“Dancing in the Dark” by Bruce Springsteen

"Dancing in the Dark" kicked off Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. in 1984, the first single off the album and the biggest hit it produced, and it exists because Jon Landau talked him into it. Landau told him the record still lacked a single; Springsteen, none too pleased, went back to his hotel room and wrote one overnight, pouring in his isolation after the success of The River and his frustration at being asked for a hit at all.

That's the joke and the ache of it: a restless, cornered song dressed up in Roy Bittan's glittering synthesizer and Max Weinberg's dance-floor thump, with Clarence Clemons, Garry Tallent and Danny Federici filling out the band. They cut six takes at the Hit Factory on February 14, 1984, and it took 58 mixes, wrapped on March 8, before it was done. The 12-inch outsold every other 12-inch single in America that year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.