For my generation, “Dancing the Night Away” is best known for being the song the suits at Epic records jammed down Cheap Trick’s throat to become the first single on their under-rated Next Position Please record. Album producer Todd Rundgen refused to work on the song so it was finished over his objections with Ian Taylor behind the board and released as the lead track in August of 1983. It proved to be a disastrous decision as the otherwise poppy record sunk like a stone right out of the gate. By the time they got around to releasing the much superior “I Can’t Take It” in December of 1983 it was too late to push sales to a semi-respectable number.
One can only wonder how Next Position Please would have been received if “I Can’t Take It” was released first as originally intended. Would it have been a hit record? Would the follow-up record The Doctor still sound like The Doctor?
Or…..if you listen to the original version of the song as performed by The Motors, it wasn’t a totally crazy idea. It does kind of sound like a Cheap Trick tune and the band had a history of crafty covers; i.e. “Speak Now,” “California Man,” “Ain’t That a Shame.” But for some reason the band slowed the tempo and put their own spin on it. If they stayed true to the original version, maybe it would have done better. Or at least paved the road to “I Can’t Take It” and staved off commercial disaster.
Growing up in Columbus, Ohio the only thing I knew about The Motors was that they had a full-page ad in every single rock magazine I bought, but nobody bought their records. Anyway, “Dancing the Night Away” as done by The Motors ages pretty gracefully. As for the Cheap Trick version….. Todd was right to stay away from this one…….
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