Come Dancing

Ray Davies wrote the song about his older sister Rene, who died of a heart attack while dancing at the Lyceum ballroom on 21 June 1957, his thirteenth birthday. The lyric is sung by an East End barrow boy. He began it in March 1982 on a flight home from Tokyo, using a newly bought Casio keyboard, and finished it in London that October. A demo and a master backing track were made at Konk Studios that month.

Arista released it in Britain on 19 November 1982 with "Noise" on the other side, and it did not chart. Clive Davis had doubts about its English subject matter, but the American release on 21 April 1983 followed the success of the video and of import copies. Julien Temple directed the video at Ilford Palais in November 1982, and it became a staple of MTV, which first showed it on 25 March 1983. The single reached number six on the Hot 100 on 11 July 1983, tying "Tired of Waiting for You" as the band's highest US placing. A British re-release peaked at number 12 on 27 August 1983.

Afterlife

The follow-up "Don't Forget to Dance" reached number 29 in the US. Ray said in 1996 that he had wanted to quit in 1984 after the song, and Mick Avory left that year. The title was reused for a stage musical, Come Dancing, which premiered at the Theatre Royal Stratford East on 13 September 2008. Setlist.fm logs 216 performances.