Dance Tonight
Encyclopedia
"Dance Tonight" is a song by Paul McCartney
and the opening track to his 2007 album Memory Almost Full
. The song was released as a download
single
in the United Kingdom
on 18 June 2007: McCartney's 65th birthday. A week later, the song debuted at number 34 in the UK Singles Chart
. The UK single was also issued as a picture disc that came in a plastic sleeve with a cardboard insert. On 1 July, the song rose to number 26 in the UK charts. The song was also nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
In the United States
, it was released as the second single. The song also debuted in Billboard's
Hot 100
at number 69.
McCartney performed the song live as a duet with Australia
n singer Kylie Minogue
on Jools Holland
's 2007 New Year's Eve television special Hootenanny.
for the song was directed by Michel Gondry
and features Natalie Portman
and Mackenzie Crook
. It begins with a postman (Crook) delivering a left-handed mandolin
to McCartney. He invites the postman in for a cup of tea, then he opens the package revealing the mandolin. As soon as McCartney starts playing the song, a ghost
(Portman) emerges from the package and starts dancing. More extravagantly-dressed ghosts emerge from other places (an open drawer, the fireplace, the washing machine etc.) and dance around McCartney while he plays and sings in various rooms. The ghosts also play tricks on the postman, floating around him and making him levitate, which scares him away from the house. During the song's second-to-last verse, Portman steals McCartney's mandolin, which reverses the situation, making her come alive while turning McCartney into a ghost. He chases her and the other ghosts until she slips back into the package, dragging McCartney in with her as well. As the song ends, the ghosts' world (inside the package) is revealed to be a wild party, where all the ghosts, now fully alive, have lots of fun (the postman is there as well), while McCartney plays bass, accompianied by a drummer (Gondry). The final shot of the video is of the postman's van, left empty on the road. The video was posted exclusively on YouTube
on May 22, 2007. It is now available on the DVD compilation Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1)
and on the Deluxe CD/DVD Edition of McCartney's album Memory Almost Full
.
The left-handed mandolin
used for the song, shown delivered to him by mail in the music video, was purchased by McCartney from a guitar shop he frequents in London. Whenever he would play the mandolin, his three-year-old daughter Beatrice would be moved to dance, after which McCartney states that the song "wrote itself". It was the last song recorded for the album, and was included on the album at the last minute.
The song is also included in an iPod
+ iTunes
advertisement featuring a black and white McCartney walking down a colourful, animated street while performing the song. It saw frequent airplay in summer 2007.
and CD
, but the release was scaled back to just a download on June 18, 2007. According to the official album website, a picture disc 7" will be released in the UK on July 23, 2007, while the CD will be released internationally on a date to be announced. The song still managed to chart in the United States
, despite not being released in any form there, except an acoustic version available on iTunes
from the Summer of Love 1967 double issue of Rolling Stone
magazine.
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and the opening track to his 2007 album Memory Almost Full
Memory Almost Full
Memory Almost Full is the 14th studio album by Paul McCartney, released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later. The album was the first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label...
. The song was released as a download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on 18 June 2007: McCartney's 65th birthday. A week later, the song debuted at number 34 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. The UK single was also issued as a picture disc that came in a plastic sleeve with a cardboard insert. On 1 July, the song rose to number 26 in the UK charts. The song was also nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it was released as the second single. The song also debuted in Billboard's
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
at number 69.
McCartney performed the song live as a duet with Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n singer Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
on Jools Holland
Jools Holland
Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...
's 2007 New Year's Eve television special Hootenanny.
Music video
A music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for the song was directed by Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
and features Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
and Mackenzie Crook
Mackenzie Crook
Paul Mackenzie Crook is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.-Life and career:...
. It begins with a postman (Crook) delivering a left-handed mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
to McCartney. He invites the postman in for a cup of tea, then he opens the package revealing the mandolin. As soon as McCartney starts playing the song, a ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
(Portman) emerges from the package and starts dancing. More extravagantly-dressed ghosts emerge from other places (an open drawer, the fireplace, the washing machine etc.) and dance around McCartney while he plays and sings in various rooms. The ghosts also play tricks on the postman, floating around him and making him levitate, which scares him away from the house. During the song's second-to-last verse, Portman steals McCartney's mandolin, which reverses the situation, making her come alive while turning McCartney into a ghost. He chases her and the other ghosts until she slips back into the package, dragging McCartney in with her as well. As the song ends, the ghosts' world (inside the package) is revealed to be a wild party, where all the ghosts, now fully alive, have lots of fun (the postman is there as well), while McCartney plays bass, accompianied by a drummer (Gondry). The final shot of the video is of the postman's van, left empty on the road. The video was posted exclusively on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
on May 22, 2007. It is now available on the DVD compilation Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1)
Michel Gondry 2: More Videos (Before and After DVD 1)
Michel Gondry 2: More Videos is a DVD compilation of music videos and short films by director Michel Gondry. It was released in April 2009 and includes videos which were not included on Gondry's Directors Label DVD. The compilation includes nearly three hours of videos and never-before-seen...
and on the Deluxe CD/DVD Edition of McCartney's album Memory Almost Full
Memory Almost Full
Memory Almost Full is the 14th studio album by Paul McCartney, released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later. The album was the first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label...
.
The left-handed mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
used for the song, shown delivered to him by mail in the music video, was purchased by McCartney from a guitar shop he frequents in London. Whenever he would play the mandolin, his three-year-old daughter Beatrice would be moved to dance, after which McCartney states that the song "wrote itself". It was the last song recorded for the album, and was included on the album at the last minute.
The song is also included in an iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
+ iTunes
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
advertisement featuring a black and white McCartney walking down a colourful, animated street while performing the song. It saw frequent airplay in summer 2007.
Track listing
Originally the single was to be released simultaneously via download, 7"Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
and CD
CD single
A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...
, but the release was scaled back to just a download on June 18, 2007. According to the official album website, a picture disc 7" will be released in the UK on July 23, 2007, while the CD will be released internationally on a date to be announced. The song still managed to chart in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, despite not being released in any form there, except an acoustic version available on iTunes
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
from the Summer of Love 1967 double issue of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine.
- International CD
- "Dance Tonight"
- "Nod Your HeadNod Your Head"Nod Your Head" is a song by Paul McCartney and the closing track to his 2007 album Memory Almost Full. The song was released as a free download single from that album on 28 August 2007 via the iTunes Store...
" (Sly David Short mix)- This mix of album track "Nod Your Head" features additional production by Sly DunbarSly DunbarLowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
and vocals by Lady SawLady SawLady Saw is a Jamaican reggae singer, known as the queen of dancehall.-Biography:...
, SizzlaSizzlaSizzla Kalonji, or simply Sizzla in are de reggae musician. He is one of the most commercially and critically successful contemporary reggae artists and is well-known for his above-average prolificacy...
and Cherine.
- This mix of album track "Nod Your Head" features additional production by Sly Dunbar
Chart performance
| Chart (2007) | Peak positions |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
26 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs Hot Digital Songs The Hot Digital Songs chart ranks the best-selling digital singles in the United States, according to Billboard.Beginning in February 2005, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboards music single charts. It was decided to do so mainly because of the dramatic rise in popularity of... |
46 |
| U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009... |
58 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
69 |
Personnel
- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
– Vocals, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, keyboardMusical keyboardA musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
External links
- "Dance Tonight" official video at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.