Come Dancing with Me, Madonna, Van Halen, George Jefferson, & Others

A dozen of my favorite dancing songs. Excuse me while I put on my Boogie Shoes and get my groove on!

Writer, music lover, and all-around great human being Terry Barr recently wrote a fun piece in which he shared some of his favorite songs to dance to. He included awesome music from legendary artists such as Donna Summer, Chic, The Isley Brothers, and Rick James. I encourage you to check out his article here.

In addition to sharing great songs in his post, Terry also prompted other writers, readers, and dancers to share their favorite dance songs.

It’s nearly impossible for me to resist music-related challenges like this one, so I put together a list of 12 of my favorite songs to dance to.

I mixed things up with how I’m sharing the songs. In some cases, I used audio versions from Spotify. In other cases, I used music videos from YouTube. For some special cases, I used both. A full Spotify playlist containing all of them (plus additional songs) can be found near the bottom of this post.

Most of my selections are very well-known, but there are a couple here that may be new to some of you. I encourage you to listen to them, though, even if you don’t know them.

Seriously, you can trust me on this. I’ve got exceptional taste in music!

Got your dancing shoes ready? Did you clear out some space around you so you can dance freely without bumping into things? Okay, great!

Get ready…

Get set…

Get down!!!

Let’s Dance On — The Monkees

This song is from The Monkees’ first album. It wasn’t released as a single and wasn’t a radio hit, but it was featured multiple times in their popular TV series. It’s a very fun song that I’ve always loved.

Dance With Me Tonight — The Wonders

A great song from one of my favorite movies ever — That Thing You Do!

Actor Johnathon Schaech, who played Jimmy in the movie, once shared the below video on one of his social media accounts. This talented young boy really rocks out on the drums to “Dance With Me Tonight.”

You Should Be Dancing — The Bee Gees

One of The Bee Gees’ first popular disco songs in the 1970s. I may or may not have danced in front of my bedroom mirror to this one a lot when I was a kid.

I may or may not have also done the same thing earlier today.

Boogie Shoes — K.C. & The Sunshine Band

This is a little bit slower than most of the other songs I’ve included here but it’s still an incredibly fun song to dance and sing-a-long to. I especially love the “yeah!” at the very end of it.

Dance In My Pants — Jim Steinman (with Karla DeVito)

I’ve been called over the top. How silly. If you don’t go over the top, you can’t see what’s on the other side.

— Jim Steinman

When a lot of people think of the late Jim Steinman, they probably remember him primarily as the songwriter and producer behind hit songs by artists like Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, Air Supply, and many others. While he did wonderful work with those musicians (especially Meat’s Bat Out of Hell albums and Bonnie’s song “Total Eclipse of The Heart”), Jim Steinman also released a fantastic solo album in 1981 called Bad For Good.

“Dance In My Pants” is from that album. The majority of it is actually sung by Karla DeVito, who has always been one of my favorite singers.

The above music video is…well…it’s incredibly unique! I’ve never seen any other music videos quite like this one. It is a little wild and what some might call “over the top” at times — but oh wow — it’s so wonderful!

It’s a LOT of fun and is one of my favorite music videos ever.

While Jim is great during his parts of it, I think the true star of the video is Karla DeVito. In addition to being a singer, Karla is also an actress. She uses both her acting and singing skills to full force here and gives an incredibly entertaining performance.

NOTE: The video has a long introduction before the music starts. If you want to go directly to the music, start the video at the 1:43 mark. Also, if you’d rather avoid that kind of skipping around, here’s the audio version:

Dancing With Myself — Billy Idol

Such a classic! In addition to the popular version of it from above, I also love the below extended version of the song.

Dancing In The Dark — Bruce Springsteen

This is when I first became a big fan of Bruce Springsteen — and actress Courteney Cox.

Into The Groove — Madonna

I love a lot of songs by Madonna, but this one’s probably my favorite by her.

Dance The Night Away — Van Halen

The above music video is from a cool YouTube channel called RetroTVCentral. They have several great videos in which they combine popular music with clips from classic television series.

In this one, they use Van Halen’s great “Dance The Night Away” and show dancing scenes from the following legendary TV shows: The Andy Griffith Show, Here’s Lucy, The Patty Duke Show, Batman, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Addams Family, Get Smart, and I Dream of Jeannie.

I love it all but I think my favorite part is when Morticia and Lurch from The Addams Family are dancing. They had some great moves!

Dance This World Away — Rick Springfield

This song is from Rick’s album Tao, which is one of my favorites of his albums. The video shows Rick playing multiple characters: a host of a children’s TV show called The Uncle Dick Show, a sort of sleazy-looking Las Vegas-type singer, and a version of himself in some sort of post-apocalyptic kind setting. The lyrics and video are a little ‘deep’ at times, dealing with topics like acid rain and nuclear war, but it still manages to be a fun and entertaining video. Plus, the song rocks!

Dancing In The Street — David Bowie and Mick Jagger

I know there are a lot of people out there who hate this one, but I’ve always loved it. The fun interactions between Bowie and Jagger in the video always make me smile.

Disco Inferno — The Trammps

Another very fun video from RetroTVCentral. This is another song that I used to dance to a lot in front of my mirror when I was a kid (and more recently.) The classic TV shows shown in this one are Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Jeffersons, Dallas, Sanford and Son, Police Woman, Laugh-In, Mork & Mindy, Three’s Company, CHiPs, and Good Times.

I love it all, but my favorite parts are the clips from The Jeffersons and Three’s Company.

And because I can’t get enough of watching George Jefferson dance…

And here’s the Spotify playlist I mentioned earlier. Enjoy!

P.S. — A Bonus Video That No One Asked For But I’m Sharing It Anyway: Me Dancing to the Song “Maniac.” (You’ve Been Warned!)

Back in 2014, a friend of mine dared me to post a video online of me dancing to the song “Maniac” from the movie Flashdance. Naturally, I couldn’t resist his challenge.

P.S. to Hollywood Movie Studios: I’m still available if you want to cast me in a remake of Flashdance. Have your people call my people and we’ll work something out.

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on X, Substack, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, and Goodreads. I’m also the host of the GOTTA POP podcast. Links to all of those things can be found here.