| Dancing Girls | |
| Cover: | Nik Kershaw Dancing Girls.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Nik Kershaw |
| Album: | Human Racing |
| B-Side: | Drum Talk, She Cries |
| Recorded: | Summer 1983 |
| Genre: | |
| Label: | MCA |
| Producer: | Peter Collins |
| Prev Title: | Wouldn't It Be Good |
| Prev Year: | 1984 |
| Next Title: | I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (re-issue) |
| Next Year: | 1984 |
"Dancing Girls" is a song by the English singer-songwriter Nik Kershaw. It was the third single from his debut studio album, Human Racing, and released on 2 April 1984.[1] It charted on 14 April 1984, and reaching a peak position of No. 13 in the UK Singles Chart. It stayed on the charts for nine weeks.[2]
Kershaw explained the song to Number One magazine in September 1984:[3]
In a podcast interview with Sodajerker, Kershaw remembers writing the bassline spontaneously on a Roland Juno-6 synthesizer, using the arpeggiator function, and programming a rhythm on a Roland TR-808 drum machine – it was to this musical basis that the lyrics would be written.[4]
The external street scenes for the music video for "Dancing Girls" were filmed in the dead-end section of Woodberry Grove, Finchley, North London.[3] It depicted Kershaw as the subject of the song's lyrics, an advertising executive,[5] imagining himself dancing with a group of middle aged dancers, including a six foot tall traffic warden, deliberately juxtaposed against Kershaw's 5'3" (160 cm) frame. The video was intended to be light-hearted, following on from the much darker video for Kershaw's previous single, "Wouldn't It Be Good".[3]
7" Single (MCA NIK 3)[6]
A "Dancing Girls" (Remixed Version) – 3:36
B "She Cries" – 3:45
12" Single (MCA NIKT 3)[6]
There were four different UK 12" releases for "Dancing Girls", all sharing the same catalogue number
| Chart | Position | Weeks in Chart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | 13 | 10 | |
| Irish Singles Chart[7] | 2 | 4 | |
| German Media Control Charts | 2 | 1 |
Reviewer Paul Sinclair of website "Super Deluxe Edition" said of the song:[8] Meanwhile, Lisa Kalloo of Somojo2 said:[9] However, she was critical of the extended mix: