Songfacts®:

• "You Can Dance" is the first solo single released by Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry since "Simple Twist of Fate" from his 2007 set of Bob Dylan covers, Dylanesque.
• The song is a collaboration with German producer/DJ/label head DJ Hell. The pair first met up in 2006 when Hell visited Ferry's studio in west London to discuss his desire to rework a Roxy Music song. Eventually the duo decided to work on this track
• The song's music video was directed by Jo Apps, the sister of English singer-songwriter Patrick Wolf, who is best known for her vocal contributions on various Big Pink tracks.
• This is yet another Bryan Ferry song about dancing. Others include his solo single Don't Stop The Dance" and Roxy Music's "Dance Away." In response to Q magazine's query as to why he's written so many, Ferry replied: "Music and dance are very closely entwined. They go together."
• This features three different bass players, which Ferry told Pitchfork was "a great indulgence." He added: "Marcus Miller is the main bass player, but then you have Mani from Primal Scream, who has a different kind of energy, and on the choruses Flea comes in. I suppose it's more sophisticated than you'd normally get with three kids in a garage. But it's reached a point in my life where I have to do things I've never done before."
• Ferry told NME that he thinks Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea played the "most expensive instrument known to man" on this track. "[Flea]'s a big friend of "[UK artist] Damien [Hirst]'s," Ferry explained. "When he was playing in the studio with us, he was playing the most incredible bass. It was a Fender bass that Damien had customised. It's covered with butterflies, so it's a kind of an artwork. It's possibly the most expensive instrument known to man."