Dance Naked is the 13th album by American singer-songwriter and musician John Mellencamp released in 1994. The album was released in response to the record company's accusations that Mellencamp's previous album, Human Wheels, didn't "fit the format." Mellencamp was irritated with this remark, feeling that none of his albums ever fit the format. As a result, he wrote several purposely radio-friendly songs and recorded them within the span of 14 days at the Belmont Mall Studio in Indiana, intending to show the lack of effort required to produce the type of album they were asking for.
Although Mellencamp claims that Dance Naked was merely an easy output to give the company what it wanted, the album was still well received. The most notable accomplishment was the largely successful single "Wild Night," a cover of the 1971 song by Van Morrison. The song featured Me'shell Ndegeocello on a duet with Mellencamp as well as the prominent bass lead. The single reached #3 on the Billboard Top 100 and charted at #1 on the Adult Contemporary List for 8 weeks. The album itself reached #13 on the Billboard 200 and produced several music videos: two versions for "Wild Night," another for the title track "Dance Naked," and two unreleased videos for "L.U.V." and "Another Sunny Day 12/25."
Dance Naked was re-mastered and re-released on July 19, 2005, along with three other Mellencamp albums. The re-mastered edition includes an acoustic version of "Wild Night" as a bonus track.
Spin Magazine named Dance Naked the 20th best album of 1994.
Read more about Dance Naked: Track Listing, Personnel, Charts
Famous quotes containing the word dance:
“How do you expect to learn to dance when you have not even learned to walk! And above the dancer is still the flyer and his bliss.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)