Dance The Night Away (Van Halen Song)
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Dance The Night Away (Van Halen Song)
OR:
Dance The Night Away (Van Halen Song) on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

"Dance the Night Away" is a song by American
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
band
Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
, and written by its group members. It is the second song from their 1979 album ''
Van Halen II ''Van Halen II'' is the second studio album by American rock band Van Halen. Released on March 23, 1979, it peaked at number six on the ''Billboard'' 200 and spawned the singles " Dance the Night Away" and " Beautiful Girls". As of 2004, it has so ...
''. While the rest of the songs from this album had existed in various forms since their days doing demos and playing clubs, this song was possibly the only song written during the recording sessions for the album.


Background

The band members conceived the song during the recording sessions while they were standing in a circle humming to each other. It was inspired by
Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...
's "
Go Your Own Way "Go Your Own Way" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac from their eleventh studio album, '' Rumours'' (1977). The song was released as the album's first single in December 1976 on both sides of the Atlantic. Written and sung b ...
".
Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...
purposely left a guitar solo out of the final version of the song, replacing it instead with a riff of tap harmonics.
David Lee Roth David Lee Roth (born October 10, 1954) is an American rock singer. Best known for his wild, energetic stage persona, he was the original lead vocalist of the hard rock band Van Halen across three stints, from 1974 to 1985, in 1996 and again fro ...
originally wanted to call the song "Dance, Lolita, Dance", but Eddie Van Halen convinced him that "Dance the Night Away" was more suitable and the chorus was changed to reflect that. Roth claimed, during a 2006 performance in
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
, California, that he wrote this song in tribute to an intoxicated woman who was having sex in the back of a truck and ran with her pants on backwards while escaping police officers into the bar where the fledgling band was playing. This was also mentioned at a 2006 performance in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
.


Reception

''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' described "Dance the Night Away" as "a melodically driving rocker spiked by blaring guitar
riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...
s, keyboards, bass and a powerful lead vocal. ''
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' said it was "more melodic" with fewer "guitar pyrotechnics" than previous Van Halen songs. ''
Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with '' Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 under the name ''Music Vendor'', but in 1964 it was changed to ''Record Wo ...
'' praised the "slick guitar-percussion intro and break" and
Ted Templeman Edward John "Ted" Templeman (born October 24, 1942) is an American record producer. Among the acts he has a long relationship with are the rock bands Van Halen and the Doobie Brothers and the singer Van Morrison; he produced multiple criticall ...
's
wall of sound The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session m ...
production." Chuck Klosterman of Vulture.com ranked it the third-best Van Halen song, praising Michael Anthony's background vocals and writing that "this song just makes people feel good."


Charts

"Dance the Night Away" was Van Halen's first top 20 U.S. hit, peaking at number 15 on the
Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
. It also reached number 95 on the ''Billboard'' Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1979


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dance The Night Away (Van Halen Song) 1979 singles Van Halen songs Music videos directed by Bruce Gowers Song recordings produced by Ted Templeman 1979 songs Songs written by Eddie Van Halen Songs written by Alex Van Halen Songs written by Michael Anthony (musician) Songs written by David Lee Roth Warner Records singles Songs about dancing