Songfacts®:

• This is the lead-off single for American Country music artist Josh Turner's fourth studio album, Haywire.
• The song was written by hit songwriters Jim Beavers, Jonathan Singleton and Darrell Brown. Turner said in publicity materials that the song caught his ear from the very first listen. He added: "It's an up-tempo, traditional Country song that has a very catchy melody with a lyric that poses the question 'why don't we just dance?' and forget about all of the bad stuff going on the world and just concentrate on each other."
• The song's music video was helmed by award-winning directors Robert Deaton and George Flanigen. Turner is shown inside a house, observing a couple (played by real-life husband and wife Ciaran McCarthy and Ashley Anderson) dancing in the living room. Throughout the video, the couple changes clothes and dancing styles, showcasing different decades taking the viewer on a trip through time. "We actually start in the 1950s and work our way through to the present," said Turner. "I thought it was a great concept because it shows that the song has a timeless message. Every decade has had its hard times and sometimes it's good for people to step back and say, 'Why Don't We Just Dance?' Let's forget about the bad news and just focus on each other."Turner added that his favorite decade that is featured in the video is the '80s. "I laughed out loud when I saw the dancers' wardrobe for the 80's scene. It brought back a lot of memories."
• This was Turner's third country #1 following his two 2006 chart-toppers "Your Man" and "Would You Go With Me."
• Jim Beavers, Jonathan Singleton and Darrell Brown told AOL's The Boot the story behind the song:
  Darrell Brown: "I'd written with Jonathan before, but this was my first time writing with Jim that day. We expended everything, and that different groove came out. We came up with the idea of writing a song about not caring about anything else in the world, and Jim mentioned 'Why Don't We Just Dance.' Jonathan and I looked at each other and said, "I love that!" It turned into a song about just throwing all your cares away and [being] happy. Jonathan sang on the demo. He's so soulful. It was so much fun."
  Jonathan Singleton: "After Jim and I wrote 'Don't' [for Billy Currington], we were interested in doing more R&B groove stuff in our songs. The song kind of ended up being a line dance by the end of it, but we never set it out to be that way. The idea was all this stuff is happening, and it's bad. I thought it was nice that we had ideas in there about things going on in the world. We were able to sneak those ideas into a kind of dance tune."
  Jim Beavers: "I do distinctly remember wanting to write a cool, greasy kind of shuffle feel [song]. It was a challenge to write a song with that vibe but make it modern sounding. For me, second verses are always the real 'sticking point' of writing a song. I remember us slaving over which direction we should go. I've learned that 'keeping them in the moment' is usually the right direction. So I just asked, 'Well, what would that guy say next?' We thought him telling her to get dressed up and then changing his mind was an interesting angle. The funniest thing I remember is realizing that we rhymed the word 'on' with the not-very different sounding word 'on' in that verse ... but somehow we got away with it!"
• During an interview with the CMA Music Festival, Beavers explained how the idea for the song came about: "This was back in late 2008, when the economy was going bad. Everybody seemed to be down and depressed and worried. We didn't have the title, but we were wishing we could write something that lightened everybody up a bit. I think I was the one who said, 'Well, everything is basically going to Hell in a hand basket, so why don't we just dance?' For some reason, that phrase stuck."
• The line "the whole wide world has gone crazy," which Turner sings three or four times was originally penned by the writers as "the whole damn world." However the singer decided to change it.
• The phrase "wide world" came from a quote from the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles: "What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here ?"