Dancing in the Dark
Released May 3, 1984
Format
7-inch single 12-inch single
Recorded March 1984
Length 3:59
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Bruce Springsteen
Producer(s)
Jon Landau Chuck Plotkin Bruce Springsteen
“Dancing in the Dark” is a song written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. With added uptempo synthesizer riffs and some syncopation to his sound for the first time, the song spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100[1] and sold over one million singles in the U.S. alone. As the first single released from his 1984 album, Born in the U.S.A., it became his biggest hit and propelled the album to become the best-selling album of his career.
The recording also won Springsteen his first Grammy Award, picking up the prize for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1985.[17] In the 1984 Rolling Stone readers poll, “Dancing in the Dark” was voted “Single of the Year”.[18] 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.[19]
Track listings
7″: Columbia / 38-04463
“Dancing in the Dark” – 3:59
“Pink Cadillac” – 3:33
12″: Columbia / 44-05028
“Dancing in the Dark” (Blaster Mix) – 6:09
“Dancing in the Dark” (Radio) – 4:50
“Dancing in the Dark” (Dub) – 5:30
12″: Epic / TA4436
“Dancing in the Dark” (Extended Remix) – 6:09
“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.