Remember When: Bruce Springsteen got excited about videos (and awkward dancing) with “Dancing in the Dark.”

Bruce Springsteen needed that one transcendent hit to take him to a new level of rock superstardom. And considering it was 1984, a year when MTV dominated the music scene, he decided to go all out and shoot his first real video for the song “Dancing in the Dark.”

Although it took a few misses to get there, the clip Springsteen ultimately delivered captured the fun and spirit of his live performances, making him seem even more of an everyman through his somewhat ponderous dancing. Let's take a look back at how “Dancing in the Dark” turned the boss into a video star.

Play the video game

Among the rock 'n' roll stars of his time, Bruce Springsteen was one of the last holdouts when it came to making videos. The closest he came was a clip for the 1982 song “Atlantic City.” However, he wasn't featured in that video, which only featured shots of surrounding neighborhoods set to music.

His 1984 album Born in the USA The album was created with the intent and intent of being a crossover success, the first time that Springsteen truly performed a piece for pop audiences. “Dancing in the Dark” was written and produced in such a way that it was definitely suitable for radio, with its booming chorus and synth-heavy, danceable recording.

It made perfect sense for him to make a video for this clip, especially since MTV was eager to get in on the Springsteen game. Perhaps because he was a novice in the field, he initially had difficulty knowing how to proceed and almost made a huge mistake.

Shadow “Dancing”

The internet figures everything out eventually, so it's probably not all that surprising that footage of Springsteen's first attempt at a “Dancing in the Dark” video surfaced in 2011. All that was visible in this clip was the boss dancing and lip-syncing the song against a dark background (quite obtrusive).

While we can assume that if Springsteen had gone through with it, more edits would have been made before this clip actually aired, but the existing video isn't pretty. Who knows if it would have hurt his attempt at promotion. Springsteen clearly sensed that things were going wrong, left the shootout and regrouped.

He then hired Brian De Palma, a respected film director of classics such as Scarface And Carrieto direct a new clip. It was also decided that Springsteen would be filmed where he felt most comfortable: on stage. The video for “Dancing in the Dark” would be set at a Springsteen show, with a nod to a common tradition at those shows: a fan dancing with Bruce during one of the songs.

Doing the Springsteen Shuffle

The “Dancing in the Dark” video was partially filmed at an actual Springsteen show on the USA Born in the USA tour and also used separately shot footage designed to look like a real concert. Courteney Cox, who wasn't yet the big star she would become FriendsHe won the role of the lucky fan who would join the boss on stage.

In the video, Springsteen prances around the stage and jumps somewhat awkwardly to the beat before finally inviting Cox to dance with him. While there was nothing groundbreaking about the clip, it did reflect the artist's connection to his fans. And because he had no training as a dancer, he seemed likeable and charming.

“Dancing in the Dark” almost gave Springsteen his first No. 1 on the pop charts, and the video certainly had something to do with it. His subsequent clips would become a bit more complicated and even require him to do some acting. But none of the subsequent games caused as much of a stir as the first, as the Boss played the MTV game and triumphed like he had in almost every other challenge in his career.