In this song, written by Tony Arata, Brooks makes a statement that it is best not to know how things will end, because if you do then you may deprive yourself of certain experiences: You might miss the pain, but you also might miss the dance.
>>
Suggestion credit:
Chris - Atlanta, GA
This was honored as both the 1990 Song of the Year and Video of the Year by the Academy of Country Music.
This was one of two #1 Country singles from Brooks' self-titled debut album. The other was "
If Tomorrow Never Comes."
When Tony Arata wrote this tune, he was a little-known Nashville songwriter. At a random open-mic night at Nashville's Douglas Corner, he met another little-known songwriter, Garth Brooks. "We were both doing whatever we could to stay in Nashville, trying to get our songs heard by anybody. The only folks listening, however, were other songwriters as no one else was usually at our shows," Arata recalled on his website. When Brooks heard "The Dance," he told Arata that if he ever got a record deal he was going to cut it. The rest was history.
Arata said on his website the inspiration for the song was a scene from the movie Peggy Sue Got Married. He writes, "Kathleen Turner discovers she can't alter one aspect of her past without affecting the rest. No one gets to pick their memories, thankfully."
-
The song spent four weeks atop the Country chart. However it didn't reach the Hot 100 as at the time that tally's airplay feed only included data from pop-formatted radio stations.
Lauren Duski, competing for coach Blake Shelton's team on The Voice, performed the song during the 2017 season finale. The following week, Duski's take became the first version of "The Dance" to chart on the Hot 100 when it debuted at #92.
The Irish boy band Westlife released their version on their 2006 covers set, The Love Album.
Although he loved the song, Brooks was hesitant about recording it because he didn't think it sounded country enough. His producer, Allen Reynolds, gave him the push he needed when he said, "You don't cut this song, it will be the biggest hit you never had."
The piano intro was inspired by a movie Brooks and his wife had seen in a near-empty theater the night before the recording session. A slow-motion montage used a similar piano riff and stuck with the singer, who told his manager, Bob Doyle, about it. Brooks was surprised when Doyle knew exactly what he meant because he was at the same movie. "He and his wife were one of the four couples in there," the singer recalled in his book The Anthology Part 1: The First Five Years. "'Yeah,' he says, 'Let me play you something.' Roll tape and, boom that's how the song starts."
Brooks' version is much different from Arata's demo, so much so that Arata didn't even recognize his own song when he heard it. The songwriter told
Sounds Like Nashville in 2020: "He had a vision for it that I never had. When he played the album for me, I listened to all 10 cuts and thought to myself, 'Well I guess it didn't make it.' It was the last cut on the album, and I didn't recognize my own song. That proves what a great artist he is, and what a great producer Allen Reynolds is, and also the musicians who were involved with the recording of the song. Garth made it his song, he didn't just copy the demo. He heard it in his heart and he and Allen were able to explain it to the musicians. My demo starts on a major chord, no piano, so you can imagine the first time I heard it and it was a dramatic minor chord that opens the song!"
The music video, directed by John Lloyd Miller, uses archival footage of people who tragically died while pursuing their dreams, including President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., champion bull rider Lane Frost, country singer Keith Whitley, actor John Wayne, and the crew of the ill-fated Space Shuttle
Challenger. Miller also directed clips for Reba McEntire ("What If"), Vince Gill ("
Go Rest High On That Mountain"), and George Strait ("Check Yes Or No").
In 2001, Brooks performed this at a NASCAR awards ceremony in honor of Dale Earnhardt, who died in a collision at the Daytona 500 that February.
Brooks performed this on the final episode of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on February 6, 2014.
This has been recorded by jazz musician Dave Koz, English pop singer Michael Ball, and country singer Mindy McCready.
During Brooks' appearance on
The Kelly Clarkson Show in early 2021, the host told him she'd found comfort in the song during her divorce from Brandon Blackstock.
A few months later, on June 6, 2021, Brooks was in the audience when Kelly Clarkson
performed the song at the Kennedy Center Honors. "That woman is a true friend to a song," the Country Music Hall of Famer said. "She's amazing."