Songfacts®:

• This was written by Motown songwriters Marvin Gaye, Ivy Jo Hunter, and William "Mickey" Stevenson. It became the biggest hit and trademark song for Martha & the Vandellas. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Jerro - New Alexandria, PA
• According to the song's co-writer Mickey Stevenson, the idea for dancing came to him while riding with Marvin Gaye through Detroit. During the summer, the city would open up fire hydrants and let the water out in the streets so they could play in the water to cool off. They appeared to be dancing in the water. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Hal - Atlanta, GA
• This song was written during the height of the civil rights movement in the US, and many African Americans interpreted it as a call to "demonstrate in the streets" of all of the cities mentioned in the song: Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Detroit. All of these cities went through periods of civil unrest and riots. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Dennis - Washington, DC
• The group was led by Martha Reeves, who became a secretary at Motown when she couldn't get an audition to sing. One of her duties was singing lyrics to new songs onto tapes so backup singers could learn the words. This led to fill-in work as a backup singer, where she impressed Motown executives with her voice. She convinced them to hire her former bandmates, Annette Sterling and Rosalind Ashford, and let them record as a trio. After backing up Marvin Gaye on some of his songs, Motown gave them songs to sing on their own, including the hit "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave."
• In a Top 2000 a gogo documentary, Martha Reeves told the story behind this song: "Marvin Gaye had recorded 'Dancing in the Street' when I first heard it, and he had put a real smooth vocal on there, sort of like (jazzy singing) 'Calling all around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat baby?' and for some reason, Marvin said, 'let's try this song on Martha.' I was in the office and they let me hear the song, but I couldn't quite feel it that way. I had been to Rio De Janeiro, I had traveled to New Orleans during Carnival time, so I just knew it had to be somewhere about dancing in the street. I said, 'Can I sing it the way that I feel it?' And they said, 'Go ahead.'
  
  So, I sang it (singing on the beat) 'calling all around the world are you ready for a brand-new beat,' and, they loved it. There was all kinds of congratulatory hand slaps and 'hey man, we got a hit in that window up there,' and the engineer, Lawrence Horn, looked and said, 'I didn't turn the machine on.'
  
  I had to sing it again. So, the second time I sang it, there's a little bit of anger there because I had to repeat it. It was a straight performance and that's why it sounds live. I think that's the secret of the success of the hit - the fact that I had to do it again, and I did it without a mistake or without any interruption, and the feeling was just right on that song."
  
  Regarding the message Marvin Gaye was sending in the song, Reeves said: "The words are very simple: he wanted everybody to dance in the street. Everybody to rejoice and have a very good time. It was a hot, #1 hit, and it spread love all over the world. When you play it today, people get up and do what? Dance!"
• Ivory Joe Hunter had a few hits of his own but felt more at home producing records. Hunter liked everything about the song except the drum track - it needed more "bump and grind." An idea hit him and he excused himself, went to his car, and brought back a crow bar. He sat on a concrete floor and said: "Roll tape." They went through the song one more time while Ivory Joe Hunter slammed the tire tool against the concrete floor on the downbeat to create one of the most defined and distinctive drum beats in rock and roll history.
• Motown singer Mary Wells was offered this song, but she turned it down.
• Martha Reeves used this song's title for her 1995 autobiography, which chronicled her subsequent breakdown and the tragic collapse of the Vandellas' career.
• Van Halen covered this in 1982 for their album Diver Down. Pop singer Mya recorded it for the soundtrack to the 2001 movie Recess: School's Out!. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Claire - Oak Ridge, TN
• When this song was first released in the UK, it reached #28. However, a reissue of this song reached #4 in the UK in 1969. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Jerro - New Alexandria, PA