Dexy's Midnight Runners : Dance Stance
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In November of 1979 Dexy's Midnight Runners released its debut single "Dance Stance" on the independent label Oddball Records. It would reach #40 on the UK Singles Chart in early 1980. Kevin Rowland, an English songwriter proud of his Irish roots, references a range of Irish playwrights and writers including Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan, Seán O'Casey, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Eugene O'Neill, Edna O’Brien and Laurence Sterne.
"I was sick of hearing anti-Irish prejudice all the time from really thick people and the lyrics just spilled out of me," he recalled to The Guardian. "I had this biography of Brendan Behan and on the back it said: 'Some say Behan has the potency of Oscar Wilde...' and listed all these other great writers: Sean O'Casey, George Bernard Shaw and so on."
Rowland added, "I'd heard of them – that was all – but thought: 'I'll put them in!' I don't think I was ever claiming to have actually read them. I was saying: 'If Irish people are so thick, how come they've produced all these great writers.'"
To be a member of the Dexy's all members had to quit their day jobs and practice at all hours. They also had to follow Rowland's costume ideas. The early look was based on Robert DeNiro's Johnny Boy in Mean Streets. The dedication would pay off with two #1 U.K. hits, "Geno" and "Come On Eileen", which topped the U.S. charts in 1983.
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