Bruce Springsteen
On Valentine's Day 1984, Bruce Springsteen's manager told him the album needed a hit single. Springsteen's response: "If you want another song, you write it." Then he picked up his guitar and wrote "Dancing in the Dark" in under 45 minutes. The single peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, kept from the top only by Prince's "When Doves Cry." It became Springsteen's first Grammy win. In the music video, directed by Brian De Palma, an unknown 19-year-old named Courteney Cox was pulled from the crowd to dance with him on stage.
In our deep dive into Dancing in the Dark, we trace the song from that frustrated hotel room to Springsteen's biggest commercial moment, and what it reveals about a songwriter who almost talked himself out of his own breakthrough.
