General Gregory N. Pigott: Late Night Music Part 80....."I'm Dancing! I'm Dancing!"

Such a big part of music is the actual act of dancing. While I always knew this, I never got why I was so bad at it. For those of you who have actually seen me try to dance- try not to laugh, as my inability to dance may be the whitest thing about me. However, so many times artists write about dancing in their music as a form of a variety of emotions ranging from remembrance, happiness, sadness, or just being stoned of your mind. Any way you sing about it, dancing, as hard as it is for a guy like me, is still a huge part of music.

Obviously, in order to be considered for this list, the song title must feature the word "Dance" in it. Also receiving votes in this category were "Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy, "Dance Me To The End Of Love" by Leonard Cohen, "Murder On The Dance Floor" by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, "Blood On The Dance Floor" by Michael Jackson, "Dancing" by Elisa, and "She's Got Me Dancing" by Tommy Sparks. NOT receiving votes in this category was "Dancing In The Dark" by Bruce Springsteen. Sorry, he really really sucks.

"Dancing In The Moonlight"- King Harvest. Ok, how many of us thought that Van Morrison did this one? Guilty. I really had no idea on this one. I think part of the confusion is this song and Morrison's 1970 hit "Moondance". Help me out here classmates, but wasn't this song the theme to our senior prom? I may be mistaken, but I'm almost positive on this one. More of the confusion might be the fact that this was King Harvest's only even MINOR hit, as they are a TRUE one hit wonder, as this song from their self titled 1973 album was truly their 15 minutes of fame. One of the best songs of the 1970's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NslA5sGAf7k

"Slow Dancing In A Burning Room"- John Mayer. Without a doubt, this is my favorite John Mayer song. Those of you who pay attention may notice this song from my famous "song lyric" statuses that I occasionally litter your home pages with. This song, included on his 2006 hit album "Continuum" is shown in a live performance here from the Nokia Theater in 2007. Bonus points for Steve Jordan going crazy at the drums. This song just shows the deeply personal lyrics that are all over this great album. This song reminds me of so many women I have met in my life and is quite possibly the best breakup song I've ever heard. I still get chills listening to this song every time I hear it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6HppOWNWcY

"Safety Dance"- Men Without Hats. Like I said before, not only is this band Canadian when they appear British, this song is actually a protest song about the banning of pogo dancing in certain Canadian nightclubs in the 1980's due to it "looking dangerous", as it was the new craze with the dying days of disco right around the corner. Still doesn't explain why they decided to put abunch of British midgets in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7movKfyTBII

"Alll She Wants To Do Is Dance"- Don Henley. This Billboard Top 10 song from Don Henley on his 1984 second solo album "Building The Perfect Beast" is ironic because the song is about women not wanting to settle down and only wanting to dance and party all the time. The song went on to be a dance club hit- talk about poetic justice. Really not a huge fan of this song, and the video is hard to watch. Just an Eagles fan, I guess you can call it an Eagles song seeing how they always play this one at their shows now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QSyaBHr1jU

"Dance With My Father"- Luther Vandross. No words for this one. Just watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foXCi7Bzc-I

"Dancing In The Street"- Mick Jagger and David Bowie. This song was originally recorded Martha and The Vandellas in 1964 and has been done by at least (just off the top of my head 5 other artists) - SUPER COVER SONG ALERT! This version was recorded in 1985 as part of the Live Aid relief effort with all proceeds going towards charity. The original plan was to record the song live while David Bowie was in London and Mick Jagger was in Philadelphia, but due to the half second tape delay across the Atlantic (something that would still be nearly impossible even with today's technology), the idea was scrapped, and the two simply recorded the duet that was shown at both Live Aid venues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4jnaznUoQ

"Just Dance"- Lady Gaga featuring Colby O'Donis. Why do I keep going back to Lady Gaga? Why is she even popular? Does anyone even know anything about her? Talk about a lucky person being in the right place and the right time. Well the answer might be with this, her debut single from her debut album "The Fame", that is surprisingly catchy despite the song being inspired by Lady Gaga's experiences being drunk while at a nightclub. How appropriate was it that her next single was "Poker Face"?. The song literally came out of nowhere to hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2008 and remains to this day one of the best selling singles in the history of music. See what I mean?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Abk1jAONjw

"Up Here For Thinking, Down There For Dancing"- Black Taxi. This band from Brooklyn, adds yet another up and coming band to "Late Night Music" for this song from their latest album "Things Of That Nature". Double bonus points on this video. First of all, for the karate garb. Second, for actually making noise in the library. I do realize you've probably never heard of these guys, but I promise they are American. Another band here that could win the award for "band that seems the most British but isn't British".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suFowgJWww0

"Dancing In Circles"- Love And Theft. For you country fans. This song from their 2009 album "World Wide Open" . Love and Theft has been mistaken by many as being a Christian band. Just because an artist records a "Christian" song doesn't make them a "Christian" band. I like this song, but I've always had a problem with videos that show a band playing on a stage without the full band. See, we see the guitars and piano but no drums, strings, bass, or steel guitar. Why do country artists cut corners like this? I'm taking away bonus points for this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69_XxCQYg1U

"Dance Into The Light"- Phil Collins. I realize I featured this one recently. I'm still wondering how Phil Collins could release this song with such a flippant mood of being free after leaving Genesis. Still seems kinda rude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZnD6HqCKZI

"Dancing Queen"- ABBA. Whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s

"Mary Jane's Last Dance"- Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. I remember in 5th grade when Tom Petty released his "Greatest Hits" album with this song being the single promoting the album with the very hot Kim Basinger. While this song only peaked at #14, it received tons of airplay, and for some reason, you weren't cool if you didn't have this CD. This video won several VMAs despite being inspired by my all time least favorite book "Great Expectations" and my all time least favorite movie "Weekend At Bernie's". This song was one of the very last to feature the original Heartbreaker lineup in the band as drummer Stan Lynch would leave the band the following year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aowSGxim_O8

BONUS VIDEO- "My Stupid Mouth"- John Mayer. My second favorite John Mayer song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSEYOpI985s