Cover Me Round-Up: Dancing in the Dark (#2)

Welcome to the third installment of our Cover Me Round-Up series, spotlighting Springsteen songs covered too frequently to keep up with unless I spotlight them in batches.

“Dancing in the Dark” has always been one of Bruce’s most popular songs, but over the past year or so, the number of quality covers of it has absolutely exploded–very likely because we’re living through times of isolation and frustration not unlike the ones expressed by the song.

(Check out our previous “Dancing in the Dark” cover round-up here.)

Whatever the reasons, we’re fortunate to have some great new versions of Bruce’s greatest hit to enjoy, recorded by musicians from around the world.

Let’s start with one of my new favorites: JøshjøsH (not a typo) is a Sydney-based singer-songwriter who found himself in lonely lockdown during last year’s holiday season. When his playlist turned up Bruce’s hit single, he found himself inspired to record his own version.

JøshjøsH’s version of “Dancing in the Dark” starts out simple and traditional but takes flight at the one-minute mark and never touches the earth again. This is one of the freshest takes of this song in years. I’ve added it to my playlist, and I’m betting you might, too.

Next up: a wonderful, firelit performance by German acoustic duo Sixtyfour.

Ulf Gottschalk and Harry Stingl formed Sixtyfour a few years back, naming themselves after their birth year. Although their vocals are wonderful on their own, guest vocalist Kimmy adds warmth to the duo’s lovely guitar work and Bruce’s lonely lyrics.

Moving on to the U.K. now, let’s listen in on Harry Pane. Harry’s name might not be familiar to you, but with recent appearances at Glastonbury and SXSW, it might soon be.

Pane’s version is stripped-down and respectfully but not overly faithful to the original. Harry adds a particularly lovely flourish in the bridge that forces the listener to acknowledge the self-pity at the heart of the song.

If Pane’s version of “Dancing in the Dark” is mostly traditional, our next entry is at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Fellow U.K. singer-songwriter Tom Seth Johnson completely transforms Bruce’s song. Only the chorus is melodically familiar, and yet it’s still instantly recognizable as “Dancing in the Dark.” It’s a terrific arrangement that’s bound to get stuck in your head. (It’s certainly stuck in mine.)

Bonus entry:

This one’s an outlier in that it’s neither modern nor indie. In fact, it’s one of the earliest-ever covers of “Dancing in the Dark,” and it proved so popular that it peaked at #21 in the U.K. in the summer of 1985.

Big Daddy was formed as a cover band in the late 1970s in Los Angeles. They attracted a bit of a cult following in the U.S. thanks to their inventive cover arrangements and mash-ups and their appearances on the Doctor Demento radio show. Rhino Records signed them, and their second album (Meanwhile… Back in the States, released in 1985) featured a studio recording of “Dancing in the Dark.”

“Dancing in the Dark” became a moderately successful single, and they were invited to perform it on a children’s show called Razzmatazz that ran in the U.K. throughout the 1980s.

Like many shows at the time, the band had to lip-sync to their recording, but there was a snag: because their single had been recorded in the U.S., U.K. law required them to air a locally produced version. The band recorded a new version of the song that morning, and the band lip-synced to it on TV later in the day.

You might not be able to tell, but lead singer David Starns was suffering from stomach flu at the time. He’d spent the hours in between the morning recording session and the evening taping vomiting into a wastebasket, but he managed to hold it together (with much effort) during the performance above.

Starns’ crooning Orbisonian vocals combined with a charming 1950s doo-wop arrangement transformed “Dancing in the Dark” (still getting quite a bit of airplay at the time) into something charmingly fresh and new. Even the hat tip to Courtney Cox’s debut at the end will warm your heart.

That’s it for this installment of Cover-Me Round-up, but given my lengthy and ever-growing list of covers, there will almost certainly be more.