“Dancing In The Dark” is the only song you need for a perfect summer playlist
33 years later The Boss is still King of Summer.
For the past three months I’ve been living in the Southern Hemisphere. The average temperature has been about 55 degrees. I haven’t had a beach day, I haven’t gone to a BBQ or come within 100 yards of a pool. I’ve all but missed summer.
So when the UTIOM editing crew pitched the Summer Song Series I knew I had to put on my best Hawaiian and straw hat to channel the ultimate summer creature: Dads On Vacation.
There are so many options for the perfect summer jam: “We’re All Dudes” from the Good Burger soundtrack, “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” by Jamie XX, “The Seed 2.0” by The Roots, “Good Times Roll” by GRiZ and Big Gigantic, and at least 10 more.
Those tracks are all amazing summer playlist filler, but I needed something that represented what I miss about summer in the States, specifically, summer in the Northeast. For those of you who don’t know, summer in the Northeast isn’t just about hot weather, it’s a time when everyone looks around and collectively says, “Man, that cold weather sucked a bunch. Remember when we woke up at 4 a.m. to shovel out our cars? Yeah, lets do the opposite of that.” And nothing says Wet, Hot, American Summer quite like “Dancing In The Dark” by Bruce Springsteen.
Pumping synth, a simple drum beat, Springsteen doing his best 80s pop star impression, there’s not much more you can ask for in a summer jam. The song is simple, and like all summer jams, it’s incredibly catchy. And of course no Bruce song is complete without a sax solo from the late, great, Clarence Clemons.
FACT: 10/10 people with a red solo cup and hamburger on a paper plate will put them down to groove to this song at a pool party.
Not to mention the song is family friendly, your Mom probably wished she was Courtney Cox in the “Dancing In The Dark” music video, your Dad probably started putting his baseball cap in his back pocket when Born In The USA came out, and your grandparents were probably just thankful this didn’t sound like the devil’s rock & roll. So pull up a beach chair, fire up the grill, press play, and let The Boss give you a hand.
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