"The Dance" is a song written and composed by Tony Arata, and recorded by American country music singer Garth Brooks as the tenth and final track from his self-titled debut album, from which it was also released as the album's fourth and final single in April 1990. It is considered by many to be Brooks' signature song. In a 2015 interview with Patrick Kielty of BBC Radio 2, Brooks credits the back to back success of both "The Dance" and its follow up "Friends in Low Places" for his phenomenal success.
Background
At the opening of the music video, Brooks explains that the song is written with a double meaning - both as a love song about the end of a passionate relationship, and a story of someone dying because of something he believes in, after a moment of glory.
Key: G Major
Length - 3:42
Music video
The song's music video, directed by John Lloyd Miller, features an introduction by Brooks himself explaining the alternative meaning of the song. The video shows several American icons and examples of people who died for a dream. These include archive footage of the following:
Lane Frost - World Champion Bull rider, who was killed in 1989 by the bull he rode for a full eight seconds during a rodeo.
On the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, The Dance reached number one and remained there for three consecutive weeks until it was knocked off by "Good Times" by Dan Seals
Release and reception
Released near the beginning of his career, "The Dance" was a hit singlearound the world, including the United States, Europe, and Ireland, charting inside the British pop top 40. In 1990, it was named both Song of the Year and Video of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. It was awarded the number 14 position in the CMT100 Greatest Songs of Country Music broadcast in 2003 and also the number 5 position on the network's The Greatest: 100 Greatest Music Videos special in 2004. In a 1994 Playboy interview, Brooks said, "unless I am totally surprised, The Dance will be the greatest success as a song we will ever do. I'll go to my grave with The Dance. It'll probably always be my favorite song." In 2001, after the death of Dale Earnhardt, Brooks was invited to the NASCAR awards ceremony that was honoring Earnhardt to play the song as a tribute. The song has been used as several country stations' last song before changing formats. It was also the second song to be played on UK station Country 1035, the first being another Brooks number. On February 6, 2014, "The Dance" was performed by Brooks on the final episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC.
Track listing
US 7-inch promotional single Capitol Nashville NR-44629, 1990
In 2006, the song was recorded by Westlife and included on their album The Love Album. They performed it live in their 2006 concert tour Face to Face Tour and a duet in a television special with Irish singer Ronan Keating.
Mindy McCready recorded it for her 2010 album I'm Still Here.
"The Dance" is the fifth single in the overall discography of American freestyle recording artist Rockell, and a cover version of the chart single performed by Garth Brooks. It is the first single she released from her second album, Instant Pleasure. There was no video made for this single.
