Songfacts®:

• "Dance, Dance, Dance," a dance-floor filler as the title implies, was Chic's first hit single. In 1977, the band recorded it as a demo and shopped it around to various record companies, all of which rejected it. Shortly thereafter, a small label called Buddah decided to take a chance and released it as a 12" single. The song's success on the club charts led to the band's discovery by Atlantic Records. Toward the end of 1977, the band signed with Atlantic, and the song was re-released nationally.
• At Studio 54, a legendary dance club in New York City, this was a very popular song, but on New Year's Eve of 1977, Chic leaders Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers were turned away at the door. Rodgers quickly wrote a song about the experience called "F--k Off," which was eventually changed to "Freak Out" and became their huge hit "Le Freak."
• In this song, the line "Dance, dance, dance, dance" appears 26 times. The word "dance" itself is repeated more than 100 times.
• Luther Vandross provided backup vocals. He was working as a session vocalist at the time.
• As far as references go, the word "yowsah" (an African-American slang term for the word "yes") was used for the first time by Ben Bernie, a jazz violinist and radio personality. When he became a radio personality, the word became his trademark. Some sources say that he coined the word but this has not been confirmed. During the Great Depression, this word was considered African-American slang. This song helped the word regain popularity. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Jerro - New Alexandria, PA, for all above
• In The Independent newspaper on November 29, 2003, Chic drummer Tony Thompson said: "We actually started as a rock band. At the time, no one would hear of three black brothers playing rock and roll! So Bernard and Nile came up with the whole disco thing. I didn't even know what disco was. We pressed 'Dance, Dance, Dance' ourselves as we didn't have a record deal. We took it to a club, the DJ played it and people just freaked. From there, we signed to Atlantic."