Video hit Phil Collins
Genesis - I can't dance
"I Can't Dance" is the fourth track from the Genesis album We Can't Dance and was the second single from the album ("No Son of Mine" being the first).
The song peaked at number seven on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals in 1993.
During one recording session, Mike Rutherford first created the main riff of the song he called "Heavy A Flat", to which Phil Collins suddenly improvised "I Can't Dance!". The riff was actually inspired by a Levi Strauss & Co. TV commercial using The Clash song "Should I Stay Or Should I Go".
Originally the band did not think of it as anything more than a joke, because the song was too simple, too bluesy and completely unlike Genesis' style. Tony Banks said in an interview "It was one of those bits you thought was going to go nowhere. It sounded fun, but wasn't really special".
It was not until Banks added the keyboard sound effects that the song took on a whole different feeling—with a slight edge of humour in it—which made the band decide to record it.
Banks also said in an interview that it showed a kind of direction Genesis could have gone in. Opposite to what Genesis has done as general practice, which is taking an idea and turning it into a long or complex composition, it was just taking an idea, and leaving it alone.
Music video
The humorous music video (directed by Jim Yukich) illustrates the artifice and false glamour of television advertisements. Phil Collins comments that the video was designed to poke fun of the models in jeans commercials, and each verse refers to things that models in these commercials do. The ending is a parody to the "Black or White" music video, depicting Collins parodying the "Panther ending" in which Michael Jackson dances erratically. Banks and Rutherford eventually arrive to escort Collins off the set, at which point he goes limp and they have to drag him away.
"Weird Al" Yankovic also created a parody of the "I Can't Dance" video in which he appears alongside the band. Mismatched lighting suggests his shots were separate from the others.
The song created the "I Can't Dance dance" (a series of stiff, stylized motions). Collins explained in an interview that when he was at stage school, that he would see kids that would always use the same hand and the same foot when they were tap dancing, meaning they could not coordinate. He then copied their movements and the "dance" was born.
The Lyrics:
No, I can't dance, I can't talk
Only thing about me is the way I walk
No, I can't dance, I can't sing
I'm just standing here selling everything
But I can walk
No I can't dance, I can't dance
Hot sun beating down
Burning my feet just walking around
Hot sun making me sweat
'Gators getting close, hasn't got me yet
I can't dance, I can't talk
Only thing about me is the way I walk
I can't dance, I can't sing
I'm just standing here selling everything
Billy Jean's sitting on the beach
Her dog's talking to me but she's out of reach
She's got a body under that shirt
But all she wants to do is rub my face in the dirt
'Cause, I can't dance, I can't talk
Only thing about me is the way I walk
I can't dance, I can't sing
I'm just standing here selling
Oh, and checking everything is in place
You never know who's looking on
Young punk spilling beer on my shoes
Fat guy's talking to me, trying to steal my blues
Thick smoke, see her smiling through
I never thought so much could happen just shooting pool
But I can't dance, I can't talk
The only thing about me is the way that I walk
I can't dance, I can't sing
I'm just standing here selling
Oh, and checking everything is in place
You never know who's looking on
A perfect body with a perfect face
No, I can't dance, I can't talk
The only thing about me is the way I walk
No, I can't dance, I can't sing
I'm just standing here selling everything
No, no, I can't dance
No I said I can't sing
But I can walk