Love is a Dangerous Thing".
Producer Jon Landau felt the Born in the U.S.A. album lacked a big hit singe as it's first release, so he asked Springsteen to write another song. As he had already written 70 songs, the request received a negative reaction from Springsteen. Nonetheless, begrudgingly, he sat down in his hotel room and penned a song on one night. Arthur Baker remixed the album version to create the 12 inch Blaster Mix, which went down well in the clubs, reaching No.7 on the Hot Dance/Club Play chart and becoming the best-selling 12 inch of 1984.
Directed by Brian De Palma (who's movies include Carrie and Scarface), the video was filmed at Saint Paul Civic Center in Minnesota during June 1984. Springsteen pulls the actress Courteney Cox from the crowd to dance with him on stage. At the time, the singer thought she was a pre-selected fan and didn't know she was an actress. The video won the Best Stage Performance at the MTV Video Awards.
Born In The USA
was Springsteen's seventh studio album and it was his most successful.
In fact, it was a commercial triumph achieving 15x Platinum in the US,
12x Platinum in Australia, 10x Platinum in Canada and 3x Platinum in the
UK.
Born in New Jersey, "The Boss" achieved his first hit single in 1975 with "Born To Run" which reached #23 in the U.S., although it didn't break the Top 40 in the UK. Born To Run was also covered (brilliantly) by Frankie Goes To Hollywood on their Welcome To The Pleasuredome album.
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