Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)

"Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)"
Single by Thin Lizzy
from the album Bad Reputation
B-side"Bad Reputation"
Released29 July 1977[1]
RecordedMay – June 1977
Genre
Length3:26
Label
Songwriter(s)Phil Lynott
Producer(s)Thin Lizzy, Tony Visconti
Thin Lizzy singles chronology
"Don't Believe a Word"
(1976) 		"Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)"
(1977) 		"Rosalie/Cowgirl's Song (Medley)"
(1978)

"Dancing in the Moonlight (It's Caught Me in Its Spotlight)" is a song by the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy. It appears on their 1977 album Bad Reputation and was also released as a single a few months before the album. The song reached No. 14 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1977,[2] and No. 84 in Canada.[3] It should not be confused with a similarly named song, "Dancing in the Moonlight", recorded by King Harvest and Toploader, amongst others.[4]

The song builds on the introductory bass riff played by Phil Lynott, adding the vocal melody line sung by Lynott which contrasts and synergizes with the saxophone melodic counterpoint played by Supertramp's John Helliwell.[5]

  1. ^ "Music Week" (PDF). p. 34.
  2. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 555–556. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - November 12, 1977" (PDF).
  4. ^ "Search for "dancing in the moonlight"". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  5. ^ July 2016, Paul Brannigan03 (3 July 2016). "The story behind Thin Lizzy's Dancing In The Moonlight". Classic Rock Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)