Yesterday in a comment on a post, Orca mentioned and sent me a link to this song. It’s a song I’ve always loved, but haven’t thought about in ages. A trip through the archives shows I played it just once, back in 2019. The version I played in 2019 was the only one I was familiar with, by King Harvest, but the one Orca sent is by a group I don’t recall hearing of before, Toploader, but I think I like their version just as well, so this time ’round I shall play both! Interestingly, the King Harvest version did better in Canada (#5) and the U.S. (#13) but did not chart in the UK or much of anywhere in Europe, but the Toploader version hit #7 in the UK and charted throughout most of Europe.
It was written by keyboard player/songwriter Sherman Kelly in 1969 after a trip to the Caribbean island of Saint Croix, where he was attacked by natives and left for dead …
“On a trip to St. Croix in 1969, I was the first victim of a vicious St. Croix gang who eventually murdered 8 American tourists. At that time, I suffered multiple facial fractures and wounds and was left for dead. While I was recovering, I wrote “Dancing in the Moonlight” in which I envisioned an alternate reality, the dream of a peaceful and joyful celebration of life. The song became a huge hit and was recorded by many musicians worldwide. “Dancing In The Moonlight” continues to be popular to this day.”
Every line of the lyric ends with a word rhyming with “light”:
Everybody here is out of sight
They don’t bark and they don’t bite
They keep things loose they keep it tight
Everybody’s dancing in the moonlight
So, take my hand, and let us dance in the moonlight, shall we … ???
Dancing in the Moonlight
King Harvest/Toploader
We get it almost every night
When that moon is big and bright
It’s a supernatural delight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody here is out of sight
They don’t bark, and they don’t bite
They keep things loose, they keep ’em tight
Everybody was dancin’ in the moonlight
Dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
We like our fun and we never fight
You can’t dance and stay uptight
It’s a supernatural delight
Everybody was dancin’ in the moonlight
Dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
We get it almost every night
When that moon is big and bright
It’s a supernatural delight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
Dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
Dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
Dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
Dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
Dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and bright
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
Songwriters: Sherman Kelly
Dancing in the Moonlight lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Filosofa's Word 
Looks like we share a love of a feel-good pop song from back in the day. Here’s my Dance Safari post, “Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest, et al. Can’t go wrong, no matter who’s singing. Thanks!
-bt
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Indeed we do!!! They just don’t make ’em like that anymore, do they?
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This is just a fun song when it comes on the radio. It may not be top of mind in recall, but we tend to know many of the words. Thanks for sharing. Keith
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I’m glad you liked it!!! I loved Carla’s comment, that she had sung this one for years without ever realizing that all the lines ended the same!
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Toploader is/was a UK band, prolly one of their many one-hit-wonders. That explains their charting position in EU and relative obscurity on your side of the big puddle.
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I prefer the King Harvest version. It might just be me but their music seems lighter, more airy. I also like their lyric change on line 7 — They keep things loose they keep things light.
Speaking of lyrics you missed a word (or someone did) on the first line which goes “We get it on” most every night.” (Both bands sing it that way.)
I have danced in the moonlight, no dance floor, no music, the night I met the woman I would marry. Everything was just so perfect. We met, we went for a walk that lasted hours, and when we encountered a circular setting with a sun dial in the middle, we just started dancing. One of the most awesome nights of my life.
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Sorry ’bout the lyric, but I copy them from the source listed and it’s not really possible for me to double check them.
Wow, that sounds like an awesome memory, even though in the long run things did not work out. Still, it’s an awesome memory!
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One of my best — but then I have a lot of great memories (and enough bad menories to counterbalance them, unfortunately.)
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One of the ‘Not My Scene, but I get it,’ songs
It’s easy to see why folk would like either version.
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I think I like the opening as much as I like the rest of the song! Sorry it wasn’t your cuppa tea … any requests?
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S’ ok Jill, it’s me more than the song. Both versions came out during one of my extremely tall tower eras so wouldn’t have clicked up at all…..My problem not the song.🙂
Ooooooh requests…I had to think on this, eventually I chose HAIM, three very talented sisters, moves, humour and music.
‘I Want You Back’ a moving song with a groove, and a video with ‘moves’
Lyrics
… Some things are long forgotten
Some things were never said
We were on one endless road
But I had a wandering heart
… I said we were opposite lovers
(Said it from the beginning) you kept trying to prove me wrong
(Said you’d always see it through) and I know that I ran you down
So you ran away with your heart
… But just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you, I’ll take the fall and the fault in us
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you
Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you, I’ll take the fall and the fault in us
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you
… I know it’s hard to hear it
And it may never be enough
But don’t take it out on me now
‘Cause I blame it all on myself
… And I had a fear of forgiveness
(Said it from the beginning) I was too proud to say I was wrong
(Said you’d always see me through) but all that time is gone
No more fearing control, I’m ready for the both of us now
… So just know that I want you back
So just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you, I’ll take the fall and the fault in us
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you
Just know that I want you back (just know that I want you)
Just know that I want you back (just know that I want you)
Just know that I want you, I’ll take the fall and the fault in us
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you (just know that I want you back, baby)
… Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you, I’ll take the fall and the fault in us (you back)
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you (you back)
Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you, I’ll take the fall and the fault in us (you back)
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you (you back)
… Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you back
Just know that I want you I’ll take the fall and the fault in us
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you
Just know that I want you back (just know that I want you)
Just know that I want you back (just know that I want you)
Just know that I want you, I’ll take the fall and the fault in us
I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you (just know that I want you back, baby)
(Just know that I want you)
(Just know that I want you back, baby)
I’ll take the fall and the fault in us, I’ll give you all the love I never gave before I left you (you back)….
……Annnddd, for anyone who has not heard them and thinks ‘Uhhh…’Nother girly group’
Check out this live version of the old Fleetwood Mac classic ‘Oh Well’
(PS Check the comments from ‘old blues hands’–respect!)
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I couldn’t stand the Toploader version, which was given blanket airtime here just to make it worse for me! I hadn’t heard the original before, and it is preferable. Just.
Why not play the ‘same title, different song’ game with Thin Lizzy? Now that is one I do enjoy!
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I’m surprised, since it played so well over there, while King Harvest didn’t make it off the shores of North America. Thin Lizzy, eh? I’ll dig it up and see if it’s worthy of a slot here on Filosofa’s Word! 🤣
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Well silly me! I thought Thin Lizzy was a song, but it’s a group that has done this song! I think my brain is atrophied!
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Not this song, but a different (and better) song with the same title 😊
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Oh, I thought it was this same song. I did bookmark it and I’ll go listen to it a bit later.
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That’s why I said ‘different song, same title!’
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{Smacking myself upside the head here} I thought you were being funny, like saying it was so much better that it almost seemed like a different song!
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No, for once I was trying to keep it serious 😉
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You can’t trust the British public to make sensible decisions on pop pap like this. And the original is only marginally better 🤣
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🤣
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I used to sing along with this one and never noticed that all the lines ended in “ite or ight”.
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🤣 I can relate!!! Funny how we can sing the words without really registering them!
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Oh, cool, I think it is the first time that I heard the original of this song. I was not aware that there was a former version, but honestly, I never cared. However, it is really cool to know now and hear the differences.
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I don’t think that the King Harvest version played outside of North America. Just as you enjoyed learning of that version, I enjoyed hearing the Toploaders’ version! Music opens so many doors, doesn’t it?
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So, then it makes sense that I had not heard it before. This is so very true, music unites!
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