Dancing in the Moonlight

This article is about the song by King Harvest. For the Thin Lizzy song "Dancin' in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)", see Bad Reputation (Thin Lizzy album). For the song by Men Without Hats, see No Hats Beyond This Point.

"Dancing in the Moonlight"
Song
B-side	"Marty and the Captain"

"Dancing in the Moonlight" is the title song on the 1973 King Harvest album. The track was released as a single and it reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. They released other singles but these were never able to match the success of "Dancing in the Moonlight". The track used a Wurlitzer electric piano throughout.

History

The song was written in 1968 by Sherman Kelly, whose brother, Wells Kelly - King Harvest's drummer in the early 1970s - introduced the song to the band. It was originally recorded in 1969 by the American band, Boffalongo, which included Sherman Kelly (who sang lead on this original recording of his own composition) and future King Harvest frontman, Doc Robinson. Wells Kelly later became the original drummer for Orleans. Meanwhile, King Harvest recorded and released "Dancing in the Moonlight" as a single, with "Lady, Come On Home" on the B-side, while the band was based in Paris. Steve Cutler, a jazz drummer from New York City (standing on the pole in the cover picture), played drums on the tracks and toured with the band in France and the UK. The group disbanded after six months, and the single languished for a year, until it was bought and released worldwide by Perception Records.

The song's first line is "We get it on most every night" .

A cover version was released in the UK in 1973 by the singing and dancing act, Young Generation, but despite airplay, it failed to chart. The song finally charted in the UK in March 2000, after being covered in 1999 by Toploader.

The song was played as a wake up call for Daniel M. Tani, an astronaut on board the STS-120: Discovery mission headed for the International Space Station, on the early morning of Thursday 24 October 2007.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" was licensed by Wal-Mart for their 2008 TV commercial season in the US.

Thin Lizzy's 1977 UK single release - "Dancin' In The Moonlight (It's Caught Me In Its Spotlight)" should not be confused with the King Harvest song, as it is a completely different track.

Cover versions

The King Harvest version is often wrongly primarily attributed to Van Morrison or Elvis Costello, due to incorrect labeling on various digital download services. Neither of these artists have actually recorded a version of "Dancing in the Moonlight." The original recording of the song is also sometimes misattributed to Toploader, who released a cover of the song in 2000 that reached the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart, higher than any previous version. The Toploader cover has also been used in the films A Walk To Remember and Four Lions. A musical number of the song is featured in Richard Wenk's comedic short, Dracula Bites the Big Apple.

This song has been covered by a number of artists. These include:-

• High Broom released a single of the song in the UK on Island Records (WIP 6088) in August 1970
• Young Generation on a 1973 single
• Liza Minnelli on her 1973 album The Singer
• Joe "Bean" Esposito on his 1996 album Treated and Released
• Baha Men on 1994's Kalik
• Masters Of The Obvious
• The Keane Brothers — who created a disco version in 1979
• Toploader on their 1999 Onka's Big Moka album
• Aswad on their 2002 album Cool Summer Reggae
• Orleans
• My Morning Jacket
• Jack Wagner
• Ted Raimi (in the Xena: Warrior Princess musical episode, Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire)
• Switchfoot
• Alyson Stoner

External links

• Official King Harvest website