Cover Me Round-Up: Dancing in the Dark (Part 3)

Welcome to a new installment of Cover Me Round-Up! 

Today’s curated collection is my favorite one to date. When it comes to “Dancing in the Dark” covers, you might think you’ve heard them all–after all, we’ve featured thirty-eight different renditions here on the Shuffle over the past four years.

But Bruce’s most popular song ever continues to inspire artists old and new, and each of today’s stellar entries features a fresh arrangement, stellar production values, and a terrific performance. No matter your musical tastes, you’re bound to find at least one version below that speaks to you and shines a new light on “Dancing in the Dark.”

Let’s get started with my personal favorite of the bunch: The Ruth Moody Band’s brilliant, folky yet danceable acoustic arrangement of “Dancing in the Dark” from 2013.

The Canadian singer-songwriter (and member of The Wailin’ Jennys) became a Springsteen fan through Nebraska, but when she decided to cover a song of his, she skipped forward a couple of years. “Everyone sort of covers the more … sort of rawer stuff,” she told The Huffington Post in 2013, “and I thought that could potentially be cool to take his greatest hit and folkify it.”

She’s right: it’s very cool, and even the “heeeeeyyyyy baaaaaaaby” works without the slightest hint of 80s cheese.

Did someone mention cheese? Okay, maybe this a capella cover by OneVoice–a real life Glee club at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis–is a little over the top. But if you’re a Glee fan their performance is right up your alley. And even if a capella isn’t your thing, the intricacy of their arrangement is bound to impress.

But “Dancing in the Dark” is a rock song, so let’s turn up the heat for these next two, starting with this simmering, almost seething performance by Stephen Keech and Half Measure.

Half Measure is known for their acoustic Americana performances, but they plugged in for this one. At heart, “Dancing in the Dark” is a song of frustration, and we can hear the tension build throughout the band’s brilliant arrangement until Keech finally explodes in the last chorus.

But if Half Measure builds their tension until the song’s final moments, Downtown Boys explodes out of the gate with a punk version of “Dancing in the Dark” that’ll make you wonder why it took so long for someone to realize that Bruce’s lyrics are very punk. Is this my favorite cover of the bunch? No. Is it the one I can’t resist blasting and thrashing all around the place to? Mmmmmaaaaaaaaybe.

In 2017, Downtown Boys frontwoman Victroria Ruiz explained their inspiration to Fader. “We thought, how do we pitch this to Downtown Boys fans who don’t really care about Bruce Springsteen because they’re Mexican-American or they’re a person of color? ‘Dancing in the Dark’ is all about desiring darkness to feel free in. And I think that people of color, who are dark, we feel the word so often comes off as negative: it’s associated with death, or the antagonist. That reclaiming of the word ‘dark’ — I think it really works for Downtown Boys.” (It’s a great interview, you should check it out here.)

Work up a sweat to that one? Okay, let’s take a down a notch and mellow out to this late-night groove by Amsterdam artist Benny Sings.

“Bruce Springsteen is such an inspiration for me,” says Sings. “His songs are so strange, and yet so good. Felt like a great challenge to tackle one of his songs.” Benny’s approach to updating the song’s 80s sound is to go even more eighties with it–his cover is positively yacht rock, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I love it. Well done.

It’s about time to wrap up this episode, and since we’re already in a late night groove, let’s end on a quiet, introspective note. “Dancing in the Dark” is a song about alienation and isolation, and the appropriately named (for this song at least) Sad Little Attic Boy finds the loneliness at the heart of the song and brings it to the surface in an affectingly sad solo piano performance.

That’s it for this installment, but as always: there will be more. I discover new covers of “Dancing in the Dark” daily, so look for more great versions soon!

Bonus: Dig that groovy Benny Sings performance earlier? Here’s a minute or so of video from his studio session to play us out.