Songfacts®:

• "In The Dark" is a rather introspective song from Billy Squier that captures his mental state when he's off the stage, alone with his thoughts. In a 1987 interview with Winner magazine, he said that "dark" in this case doesn't mean sinister, but intense.
  
  "It may be brooding, at times," he explained. "'In The Dark' is somewhat loosely tied to the idea of loneliness and being able to live with yourself - the feeling of what it's like to be in the void."
  
  Asked to analyze further, he added, "I think Billy Squier is a person who is continually trying to come to grips with his life and figure out what it means to be both an individual and an integrated part of society. In other words, to make the world work for him but to be part of it. I don't see a person who feels that he runs the show so much as a person who wants to be part of it."
• This was Squier's second hit, following "The Stroke." Both songs are part of his second album, Don't Say No, which also includes "My Kinda Lover" and "Lonely Is The Night." Squier was 30 when the album was released - he played in bands in the '70s before launching his solo career.
• The lyrical concept is similar to Squier's song "Lonely Is The Night," and the share a musical bond as well: both songs simply repeat the title over and over to form the chorus.
• The music video was shot in England in one day along with the videos for "The Stroke" and "Lonely Is The Night." These videos simulate the Billy Squier concert experience, but there's no audience. They went over well on MTV, which was new at the time and desperate for videos by American rockers with songs on the chart. Squier started making fancier videos starting with his next album, Emotions In Motion. In 1984 he made a very stylish one for his song "Rock Me Tonite" that didn't age well.