Songfacts®:

• This was the fourth single from the Footloose soundtrack. The movie, which was written by Dean Pitchford, starred Lori Singer as a minister's daughter who got rebellious when Kevin Bacon came to town. This song, whose title is based on the Motown hit "Dancing in the Street," is used in a scene where Singer is out with her friends and she plays a "smuggled tape" of this song on a cassette. Her dad (played by John Lithgow) shows up and stops the tape, then gives her some money and leaves. Pitchford, who wrote the lyrics to all the songs on Footloose told Songfacts, "I knew it needed to be naughty enough that her father might have an objection to it. But I also had long wanted to do a play on 'Dancing in the Streets,' and I thought that there was something kind of wink-wink naughty about that. And it needed to be suggestive enough that it would provoke her father's ire, but not vulgar in an over-the-top kind of way."
• Dean Pitchford wrote this song with Shalamar's producer Bill Wolfer, who played keyboard and synthesizer on Michael Jackson's song "Billie Jean." Pitchford worked with seven different writers on the songs for the film, which kept it fresh and resulted in an amazing six Top 40 hits.
• Shalamar was created by the concert promoter Dick Griffey in 1977, and at first, they were just an assemblage of studio musicians. In 1978, they had a hit with "Uptown Festival," and Griffey, needing a visual presence for the group, worked with Soul Train creator Don Cornelius and had the show's dancers Jody Watley, Jeffrey Daniel and Howard Hewett become Shalamar. Watley became a solo star and won the Best New Artist Grammy in 1987, but she and Daniel left the group shortly before this song was recorded. Hewett handles the lead vocals on this one; the other group members were Watley's replacement Delisa Davis, and guitarist Micki Free. The song also appeared on Shalamar's album Heartbreak, which was the last for Hewett, who was replaced by Sidney Justin.