“Come Dancing” by The Kinks

Ray Davies wrote "Come Dancing" out of family memory: his older sister Rene suffered a fatal heart attack out on a dance-hall floor, and the song looks back through the eyes of an East End barrow boy watching his sister head out on dates to the local Palais. The Kinks put it on State of Confusion, their 1983 album, but its first UK release as a single, in November 1982, sank without a trace. It's jaunty and nostalgic on the surface, with a lump in its throat underneath.

America gave it a second life. Arista's Clive Davis worried that dance halls were too English a subject for the States, but a Julien Temple video that MTV played constantly carried the April 1983 US single to number six on the Hot 100, matching "Tired of Waiting for You" as the band's biggest hit. Britain took a second look, and the reissue reached number 12 there.

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