King Harvest released this song in 1972 and it reached #13 on the Billboard Charts and #5 in the UK charts. This was another song part of my AM radio childhood. The song was covered in 2000 by Toploader and it made the UK charts.
How the song was written from songfacts.
This song envisions a place of joy and harmony, where everyone gets along dancing under the moonlit sky.
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. While he was recovering from his injuries, he wrote this song. “I envisioned an alternate reality,” Kelly wrote on this website. “The dream of a peaceful and joyful celebration of life.”
Dancing in the Moonlight
King Harvest
(Sherman Kelly)
When that ol’ moon gets-a big and bright
It’s a supernatural delight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
They don’t bark, and they don’t bite
They keep things loose, they keep things light
Everybody was dancin’ in the moonlight
Everybody’s feelin’ warm and right
It’s such a fine and natural sight
Everybody’s dancin’ in the moonlight
You can’t dance and stay uptight
It’s a supernatural delight
Everybody was dancin’ in the moonlight
I think it was in ’72 I got my own first transistor radio and was able to listen to “my own” music quietly as opposed to what the parents listened to (which wasn’t half bad some of the time). This was a fave on that transistor radio
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some songs are like Time Machines to me. This one is of them. It is a great AM hit…You had the transistor radio I had a radio in a Vega
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice! My first car was a ’73 Astre which I got when 16, at which point car was already well used. Astres were the Pontiac labeled VEgas. Crappy engine but was a nice little car, looked pretty neat in my opinion
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your car favored the Vega…she would carry a case of oil in the hatchback because that engine drank it.
LikeLike
One of my favorite tunes. Interesting back story too. Toploader does a great cover, but King Harvest is it. Wonderful song.
LikeLike