After the Dance (song)

Written by Marvin Gaye and his co-producer Leon Ware, the song narrates a moment where the author noticed a woman on Soul Train and convinces the girl to "get together" after the two shared a dance. Throughout the entire I Want You album, which was dedicated to Marvin's live-in lover Janis Hunter (who wrote a 2015 memoir entitled After the Dance: My Life with Marvin Gaye),[1] the narrator — Gaye — brings up the dance concept in songs such as "Since I Had You". The song also served in a funky instrumental, which included a synthesizer solo performed by Marvin, who also played piano on the song and the entire album itself. The instrumental version received a nomination at the 1977 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Instrumental Song.

The single came out on the strength of its success as a double-A side on the Billboard Club Songs chart, where it had peaked at number 10 alongside the album's hit title track. The song was Marvin's lowest-peaked pop single for the first time in 13 years since the B-side of his "Can I Get a Witness" titled "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby", peaking at number 74, ironically three places higher than "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby", while it was a bigger success on the R&B chart, peaking at number 14.

The song has since been covered by a legion of jazz vocalists and groups including Fourplay, who covered it with longtime Gaye admirer, R&B singer El DeBarge, in 1991. Their version was released as a single that year and re-introduced newer listeners to Gaye's original. Hall & Oates covered the song on their 2004 album Our Kind of Soul.[2]

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics