This song was written for the 1985 movie That's Dancing!, which chronicles the history of dance in film. Carnes wrote the song with her husband, Dave Ellingson, along with the team of Brian Fairweather and Martin Page. Fairweather and Page had written three songs on her 1983 album Café Racers, including the #40 "Invisible Hands."

Nile Rodgers produced this song. In the '70s, his group Chic crafted hits that would later become the basis for many Hip-Hop tracks. Dancing is a common theme in his music: in 1983, he produced the David Bowie hit "Let's Dance." Rodgers crafted another generation of hits when he wrote and performed on three songs from Daft Punk's 2013 album Random Access Memories, including another terpsichorean track, "Lose Yourself to Dance."

The music video was directed by Mary Lambert, who worked on several Madonna videos, including the clips for "Material Girl" and "Like A Virgin."

The video for "Invitation To Dance" featured elaborate special effects, integrating Carnes into footage of dance scenes from the That's Dancing! movie. Capitol Cities used a similar motif in the video for their 2011 song "Safe and Sound."