David Bowie hit a musical milestone 41 years ago today when his iconic pop track “Let’s Dance” hit No. 1 on both the U.K. and U.S. charts, marking the first time the British rocker would achieve the same accolade from both sides of the pond.
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Four decades later, the track has cemented itself into the pop music canon with its punchy rhythms, reverb-laden vocals, and all-around 1980s production style. However, “Let’s Dance” didn’t start as a hit.
In order to transform the tune from a milquetoast folk ditty to bonafide dancefloor bop, Bowie sought the help of a handful of musical legends, including Little Richard, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Chic’s Nile Rodgers.
From Art Rock to Dance Pop
Following the success of his late 1960s and early 1970s Ziggy Stardust era, David Bowie struggled to find consistent commercial success in both the U.S. and his native U.K. By the early 1980s, Bowie was ready to have another hit under his belt. After meeting Chic’s Niles Rodgers at a New York City nightclub in 1982, Bowie asked Rodgers if he would be a producer on the Brit rocker’s next album.
Rodgers agreed, and the pair began collaborating at Bowie’s Switzerland home. In a 2013 Telegraph feature, Rodgers recalled hearing “Let’s Dance” for the first time. “[Bowie] says, ‘Nile, darling, I think this is a hit.’ He proceeds to play what sounds like a folk song to me, with a 12-string guitar. I didn’t know a way of saying tactfully, ‘Yo, David, this is not a song called “Let’s Dance.””
Nevertheless, Rodgers took Bowie’s bare-boned idea and turned it into the pop staple we know today. The Chic guitarist successfully fleshed out the rest of the song’s arrangement, adding a driving bassline, brass features, and the distinctive introduction that builds anticipatory tension before exploding into the main groove á la The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.”
Two Additional Rockers That Helped Round Out “Let’s Dance”
Despite being an accomplished instrumentalist, David Bowie adopted a different approach for his 1980s pop record ‘Let’s Dance.’ Rather than adding his own accompaniment to the record, Bowie stayed on vocals. For the track’s powerful electric guitar feature, Bowie hired a yet-to-be-famous blues guitarist whom he met at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival: Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Vaughan’s impressive display of perfectly bridled passion cuts through the track’s synthy, pop-forward feel, adding a necessary edge typical of Bowie’s music. Bowie would later say, “After [Vaughan’s] blistering solo on the title song, he ambled into the control room and, with a cheeky smile on his face, shyly quipped, “That one’s for Albert,” knowing full well that I would understand that [Albert] King’s own playing was the genesis for that solo” (via The Complete David Bowie).
Bowie also drew influence from iconic rock and rollers who came before him, like Little Richard. In a 2012 Guardian interview, producer Rodgers recalled researching musical styles and aesthetics with Bowie prior to the album’s 1983 release. “[Bowie] held up a Little Richard album cover where he’s wearing a red suit, getting into a red Cadillac, with a pompadour haircut and said, “That’s rock and roll.” After doing all that research with him, I got it, too. I knew instantly what he wanted.”
Bowie’s Successful Fight For Commercial Acclaim
Although David Bowie set out to make a commercially viable record in the early 1980s, he would later say he never wrote “Let’s Dance” with the intention of making it the album’s standout hit. “Frankly, the song didn’t start out to be anything more than just another track on the album,” Bowie said, per The Complete David Bowie. Regardless of whether the experiment was intentional, it proved to be successful.
Bowie released “Let’s Dance” as a standalone single on March 14, 1983, exactly one month before he released the full album of the same name. By April of that year, the track had shot up to the No. 1 spot in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Dance/Disco charts, as well as international charts, including in the U.K., Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Portugal, and New Zealand.
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
