Song of the Day 9/16: King Harvest, “Dancing in the Moonlight”
Connoisseurs of yacht rock trace the roots of the retroactively-defined genre to the Southern California soft-rock boom of the mid-’70s, so this song is technically a precursor. No matter. One-hit wonder King Harvest released it in 1971, and though it only reached No. 13 on the Hot 100, it’s had a long afterlife on soundtracks.
Named after the song by the Band, King Harvest formed in the late ’60s at Cornell University as a frat-party cover quartet. They disbanded after graduating, but all eventually wound up as expatriates in Paris and started playing together again. They added to the original foursome — at one point they had three keyboard players — and toured France and the UK.
They also recorded an LP that was released only in Europe, as well as a tune brought to them by one of the new members, drummer Wells Kelly, who later went on to form the band Orleans. Kelly’s brother, Sherman, wrote “Dancing in the Moonlight” in 1969 and recorded it with his band, Boffalongo. The original version is jazzier and more guitar-driven that the later hit.
The cleaner production on the King Harvest version puts electric piano in the forefront — that’s why it sounds like yacht rock. The single was released in France in 1971 but went nowhere, and the group broke up until the tune caught on in the US the next year. They quickly reformed for a tour, this time with their hit tune’s composer as a member of the band.
The song hit the charts again in Europe and the UK at the turn of century with a cover by the British band Toploader. Their version sold more than the first two combined.
“Dancing in the Moonlight” was rediscovered by yet another generation when Swedish production duo Jubël recorded it in 2018. Their version charted only in Sweden until 2020, when British DJs started spinning it, propelling it to No. 11 in the UK.
Every public school kid in the 1970’s logged time on electric pianos in music class.
I terms of “message” songs it is up there with “There is Power in a Union”.
We like our fun and we never fight
You can’t dance and stay uptight
It’s a supernatural delight
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight
Interesting story on how the song came about: Shawn Kelly was on vacation in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands when he was robbed, beaten and left for dead by a criminal gang. He wrote the song during his recuperation to keep his spirits up. The criminal gang later killed eight tourists on a golf course, destroying the island’s tourist economy for decades.
Ironic. A criminal gang sorely in need of message of the song.