Garth Brooks is known for his unfailing memory. He never forgets a face, a name—or a song. If it weren’t for that, he wouldn’t be celebrating the 34th anniversary of his second chart-topper, and one of the most poignant songs in the genre’s history – “The Dance.”
“The greatest thing that ever happened to that song is that he did it,” said Tony Arata, who wrote “The Dance.” “There were so many things that went into it that I had no control over and that I had no input on.”
Allen Reynolds, who is a songwriter, produced the song. Brooks, who is a songwriter, recorded the song.
“It was a wonderful assemblage of players who really got the song,” Arata said. “Garth made it his song. He made it his own.”
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Garth Brooks Made “The Dance” His Own
Arata said Brooks reimagined “The Dance” so entirely that when he went to Brooks’ manager’s office to hear the album, by the time they made it to the last song, he thought “The Dance” didn’t make the cut. “The Dance” is the last song on Brooks’ self-titled debut album. Because Brooks, Reynolds, and Bobby Woods added the famous piano intro, Arata didn’t recognize the ballad immediately and thought Brooks had dropped it.
“I was crestfallen,” Arata said. “The demo I did was just an acoustic guitar and a vocal. There was no intro. Then, when it got to the end, I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe how well it turned out and how much care they took with it.”
Arata was a journalist working in a magazine, and “The Dance” was the first song he’d had recorded after moving to Nashville.
Peggy Sue Got Married
A scene from Peggy Sue Got Married inspired Arata to write “The Dance,” which tackles the idea that if you change one painful thing about your life, you put all the best parts in jeopardy.
Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage starred in the film. Turner goes back in time, and when Cage asks her to marry him, she knows how terribly everything turns out. She refuses his proposal.
“Because she doesn’t marry him, there’s a locket around her neck, and she doesn’t get her kids, either,” Arata told fellow songwriter JT Harding.
Brooks first heard “The Dance” when he and Arata played a songwriter’s round at Bluebird Café. Arata had just moved to Nashville and written the song. He played an early round at the iconic Bluebird, where he met Brooks, who had just moved to Nashville from Oklahoma.
Garth Brooks was “the Greatest Thing That Ever Happened to Me”
“When he first heard ‘The Dance,’ he said, ‘If I ever get a record deal, I’m going to do that song,’” Arata said, then explained that years went by. “I got a call at the magazine, and he said, ‘I got signed at Capitol Records. I want to record that song. If it’s still available, I’d love to do it. ‘”
“The Dance” was still available. The fact that “everybody in town” had passed on “The Dance” in the three years since Brooks first heard it, Arata said, is the “greatest thing that ever happened to me as a songwriter.”
“It just proved that the person who was supposed to do it heard it and held onto it,” he said. “I was very lucky.”
(Photo credit Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock)
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