Behind the Track, Vol. 1: "Dancing in the Moonlight" — King Harvest

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You've heard this song a thousand times. It's pure joy — breezy keys, everybody dancing, not a care in the world.

It was written in a hospital bed.

In 1969, songwriter Sherman Kelly was vacationing in St. Croix when he and his girlfriend were attacked by a gang. He was beaten with baseball bats, suffered multiple facial fractures, and was left for dead.

While he was recovering, he didn't write an angry song. He wrote the opposite — he imagined a world where everybody was joyful and at peace, the exact reverse of what he'd just lived through. A place where everybody was dancing in the moonlight.

He recorded it first with his own band, Boffalongo, and it went nowhere. Then his brother Wells — the drummer for King Harvest — brought it to his band. Their version took off: #13 on the Hot 100, #5 in Canada, and it's been stuck in all of our heads ever since. (Wells later co-founded Orleans — "Still the One." Musical family.)

A man survives the worst night of his life and answers it with the happiest song of the decade. That's something.

Does knowing the backstory change how you hear it?

If you want to hear it with fresh ears, stream it on Amazon Music Unlimited. New to Amazon? Try Prime free.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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