Let's Dance (David Bowie song)

File:Nilerodgersatlecrib.jpg (pictured in 1999) was instrumental in the arrangement and production of "Let's Dance".]]

In 1982, David Bowie left his longtime label RCA Records, having grown increasingly unsatisfied with them, and signed a new contract with EMI for a reported $17 million.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=400–402}}{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} With a new label and an idea for a commercial sound, he wanted to start fresh with a new producer.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Around autumn, Bowie met Nile Rodgers of the American band Chic in the after-hours New York nightclub Continental, where the two developed a rapport over industry acquaintances and shared musical interests;{{cite web |last=Rodgers |first=Nile |others=as told to Lori Majewski |title='David Bowie Changed My Life': Nile Rodgers Remembers His 'Let's Dance' Collaborator |url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/david-bowie-changed-my-life-nile-rodgers-180120507.html |publisher=Yahoo! |access-date=5 January 2019 |date=11 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190105145446/https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/david-bowie-changed-my-life-nile-rodgers-180120507.html |archive-date=5 January 2019 |url-status=live}} he eventually asked him to produce his next record. Rodgers initially thought Bowie desired to continue making art rock records—a follow-up to 1980's Scary Monsters—until the artist informed him, "I want you to make hits."{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}}{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}}{{sfn|Spitz|2009|p=319}}

In late 1982, the duo regrouped at Bowie's home in Montreux, Switzerland.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Bowie, using a 12-string acoustic guitar that had only six strings, played for him a folk-like number he believed could be a hit with the right arrangement,{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}} tentatively calling it "Let's Dance".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Dismissing the number as sounding "like Donovan meets Anthony Newley",{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}} Rodgers recalled: "I was like, 'that's not happening, man'. It totally threw me. It was not a song you could dance to."{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}{{sfn|Trynka|2011|pp=380–382}} Nevertheless, Rodgers adjusted the arrangement, moving it higher in the scale, switching the key up to B{{flat}}, inverting the chords and adding upstrokes.{{efn|The original's verse and refrains were in B{{flat}} minor, with minor entails to G{{flat}} major, and a bridge in A{{flat}} minor.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}}}{{cite interview |last=Rodgers |first=Nile |date=3 February 2015 |title=Public speaking event with guitar accompaniment |publisher=The Recording Academy |location=Producers & Engineers Wing's 8th Annual Grammy Week. The Village, Los Angeles}}

Bowie and Rodgers recorded a demo of "Let's Dance" at Montreux's Mountain Studios{{efn|Chris O'Leary gives a date of 19 and 20 December 1982,{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} although this conflicts with David Buckley's statement that the album was recorded in the first three weeks of December.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}}}} with a group of musicians, among them Turkish musician Erdal Kızılçay on bass.{{efn|Kızılçay became one of Bowie's frequent collaborators during the period.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=409, 421}}}} Kızılçay's work at first followed the stylings of Jaco Pastorius, but he and Rodgers ultimately worked out a simpler bassline for the song.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Biographer Chris O'Leary describes the demo's sound as "basically Bowie singing over a Chic demo".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} In 2018, Rodgers stated: "This [demo] recording was the first indication of what we could do together as I took his 'folk song' and arranged it into something that the entire world would soon be dancing to and seemingly has not stopped dancing to for the last 35 years! It became the blueprint not only for 'Let's Dance' the song but for the entire album as well."{{cite web |title=Listen: David Bowie 'Let's Dance' Demo Unveiled On 71st Birthday |url=https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/david-bowie/listen-david-bowie-lets-dance-demo-71st-birthday/ |publisher=Radio X |access-date=11 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108151136/https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/david-bowie/listen-david-bowie-lets-dance-demo-71st-birthday/ |archive-date=8 January 2018 |date=8 January 2018 |url-status=live}} The same year, an edited version of the demo, mixed by Rodgers, was released digitally on 8 January, and the full-length 7:34 demo was released as a 12" vinyl single on 21 April for Record Store Day.{{cite web |url=http://www.davidbowie.com/news/three-bowie-discs-rsd-2018-57661 |title=Three Bowie discs for RSD 2018 |date=28 February 2018 |access-date=1 March 2018 |website=David Bowie Official Website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301164512/http://www.davidbowie.com/news/three-bowie-discs-rsd-2018-57661 |archive-date=1 March 2018 |url-status=dead}}

"Let's Dance" was the first song recorded for the album. The sessions, co-produced by Bowie and Rodgers,{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=400–404}} took place at the Power Station in New York City during the first three weeks of December 1982.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Engineered by Bob Clearmountain,{{sfn|Buckley|2005|p=359}} the song was completed in one or two takes and set the tone for the rest of the project.{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}} The rest of the album was recorded quickly, completed in just 17 days.{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}}{{sfn|Trynka|2011|pp=380–382}}{{cite magazine |first=Kory |last=Grow |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/how-david-bowie-nile-rodgers-made-lets-dance-a-hit-20160414 |title=How David Bowie, Nile Rodgers Made 'Let's Dance' a Hit |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=14 April 2016 |access-date=29 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160716150020/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/how-david-bowie-nile-rodgers-made-lets-dance-a-hit-20160414 |archive-date=16 July 2016 |url-status=live}}

Along with a new producer, Bowie hired an entirely new set of musicians for the sessions, as he "wanted to try people that I'd never worked with before, so that I couldn't predict how they were going to play".{{cite magazine|last=White|first=Timothy|author-link=Timothy White (writer)|title=David Bowie Interview|magazine=Musician|date=May 1983|issue=55|pages=52–66, 122}} Rodgers replaced Bowie's regular Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar and recruited his Chic collaborators: keyboardist Robert Sabino, percussionist Sammy Figueroa and backing vocalists Frank and George Simms. Also hired were drummer Omar Hakim, bassist Carmine Rojas, trumpeter Mac Gollehon, vocalist David Spinner and saxophonists Stan Harrison, Robert Aaron and Steve Elson.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=400–404}} Bowie himself did not play any instruments, stating at the time: "I don't play a damned thing. This was a singer's album!" He recorded all of his vocals in two days.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=400–404}}

Rodgers had the guitar parts treated with delays by Clearmountain and separated into groups of notes, punctuated by the bassline. Blending Rojas' Fender bass with Sabino's bass synthesiser as a way to "expand the dynamic range",{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Rodgers later said: "David threw in little elements like that and gave it that edge and excitement that I probably wouldn't have thought of."{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Hakim's snare drum was treated with gated reverb, a sound developed by engineers like Clearmountain and Hugh Padgham at the Power Station and London's Townhouse Studios, respectively, wherein a microphone would be hooked up on the snare head to record the initial impact and rig ambient microphones equipped with noise gates above the kit for extra reverb.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Rodgers also added processed rhythm guitar tracks on top of the saxophone and trumpet lines: "It sounds almost unnaturally tight. The attacks come from out of nowhere. There's no pre-attack breathing. The horns just come in, 'pop pop', and then decay out fast."{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Rojas later stressed the importance of Clearmountain's role in the production: "Bob, as an engineer, really captured what we were doing live in the room. He gets very little credit historically, but take it from me, he was vital to that record."{{cite web|title=Making David Bowie: Let's Dance |work=Classic Pop |url=https://www.classicpopmag.com/2021/09/making-david-bowie-lets-dance/|date=13 September 2021 |access-date=29 December 2022}}

File:Stevie Ray Vaughan Live 1983.jpg (pictured in 1983) contributed guitar to the track.]]

Contributing additional guitar overdubs towards the end of the sessions was Stevie Ray Vaughan, a then-unknown 28-year-old Texas blues guitarist, whom Bowie hired after seeing him play at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}}{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=400–404}} Bowie praised his guitar playing, saying: "He's got a whole other thing going on."{{sfn|Trynka|2011|pp=380–382}} He used a Fender Stratocaster plugged into an old Fender amplifier; author Paul Trynka commented on "all tone coming from the player".{{sfn|Trynka|2011|pp=380–382}} "Let's Dance" was the first song Bowie and Rodgers played for Vaughan. The latter recalled: "[Vaughan] could sense this group of anonymous musicians were about to make history."{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}}

Over seven minutes in length, O'Leary states that "Let's Dance" consists of a series of "set pieces", featuring individual solos by trumpet, guitar, percussion and saxophone. The track's verses and refrains are merged, with the bridge acting "as another refrain".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} The title comes from Chris Montez's 1962 song of the same name that Bowie had played with his first band the Kon-rads.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

Speaking in 2014, Rodgers explained: "[Bowie] wanted me to make a record that sounded like the future, but still sounded like the essence of rock 'n' roll and R&B, but would be timeless."{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Bowie, who labelled the song "a postmodern homage to the Isley Brothers' 'Twist and Shout{{'"}},{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}} cited Rodgers as the reason for its "incredible commercial appeal".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Mirroring the popular dance music of the day, author James E. Perone says the song was aimed at the audience that ignored Bowie's prior musical and lyrical experiments.{{sfn|Perone|2007|pp=88–89}} O'Leary describes the song as "a sampler of American music" and "a catalog in jump-cuts", displaying the likes of electric blues, funk, Hollywood jazz, R&B, rock 'n' roll [and] Latin".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Other commentators have categorised the song as funk,{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/lets-dance-mw0000649915 |title=Let's Dance – David Bowie |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=2 February 2016 |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117104309/http://www.allmusic.com/album/lets-dance-mw0000649915 |archive-date=17 January 2016 |url-status=live}} new wave,{{Cite web|url=https://www.openculture.com/2020/06/nile-rodgers-tells-the-story-of-how-he-turned-david-bowies-lets-dance-from-folk-to-new-wave-funk.html|title=Nile Rodgers Tells the Story of How He Turned David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' from Folk to New Wave Funk|date=26 June 2020|website=Open Culture|access-date=27 December 2022}} dance-rock,{{cite web |url=https://bestclassicbands.com/david-bowie-lets-dance-5-21-16/ |title=May 21, 1983: David Bowie Hits #1 with 'Let's Dance' |website=Best Classic Bands |date=26 July 2015 |access-date=15 December 2022}} post-disco,{{cite news |first=Joan |last=Anderman |title=Indie rockers revel in reinvention |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=2 March 2004 |access-date=3 May 2016 |url=https://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2004/03/02/indie_rockers_revel_in_reinvention/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304235846/http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2004/03/02/indie_rockers_revel_in_reinvention/ |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=live}} dance-pop and funk rock.{{sfn|Champan|2015|p=159}}{{cite web |first=Ed |last=Power |url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/david-bowies-return-to-the-golden-years-224131.html |title=David Bowie's return to the golden years? |work=Irish Examiner |date=1 March 2013 |access-date=17 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323234413/http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/david-bowies-return-to-the-golden-years-224131.html |archive-date=23 March 2016 |url-status=live}}

The song begins with a rising vocal intro, which Bowie had Rodgers add as a way to hook audiences in immediately. Taken from the Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout" (1963), drums, bass, trumpet, saxophone and vocals converge and explode into a cadence.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Trynka|2011|pp=380–382}} Similarly styled crescendos occur towards the end of the refrains, where Bowie moves up the scale – "if you should fall... into my arms" – before peaking on "trem-ble-like-a-flowwwww-er!"{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} According to O'Leary, the bridge is a "melodic steal" from the Beatles' "She Loves You" (1963).{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} The song's breakdown mimics Chic, where the instruments strip one by one to bass and drums before building back up again.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Rodgers later explained to Bowie's biographer David Buckley: "On a song like Chic's 'Good Times' [1979], the most important part was the breakdown. Whenever the band would go to the breakdown the audience would scream."{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} O'Leary compares the dueling saxophone break to the World Saxophone Quartet rather than a contemporary R&B horn section.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}

Instrumentally, the final bassline, which biographer Nicholas Pegg considers "pure Chic",{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} boasts two interspersing hooks of "a four-note stepwise descent and a five-note pattern that falls a step or holds the same note".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} The drum track utilises an elaborate kick drum pattern that repeats every eight bars,{{efn|Duran Duran used the same drum pattern for their 1983 single "Union of the Snake".{{cite web |last=Buskin |first=Richard |url=https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-duran-duran-reflex |title=Classic Tracks: Duran Duran 'The Reflex' |website=Sound on Sound |date=July 2004 |access-date=28 September 2022 |archive-date=23 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823104329/https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-duran-duran-reflex |url-status=live}}}}{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} while the brass riffs–heard directly after "dance the blues"–were lifted from Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn soundtrack (1959).{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}}{{sfn|Trynka|2011|pp=380–382}} Rodgers said "that [riff] seemed to me so anti-groove, but sticking it on something that was so hard groove{{nbsp}}[...] it was magic!"{{sfn|Trynka|2011|pp=380–382}} O'Leary compares Figueroa's woodblocks to sounding like "mechanical rattlesnakes" and notes the isolated vocal tracks sound like they were "recorded in a canyon".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Vaughan, using Albert King as inspiration, adds a blues-inflected edge to the overall dance groove.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Discussing the track at the time, Bowie said: "It's got a hard cut, very high on treble – it sears through."{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}

{{quote box|quote=It's ostensibly a dance song, but there's a particular type of desperation and poignancy about it.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}|source=—David Bowie, 1983|width=20em|align=left|style=padding:8px;}}

Pegg writes that the song "maintains a gravity absent from the rest of the album by virtue of its surprising bleakness".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Containing an enigmatic sense of peril, the narrator invites his partner to dance, portrayed as a type of ceremonial engagement. Rather than dancing under a "lovers' moon", the two dance "under the moonlight"—a "serious moonlight".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}{{sfn|Perone|2007|pp=88–89}} Although Bowie told an interviewer at the time the phrase was meaningless,{{sfn|Spitz|2009|p=323}} Rodgers felt the "serious moonlight" was indebted to him, telling Buckley that he "used to say 'serious' all the time".{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} However, Pegg finds a possible inspiration to be Aleister Crowley's 1923 composition "Lyric of Love to Leah", which features lines related to dancing in the moonlight with a lover.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Perone interprets the use of "serious" as representing a "critical juncture" of the relationship.{{sfn|Perone|2007|pp=88–89}} Additionally, the future is portrayed as empty and the only remedy is to dance "for fear tonight is all".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} O'Leary deems the lyrics "fragile, regretful and ominous".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}

The narrator also instructs his lover to "put on your red shoes and dance", which O'Leary likens to the medieval St. Vitus' dance and the 1948 film The Red Shoes.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Artist Tanja Stark also argued the phrase recalls Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Red Shoes", in which a little girl is vainly tempted to wear red shoes only to find they could not be removed, separating her from God's grace: "Let's dance / for fear your grace should fall."{{cite book |last1=Stark |first1=Tanja |editor1-last=Cinque |editor1-first=Toija |editor2-last=Moore |editor2-first=Christopher |editor3-last=Redmond |editor3-first=Sean |url=https://tanjastark.com/2014/10/20/confronting-bowies-mysterious-corpses-2/ |chapter=Confronting Bowie's Mysterious Corpses |title=Enchanting David Bowie: Space/Time/Body/Memory |date=18 June 2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-62892-304-9 |pages=63, 225 et sqq |access-date=29 December 2022}}

EMI America issued "Let's Dance" as the lead single from the album on 14 March 1983,{{efn|Previously, it was thought to be 17, 18,{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}}{{sfn|Cann|1984|p=231}} and 21 March{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}}} backed by a remake of "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)".{{efn|Bowie originally recorded "Cat People" with Giorgio Moroder as the title track for the 1982 film of the same name. Unhappy with the original, the song was remade during the sessions for Let's Dance.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}}}{{cite web |url=https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2018/3/18/bowie-said-lets-dance-on-this-day-in-1983 |title=Bowie said Let's Dance on this day in 1983 |website=David Bowie Official Website |date=14 March 2018 |access-date=20 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320170832/https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2018/3/18/bowie-said-lets-dance-on-this-day-in-1983 |archive-date=20 March 2018 |url-status=live}} Appearing on 7" and 12" vinyl—catalogue numbers EA 152 and 12EA 152, respectively—the former featured a shortened edit running 4:07, while the latter had the full-length 7:38 album cut;{{sfn|Pegg|2016|p=782}} it also received a cassette release two weeks later. O'Leary calls the single edit "pure economy"; Vaughan's first appearance is relegated to a single note.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} The Brazilian single featured a different edit, which Pegg states was the album version with an early fade.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Both sides of the single offered a glimpse into Bowie's change of direction following Scary Monsters.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} On the album, released on 14 April,{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} "Let's Dance" appeared as the third track on side one of the original LP, sequenced between "China Girl" and "Without You".{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=Partial Discography}}

"Let's Dance" was the biggest single of Bowie's career and a massive international hit.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} It entered the UK Singles Chart at number five, securing the top spot from Duran Duran's "Is There Something I Should Know?" two weeks later and remained there for three weeks,{{sfn|Roberts|2006|pp=421–422}} enjoying a 14-week chart stay;{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} the song would become his final UK number-one. It was the 4th best-selling single of 1983 in the UK{{cite web|url= https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-40-best-selling-songs-of-1983__32721/ |title= Official Top 40 Best Selling Singles of 1983 |website= UK Official Charts.com |publisher= The Official UK Charts Company |date= 19 March 2021 }} and is one of the 300 best-selling UK singles of all time.{{cite news|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-uks-official-chart-millionaires-revealed__20459/|title=The UK's Official Chart 'millionaires' revealed|access-date=12 February 2018|publisher=Official Charts Company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919122703/http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-uks-official-chart-millionaires-revealed__20459/|archive-date=19 September 2017|url-status=live}} It also attained the number one position on the Billboard (US) Hot 100 and Hot Dance/Disco charts, and number one in Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway, and number two in Australia, Austria and Germany.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} Becoming the biggest selling single of Bowie's career up to that point, aside from the often-reissued "Space Oddity" (1969), "Let's Dance" relaunched Bowie as a worldwide superstar of the 1980s after years of dwindling commercial fortunes in the late-1970s, and changed the course of his career.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Rodgers later commented: "The song was going to be a major hit. And we knew it."{{sfn|Rodgers|2011|loc=chap. 9}}

"Let's Dance" was met with positive reviews on release. Writing for NME, Charles Shaar Murray enjoyed Elson's bass and Vaughan on guitar and praised Bowie's vocal performance for reaching "new heights". He concluded: "'Let's Dance' is easily this year's biggest single; every time it comes up it creates an instant impression of sheer scale. The sounds are huge, the emotions it contains gigantic. You should catch this beat, but be careful what you catch it with."{{cite magazine |last=Murray |first=Charles Shaar |author-link=Charles Shaar Murray |title=David Bowie: Let's Dance |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/david-bowie-lets-dance |magazine=NME |date=16 April 1983 |access-date=28 December 2022 |via=Rock's Backpages {{subscription required}}}} In the US, Rolling Stone{{'s}} Ken Tucker hailed the song as "a jittery, bopping single as vital as anything on the radio".{{cite magazine |last=Tucker |first=Ken |author-link=Ken Tucker |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/lets-dance-19970617 |title=Let's Dance |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=26 May 1983 |access-date=18 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402011904/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/lets-dance-19970617|archive-date=2 April 2011|url-status=live}} Debra Rae Cohen of The New York Times also commended the song's use of different R&B rhythms to create "a larger-than-life dance music that's almost timeless in its appeal, reminiscent of an encyclopedia of sources, yet never – for more than an instant, anyway – completely familiar".{{cite web |last=Cohen |first=Debra Rae |title=David Bowie Takes on the Challenge of Being Himself |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/15/arts/david-bowie-takes-on-the-challenge-of-being-himself.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=27 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524140850/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/15/arts/david-bowie-takes-on-the-challenge-of-being-himself.html |archive-date=24 May 2015 |date=15 May 1983 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} A Billboard writer said, "[Nile] Rodgers' predictable arrangement sets up the rules [of the dance-funk genre], while Bowie's melodic structure and delivery methodically break them."{{cite magazine|magazine=Billboard|title=Top Single Picks|date=19 March 1983|access-date=8 February 2023|page=63|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESQEAAAAMBAJ}} NME placed "Let's Dance" at number 21 in its list of the best tracks of 1983.{{cite web |title=NME's best albums and tracks of 1983 |url=https://www.nme.com/features/1983-2-1045394 |website=NME |date=10 October 2016 |access-date=15 December 2022}}

File:The Breadknife.jpg in Warrumbungle National Park.]]

File:Carinda Hotel 09-08-2024 002.jpg

The music video for "Let's Dance" was shot in February 1983 in Australia, together with "China Girl", after Bowie officially signed with EMI. Co-directed by Bowie and frequent video collaborator David Mallet, the video starred Terry Roberts and Joelene King, two students from Sydney's Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre. Shooting locations included Sydney, the Warrumbungle National Park, a sheep-farming outpost in Carinda and a Carindan pub bar.{{efn|According to the Australian website Broadsheet, parts were also filmed at The Strand Arcade, Broadway street in front of the University of Notre Dame Australia and a promontory on the Sydney Heads overlooking Sydney Harbour towards the Sydney central business district.{{cite news|first=Rose|last=Howard|title=Shop This New Music Video Filmed Inside The Strand Arcade|url=https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/fashion/article/music-video-look-book-has-been-filmed-inside-strand-arcade|website=Broadsheet|date=6 April 2017|access-date=30 January 2022}}}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Bowie made appearances in the bar and in the middle of a field playing guitar. Buckley argues he appears "incredibly detached", as if delivering the lyrics with a "clenched jaw" and "acting out the song rather than singing it". He also notes that Bowie positions himself as "paternal narrator" rather than the protagonist for the first time.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}}

In the video, which has little to do with the song itself, the Aboriginal couple visit an art gallery, eat a meal, work in a factory, clean for a white family and walk with friends barefoot in the outback.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} During the bar scenes, Roberts and King dance in the centre surrounded by an array of bar guests while Bowie and an extra one mime to the song wielding a guitar and upright bass, respectively. The bar guests were actual Carinda residents and were unaware of who Bowie was or that a music video was being filmed; their reactions towards the dancing couple were genuine.{{cite magazine|last=Loder|first=Kurt|author-link=Kurt Loder|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/straight-time-19830512|title=David Bowie: Straight Time|date=12 May 1983|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=13 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612141940/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/straight-time-19830512|archive-date=12 June 2016|url-status=dead}} Video producer Ross Cameron later stated: "You couldn't pay actors to act the way they looked with these Aboriginals dancing in their bar." Additionally, manager Peter Lawless recalled: "It was so alien for both sides, Bowie and the locals. They didn't believe who he was. It was so off the wall. It was kind of weird."{{cite web|last=Gibbs|first=Ed|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26577308|title=Let's Dance: How Bowie played the outback|date=18 March 2014|publisher=BBC News Online|access-date=13 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427200329/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26577308|archive-date=27 April 2016|url-status=live}}

{{quote box|quote=It's a lot more straightforward than anything I've done in a long time. It's not so concerned with juxtaposing surreal images together. It's a very direct statement about integration of one culture with another.|source=—David Bowie, 1983|width=25em|align=left|style=padding:8px;}}

The video provides commentary on the treatment of Aboriginal Australians,{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} particularly scenes depicting the boy being forced to drag machinery down a busy road and the girl being forced to clean the tarmac with water and a brush.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} At the time, Bowie said: "As much as I love this country, it's probably one of the most racially intolerant in the world,{{nbsp}}... There's a lot of injustice, so let's, you know, say something about it." Mallet later said Bowie's "bottom line" was setting the video in Australia and making it politicised. An uneasy subject in the country at the time, the director explained that "a lot of people were horrified about what we were doing". In his book Strange Fascination, Buckley describes the video as "an attempt to articulate the clash of interests between white consumer capitalism and the Aboriginal traditions it displaced".{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Bowie added similar commentary to the videos of "China Girl" and "Loving the Alien" (1984).{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

The music video's only lyrical reference to the song is the use of red shoes, which appear in several scenes and represent several themes.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Bowie explained:{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

{{blockquote|The red shoes are a found symbol and it seemed a propos for this particular video. They are the simplicity of the capitalist society – the pair of luxury goods – red leather shoes. Also, they're the striving for success – black music is all about 'put on your red shoes, baby'. Those two qualities were right for the song and video.}}

The shoes are first found in a shop window by the Aboriginal couple, which Buckley says symbolises "conspicuous consumption".{{efn|This sequence was later copied shot-for-shot by a 1990s advertising campaign for a, in Pegg's words, "reassuringly expensive" lager.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}}} Additionally, the author says that a female factory boss wearing the outfit suggests "capitalistic domination" and the abuse of Aboriginals and general labour.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Lastly, the Aboriginal girl finds the red shoes in the Australian outback, putting them on and seeing a vision of nuclear devastation. Buckley analyses the scene as symbolising the "twisted and corrupt result of unrestrained capitalism", effectively turning the shoes from a symbol of power and wealth to one of ill-fortune and corruption. The Aboriginals stomp the shoes into the dirt before leaving them to rot in the outback.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}}

Bowie also appears at one point as a corporate manager, which Pegg believes suggests "an implicit anxiety about his own role as a global rock star, the ultimate cultural colonist".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Additionally, there is a parody of American Express's then-current "That'll do nicely" commercial.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Receiving heavy rotation on MTV, the video has received praise. Buckley writes: "'Let's Dance' champions the Aboriginal cause and is a visual precursor to the white Australian critique of the same subject by Midnight Oil."{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Pegg says the video remains "oblique" decades later, relying on various "powerful" metaphors to "dig deep into the Australian psyche".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Frank Zappa's song "Be In My Video" from the 1984 album Them Or Us mocks music videos generally, particularly the "Let's Dance" video, as pompous and riddled with clichés.{{sfn|Lowe|2007|p=186}}

A short documentary about the video's making, directed by Rubika Shah and Ed Gibbs and titled Let's Dance: Bowie Down Under, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015.{{cite magazine|last=Newman|first=Jason|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/bowie-in-the-outback-inside-making-of-groundbreaking-let-s-dance-video-20160414|title=Bowie in the Outback: Inside Making of Groundbreaking 'Let's Dance' Video|date=14 April 2016|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=13 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604175848/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/bowie-in-the-outback-inside-making-of-groundbreaking-let-s-dance-video-20160414|archive-date=4 June 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.davidbowie.com/news/lets-dance-bowie-down-under-65th-berlinale-biff-54126 |title=Let's Dance: Bowie Down Under at 65th Berlinale – BIFF |date=8 February 2015 |access-date=11 January 2018 |website=David Bowie Official Website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814021040/http://www.davidbowie.com/news/lets-dance-bowie-down-under-65th-berlinale-biff-54126 |archive-date=14 August 2017 |url-status=dead}} In an interview, Shah argued that "['Let's Dance'] made Aboriginal people feel proud of their culture. They're not a spear-wielding tribal people out in the middle of nowhere. They live like everybody else does. But it was the first time that Aboriginals had been seen on global television like that." Following Bowie's death in 2016, the town of Carinda has held an annual festival celebrating Bowie's music and his association with the town, called "Let's Dance Carinda".{{cite web |last=Lieu |first=Johnny |title=Town in David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' vid is holding a festival in his honour |url=https://mashable.com/article/david-bowie-lets-dance-town |website=Mashable |access-date=1 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601100924/https://mashable.com/article/david-bowie-lets-dance-town |archive-date=1 June 2023 |date=4 October 2016 |url-status=live}}

File:Bowie 1983 serious moonlight.jpg. "Let's Dance" was a mainstay on the tour.]]

"Let's Dance" was a regular on the 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour, the name of which derived from the song's lyric. One performance, filmed on 12 September 1983 and featured in the Serious Moonlight concert film the following year, later appeared as the B-side of two releases: a 2015 limited edition Australian single commemorating the Melbourne residency of the David Bowie Is exhibition and the 2018 Record Store Day single release of the song's original demo.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} The song made return appearances on the 1987 Glass Spider and 1990 Sound+Vision tours;{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} a performance on the former saw release on 1988's Glass Spider.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|p=459}} Bowie also performed the song as a duet with singer Tina Turner several times during the 1980s, the first being on 23 and 24 March 1983 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham; the former performance was later released on CD and video in 2016 and charted at number 31 in France.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}{{cite web |title=Tina Turner & David Bowie – Let's Dance (Live) (Chanson) |url=https://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Tina+Turner+%26+David+Bowie&titel=Let%27s+Dance+%28Live%29&cat=s |publisher=lescharts.com |access-date=28 September 2020}} Another 1985 live duet appeared on Turner's Live in Europe album in 1988.

Bowie dropped "Let's Dance" from his setlists in the 1990s, supposedly viewing it as a threat to his creativity; he even dismissed the song as the epitome of what he would not be performing on the 1995 Outside Tour. Nevertheless, "Let's Dance" made a one-off appearance at the Bridge School Benefit concert on 19 October 1996 in a stripped-down manner with Bowie and his then-bassist Gail Ann Dorsey on vocals. He announced during the show: "This started off as a joke for you all tonight, but we kind of got to like it. In fact, we prefer this version to the original!" It won a standing ovation.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

The song again made return appearances during Bowie's summer shows in 2000, performed in a "dreamy acoustic style" that Pegg compares to "Wild Is the Wind" (1976) before returning to the original tempo on the first "tremble like a flower".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} The 25 June 2000 performance at the Glastonbury Festival was released in 2018 on Glastonbury 2000,{{cite web |last=Collins |first=Sean T. |title=David Bowie: Glastonbury 2000 Album Review |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/david-bowie-glastonbury-2000/ |website=Pitchfork |access-date=14 March 2020 |date=5 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711093411/https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/david-bowie-glastonbury-2000/ |archive-date=11 July 2019 |url-status=live}}{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=608–609}} while another recorded two days later was released on BBC Radio Theatre, London, 27 June 2000, a bonus disc accompanying the first release of Bowie at the Beeb in 2000.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} "Let's Dance" made further appearances on the 2002 Heathen and 2003–2004 A Reality tours.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

The single edit of "Let's Dance" has appeared on numerous compilation albums, including Changesbowie (1990),{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |title=Changesbowie – David Bowie |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/changesbowie-mw0000207736 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=4 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728150152/https://www.allmusic.com/album/changesbowie-mw0000207736 |archive-date=28 July 2019 |url-status=live}} The Singles Collection (1993),{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |title=The Singles: 1969–1993 – David Bowie |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-singles-1969-1993-mw0000526484 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=7 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210501155129/https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-singles-1969-1993-mw0000526484 |archive-date=1 May 2021}} Best of Bowie (2002),{{cite web |last=Erlewine |first=Stephen Thomas |title=Best of Bowie – David Bowie |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/best-of-bowie-mw0000694821 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=15 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401192732/https://www.allmusic.com/album/best-of-bowie-mw0000694821 |archive-date=1 April 2019 |url-status=live}} The Platinum Collection (2006),{{cite web |last=Monger |first=James Christopher |title=The Platinum Collection – David Bowie |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-platinum-collection-mw0001022492 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=28 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508195203/https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-platinum-collection-mw0001022492 |archive-date=8 May 2019}} Nothing Has Changed (2014) and Legacy (The Very Best of David Bowie) (2016).{{cite web |first=Evan |last=Sawdey |url=https://www.popmatters.com/review/188662-david-bowie-nothing-has-changed/ |title=David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed |website=PopMatters |date=10 November 2017 |access-date=11 August 2017 |archive-date=14 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714155355/http://www.popmatters.com/review/188662-david-bowie-nothing-has-changed/ |url-status=live}}{{cite web |last=Monroe |first=Jazz |title=David Bowie Singles Collection Bowie Legacy Announced |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/68602-david-bowie-singles-collection-bowie-legacy-announced/ |website=Pitchfork |date=28 September 2016|access-date=29 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190926222203/https://pitchfork.com/news/68602-david-bowie-singles-collection-bowie-legacy-announced/|archive-date=26 September 2019}} Both single and album cuts were remastered and released on the box set Loving the Alien (1983–1988) in 2018.{{cite AV media notes|title=Loving the Alien (1983–1988)|others=David Bowie|year=2018|publisher=Parlophone|location=UK, Europe & US|type=Box set booklet|id=0190295693534}}

The song continues to be viewed positively, receiving praise for its catchiness, accessibility, commerciality and production.{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} Writing for the BBC, David Quantick praised the "perfect" combination of Bowie and Rodgers.{{cite web |first=David |last=Quantick |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/3mwx |title=David Bowie Let's Dance Review |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109113026/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/3mwx |archive-date=9 January 2016 |url-status=live}} Discussing its accessibility, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that, together with fellow singles "Modern Love" and "China Girl", the song boasts "just enough of an alien edge to make [it] distinctive". Buckley commented that "Bowie was never able to match its instant accessibility again".{{sfn|Buckley|2005|pp=334–345}} A writer of Classic Pop magazine said that despite being "a curious jumble of ideas", the song itself remains timeless and "quite the most 'danceable' track Bowie ever produced". Some also gave recognition to Vaughan's guitar contribution. Chris Ingalls of PopMatters wrote that the song is "all dancefloor swagger, with modern production touches meshing nicely with the song's bluesy edge".{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/david-bowie-loving-the-alien-2613407317.html |title=David Bowie – Loving The Alien (1983–1988) |work=PopMatters |date=19 October 2018 |access-date=12 December 2021 |last=Ingalls |first=Chris |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104183546/https://www.popmatters.com/david-bowie-loving-the-alien-2613407317.html |archive-date=4 November 2021 |url-status=live }}

Some have even called "Let's Dance" Bowie's most popular song.{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}} In AllMusic, Dave Thompson wrote that "[the song] is one of Bowie's most overtly commercial compositions" and "blessed by one of his most simplistic lyrics".{{cite web |last=Thompson |first=Dave |author-link=Dave Thompson (author) |title='Let's Dance' – David Bowie |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/lets-dance-mt0000398679 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=4 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190704104119/https://www.allmusic.com/song/lets-dance-mt0000398679 |archive-date=4 July 2019}} The Guardian{{'s}} Alexis Petridis said it "signaled his temporary abandonment of the avant-garde" but still remains "a superb song, nervier and stranger than its global smash status might suggest".{{cite web |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |author-link=Alexis Petridis |title=David Bowie's 50 greatest songs – ranked! |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/19/david-bowie-50-greatest-songs-ranked |website=The Guardian |access-date=23 March 2020 |date=19 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322224635/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/19/david-bowie-50-greatest-songs-ranked |archive-date=22 March 2020 |url-status=live}} In Bowie: A Biography, Marc Spitz considers "Let's Dance" "easily the most unconventional number-one hit single of the modern era" and further praises Bowie's vocal performance as his "most romantic and insistent" since "{{-'}}Heroes{{'-}}" (1977).{{sfn|Spitz|2009|p=323}} In The Complete David Bowie, Pegg hails the song as one of Bowie's finest recordings of the 1980s and "undoubtedly" one of the best pop singles of all time.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

Following Bowie's death in January 2016, the writers of Rolling Stone named "Let's Dance" one of the 30 most essential songs of Bowie's catalogue.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/david-bowie-best-songs-33438/lets-dance-1983-scary-monsters-151936/ |title=David Bowie: 30 Essential Songs |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=11 January 2016 |access-date=23 December 2022}} The song has placed in other lists ranking Bowie's best songs by Smooth Radio (3),{{cite web |last=Eames |first=Tom |title=David Bowie's 20 greatest ever songs, ranked |url=https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/david-bowie/best-songs-ranked/ |publisher=Smooth Radio |access-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122191214/https://www.smoothradio.com/artists/david-bowie/best-songs-ranked/ |archive-date=22 January 2021 |date=26 June 2020}} Far Out (4),{{cite web |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/david-bowie-50-greatest-songs-of-all-time-playlist/ |title=David Bowie's 50 greatest songs of all time |first1=Jack |last1=Whatley |first2=Tom |last2=Taylor |work=Far Out |date=8 January 2022 |access-date=27 April 2022}} NME (6),{{cite web |last=Barker |first=Emily |title=David Bowie's 40 greatest songs – as decided by NME and friends |url=https://www.nme.com/photos/david-bowie-s-40-greatest-songs-as-decided-by-nme-and-friends-1418012 |website=NME |date=8 January 2018 |access-date=16 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103063248/https://www.nme.com/photos/david-bowie-s-40-greatest-songs-as-decided-by-nme-and-friends-1418012 |archive-date=3 November 2019}} The Guardian (18), Consequence of Sound (43) and Mojo (60).{{cite web |last=Roffman |first=Michael |title=David Bowie's Top 70 Songs |url=https://consequence.net/2017/01/david-bowies-top-70-songs/ |website=Consequence of Sound |access-date=19 September 2021 |date=8 January 2017 |archive-date=20 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920212659/https://consequence.net/2017/01/david-bowies-top-70-songs/ |url-status=live}}{{cite magazine|last=Irvin|first=Jim|title=David Bowie – The 100 Greatest Songs|magazine=Mojo|date=February 2015|issue=255|page=68}} In 2018, the readers of NME voted the song Bowie's 20th best track.{{cite web |last=Anderson |first=Sarah |title=20 best David Bowie tracks – as voted by you |url=https://www.nme.com/photos/20-best-david-bowie-tracks-as-voted-by-you-1436856 |website=NME |access-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030194230/https://www.nme.com/photos/20-best-david-bowie-tracks-as-voted-by-you-1436856 |archive-date=30 October 2020 |date=8 January 2018}} In a list ranking every Bowie single from worst to best, Ultimate Classic Rock placed it at number seven.{{cite web |title=Every David Bowie Single Ranked |url=https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-singles-ranked/ |website=Ultimate Classic Rock |access-date=19 September 2021 |date=14 January 2016 |archive-date=24 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724234336/https://ultimateclassicrock.com/david-bowie-singles-ranked/ |url-status=live}}

The song has been selected several times by the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs programme, including by Lulu in 1987, Pete Waterman in 1995, John Bishop in 2012 and Noel Gallagher in 2015.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

Rodgers has regularly played "Let's Dance" live, often joined by guests, including: Prince at the 2014 Essence Festival;{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Jimmy Fallon during a 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live;{{cite web |url=https://www.spin.com/2017/04/watch-jimmy-fallon-sing-david-bowies-lets-dance-with-nile-rodgers-on-snl/ |title=Watch Jimmy Fallon Sing David Bowie's "Let's Dance" With Nile Rodgers On SNL |website=Spin |date=16 April 2017 |access-date=29 December 2022}} and Josh Homme, Chris Chaney and original drummer Omar Hakim at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert on 3 September 2022.{{cite web |last=Rose |first=Anna |title=Check out the full 50 song set list from the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/check-out-the-full-50-song-set-list-from-the-taylor-hawkins-tribute-concert-3304015 |website=NME |date=5 September 2022 |access-date=28 December 2022}} Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins also interpolated lines from "Let's Dance" into live performances of Joy Division's "Transmission" (1979).{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

The original song was sampled in Puff Daddy & the Family's 1997 hit "Been Around the World" and Craig David's 2007 single "Hot Stuff".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} Bowie also expressed enthusiasm for a 2009 mashup of "Let's Dance" and Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" by Jessica Lee Morgan.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} In 2003, the original track was radically reworked by EMI with Bowie's approval, as part of a remix project for release in Southeast Asian territories. Titled "Let's Dance (Club Bolly Mix)" and packaged with a "club mix" of "China Girl", the remix added sitars, tabla drums and Hindi backing vocals and was accompanied by a new music video produced by MTV Asia, which recast the original as a Bollywood-style romance. Bowie commented at the time: "Asian culture has had a fairly high profile within my work from the early 1970s. It was not a difficult decision to give a green light to these remixes. I think they're pretty cool."{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} While different versions of the remixes appeared on promo CDs in Singapore and Hong Kong in August 2003, the actual remixes were released later the same year on the remix album Club Bowie and the limited-edition US reissue of Best of Bowie. Pegg says that while these remixes are not for everyone, they are "certainly among the most elaborate and interesting Bowie remixes ever released".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

File:M Ward Glastonbury 2009-1.jpg (pictured in 2009).]]

Artists who have covered "Let's Dance" for specific projects include the Futureheads for a CD called The Eighties, packaged with copies of Q magazine in 2006, and M. Ward for the Starbucks compilation Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project in 2007.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}{{cite magazine |first=Katie |last=Hasty |url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1055448/kcrw-collects-covers-for-starbucks-release |title=KCRW Collects 'Covers' For Starbucks Release |date=1 February 2007 |magazine=Billboard |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140129235513/http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1055448/kcrw-collects-covers-for-starbucks-release |archive-date=29 January 2014 |access-date=29 December 2022}} Discussing his cover with Spitz in 2009, M. Ward stated: "I always wanted to do a stripped down version of a dance song. The beautiful thing about 'Let's Dance', I found, are the lyrics. The production is great but it tends to hide the fact that the lyrics are so good."{{sfn|Spitz|2009|p=323}} Spitz described his take on the song as a reimagined Nina Simone torch song.{{sfn|Spitz|2009|p=323}} Also in 2007, Dutch outfit hi_tack enjoyed club chart success with several remixes of Bowie's original and a salsa-style cover by Stellarsound featuring Paula Flynn was released as a single after being featured in an Irish commercial for Ballygowan mineral water.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} In 2014, will.i.am and his protégés played the song during the semi-final of the BBC's The Voice; Pegg says the artist "brutally assaulted" it.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

"Let's Dance" has appeared on the soundtracks of the films Private Parts (1997), Zoolander (2001), We Own the Night (2007) and The Boat That Rocked (2009).{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} In Zoolander, a short snippet of the song plays during Bowie's cameo, accompanied by a freeze-frame. Pegg describes his cameo as "willingly sending up the media's image of him as the ultimate arbiter of cool".{{sfn|Pegg|2016|p=679}} The song also appears in the video games Elite Beat Agents (2006){{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}} and Sackboy: A Big Adventure (2020).{{cite web |last=Fahey |first=Mike |title=Sackboy: A Big Adventure: The Kotaku Review |url=https://kotaku.com/sackboy-a-big-adventure-the-kotaku-review-1845700699 |website=Kotaku |access-date=13 December 2022 |date=17 November 2020}} Additionally, "Let's Dance" was serviced as the backing track for a 2008 Marks & Spencer womenswear commercial.{{sfn|Pegg|2016|pp=157–160}}

According to Chris O'Leary and Benoît Clerc:{{sfn|O'Leary|2019|loc=chap. 5}}{{sfn|Clerc|2021|pp=336–337}}

• David Bowie – lead vocals
• Stevie Ray Vaughan – lead guitar
• Nile Rodgers – rhythm guitar
• Carmine Rojas – bass guitar
• Omar Hakim – drums
• Robert Sabino – Hammond organ, keyboards
• Mac Gollehon – trumpet
• Robert Aaron – tenor saxophone
• Stan Harrison – tenor saxophone
• Steve Elson – baritone saxophone
• Sammy Figueroa – woodblocks, congas, tambourine
• Frank Simms – backing vocals
• George Simms – backing vocals
• David Spinner – backing vocals

Technical

• David Bowie – producer
• Nile Rodgers – producer
• Bob Clearmountain – engineer
• Dave Greenberg – assistant sound engineer

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{{Certification Table Top|caption=Sales and certifications for "Let's Dance"}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Canada|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Platinum|certyear=1983|access-date=27 February 2016}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Denmark|type=album|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Silver|relyear=1983|certyear=1983|salesamount=20,000|salesref=|certref={{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1983/BB-1983-09-17.pdf|title=EMI, RCA Dancing For Joy Over Bowie's 'Moonlight' Tour|magazine=Billboard|pages=9–76|date=17 September 1983|access-date=1 November 2022|via=worldradiohistory.com}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=France|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Gold|relyear=1983|certyear=1983|source=infodisc|salesamount=800,000|salesref=}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=single|region=Germany|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|nocert=true|salesamount=70,000|relyear=1983|note=Maxi single|salesref={{cite web|url=http://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1983/BB-1983-11-26.pdf|date=26 November 1983|publisher=Billboard|title=Singles boost German Mart|page=3|author=Wolfgang Spahr|access-date=7 January 2022|via=worldradiohistory.com}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Italy|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Gold|certyear=2019|relyear=1983|note=sales since 2009|access-date=25 February 2019}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=single|region=Japan|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|nocert=true|salesamount=100,000|relyear=1983|salesref={{cite magazine|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/80s/1984/BB-1984-01-21.pdf|title=International Repertoire Explosion Keys Upturn in Japanese Market|magazine=Billboard|first=Shig|last=Fujita|page=9|date=21 January 1984|access-date=2 November 2020|via=americanradiohistory.com}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=New Zealand|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|type=single|relyear=1981|certyear=2023|award=Platinum|number=2|source=radioscope|access-date=18 January 2025}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Spain|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Gold|certyear=2024|access-date=19 January 2025}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Sweden|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Gold|relyear=1983|certyear=1983|number=2|nosales=true|certref=}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Gold|relyear=1983|certyear=1983|id=3811-2561-1|note=1983 physical release|access-date=7 January 2022|refname=BPI}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Platinum|relyear=2004|certyear=2020|id=3811-2269-1|note=2004 digital release|salesamount=1,064,227|salesref={{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-uks-official-chart-millionaires-revealed__20459/|title=The UK's Official Chart 'millionaires' revealed|last=Copsey|first=Rob|date=19 September 2017|publisher=Official Charts Company|access-date=29 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919122703/http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-uks-official-chart-millionaires-revealed__20459/|archive-date=19 September 2017|url-status=live}}|refname=BPI1}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|type=single|artist=David Bowie|title=Let's Dance|award=Gold|certyear=1983|access-date=12 June 2013}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|streaming=true|nosales=true}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Buckley |first=David |year=2005 |orig-year=1999 |title=Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story |location=London |publisher=Virgin Books|isbn=978-0-75351-002-5}}
• {{cite book |last=Cann |first=Kevin |year=1984 |title=David Bowie: A Chronology |location=New York City |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-67150-537-0}}
• {{cite book |last=Champan |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaMlCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 |title=Experiencing David Bowie: A Listener's Companion |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-44223-752-0}}
• {{cite book |last=Clerc |first=Benoît |year=2021 |title=David Bowie All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track |location=New York City |publisher=Black Dog & Leventhal |isbn=978-0-7624-7471-4}}
• {{cite book |first=Kelly Fisher |last=Lowe |title=The Words and Music of Frank Zappa |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, Nebraska |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-80326-005-4}}
• {{cite book |last=O'Leary |first=Chris |year=2019 |title=Ashes to Ashes: The Songs of David Bowie 1976–2016 |location=London |publisher=Repeater |isbn=978-1-912248-30-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Pegg |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Pegg |title=The Complete David Bowie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqFkDQAAQBAJ |publisher=Titan Books |location=London |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-78565-365-0 |edition=Revised and Updated}}
• {{cite book |last=Perone |first=James E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C6bz2BFdPawC&pg=PA57 |title=The Words and Music of David Bowie |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-27599-245-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Roberts |first=David |year=2006 |title=British Hit Singles & Albums |title-link=British Hit Singles & Albums |edition=19th |publisher=Guinness World Records Limited |location=London |isbn=978-1-904994-10-7 }}
• {{cite book|last=Rodgers |first=Nile |author-link=Nile Rodgers |year=2011 |title=Le Freak: The Life and Times of Nile Rodgers |publisher=Spiegel & Grau |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-385-52965-5 }}
• {{cite book|last=Spitz |first=Marc |author-link=Marc Spitz |title=Bowie: A Biography |publisher=Crown Publishing Group |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-307-71699-6|title-link=Bowie: A Biography |location=New York City }}
• {{cite book|last=Trynka |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Trynka |year=2011 |title=David Bowie – Starman: The Definitive Biography |location=New York City |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |isbn=978-0-31603-225-4}}

{{Refend|30em}}

{{David Bowie singles}}

{{authority control}}

Category:1983 songs

Category:1983 singles

Category:David Bowie songs

Category:Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles

Category:British new wave songs

Category:British funk songs

Category:British dance-pop songs

Category:Cashbox number-one singles

Category:Dance-rock songs

Category:Dutch Top 40 number-one singles

Category:EMI America Records singles

Category:EMI Records singles

Category:European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles

Category:Funk rock songs

Category:Irish Singles Chart number-one singles

Category:Indigenous Australian mass media

Category:Music video controversies

Category:Music videos directed by David Mallet (director)

Category:Number-one singles in Israel

Category:Number-one singles in the Netherlands

Category:Number-one singles in New Zealand

Category:Number-one singles in Norway

Category:Number-one singles in Sweden

Category:Number-one singles in Switzerland

Category:Post-disco songs

Category:RPM Top Singles number-one singles

Category:Song recordings produced by Nile Rodgers

Category:Songs about dancing

Category:Songs written by David Bowie

Category:UK singles chart number-one singles