Song · Motors
“Dancing the Night Away” by Motors
From the album 1 (1977)
“Dancing the Night Away” by Motors appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1977 and 2026. It was first released in 1977 on the album 1. Its best result is #1 on the John Peel's Forgotten Fifty of 1977. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #1 alternative song of 1977, #6,014 alternative song of all time and #1 of the '70s.
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"Dancing the Night Away" was the Motors' first single, cut in 1977 as the lead track from their debut album 1 on Virgin, and it's pub rock with its sights set on the stratosphere. Band members Andy McMaster and Nick Garvey wrote it and Robert John "Mutt" Lange produced it, and the album version sprawls to six and a half minutes of chiming, surging guitar before it was cut down into separate edits for the 7-inch and the 12-inch.
The Byrds' fingerprints are all over it: Bob Edmands of the NME made it single of the week, heard the melody and riff echo "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" and figured the solo could have fit on "Eight Miles High". It reached 42 on the UK Singles Chart, and AllMusic's Mark Deming later hailed it as a superb marriage of pop tune and heavy guitar muscle.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 1 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Forgotten Fifty of 1977 | 61 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 35 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1978) | 50 |
| 2026 | 987 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
Also listed as: Dancing The Night Away.
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