‘I Can't Dance’ is the fourth track from English rock band Genesis's fourteenth studio album, We Can't Dance (1991), and was released in December 1991 as the second single from the album. Lyrics were composed by drummer Phil Collins; music was written collectively by the band. The song peaked at number seven on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, and also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1993. In Europe, the song reached number one in Belgium and the Netherlands, while peaking within the top five in Austria, Germany, and Portugal.
Not unlike the Right Said Fred hit ‘I'm Too Sexy,’ this song is a send-up of male models. "It's not about being unable to dance," Phil Collins told Rolling Stone. "It's about guys that look good but can't string a sentence together. Each verse is a piss-take at the scenario of a jeans commercial. It was good fun, but the audience thought, 'What does he mean that he can't dance?' They didn't see the humor, and it killed the fun." Genesis wrote this song in the studio in one session. "Once we started, we kept going 'til we finished it," Phil Collins said in the documentary Genesis: Sum of the Parts. "It didn't take a ridiculous time to write."
In the Way We Walk DVD, Tony Banks told the story of how this song came together. "Mike had this basic riff which he played, and we worked it into a 16-bar riff. Then we started doing it heavy, which it immediately demanded, so Phil was playing heavy drums and I was adding big chords and sounds. It was one of those bits we felt would go nowhere - it sounded fun but it wasn't really special. But there was one time when Mike was playing it, and Phil was at the microphone so he wasn't playing drums. I started playing drums on this thing (his sampler), and that gave it a completely different feel. It suddenly had an edge of humor in it, and Phil started singing in this kind of high voice, giving it instant character. We knew if we worked on it, we would ruin it, so we didn't even give it a middle eight or anything. When we actually put the song down, we put some more chords in but left it really simple. We put it down in a few hours. It shows a certain direction we could go in for certain songs, which is totally opposite what Genesis used to do in the past, which was to overblow a thing - take one idea and make it massive. This was taking an idea and leaving it really small and making it work."
The accompanying music video for ‘I Can't Dance’ (made by frequent collaborators Paul Flattery and Jim Yukich) illustrates the artifice and false glamour of television advertisements. Collins commented that the video was designed to poke fun at the models in jeans commercials, and each verse refers to things that models in these commercials do. Helmed by their go-to director Jim Yukich, the video created a lasting image thanks to the "silly walk" the three band members did. This walk was something Phil Collins did from time to time - he got the idea for it when he attended drama school and noticed that the worst dancers would always lead with the hand and foot on the same side. There is a twist ending in the video when at the end, Phil Collins does some Michael Jackson dance moves and an impressive little tap routine.
Labels – Atlantic (US), Virgin
Songwriters – Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford
Producers – Genesis, Nick Davis
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Hot sun beating down
Burning my feet just walking around
Hot sun making me sweat
Gator's getting close, hasn't got me yet
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 2]
Blue jeans 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
[Chorus]
'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 standin' here selling
[Post-Chorus]
Oh, and checking everything is in place
You never know who's looking on
[Verse 3]
Young punk spilling beer on my shoes
Fat guys talking to me try to steal my blues
Thick smoke, see her smiling through
I never thought so much could happen just shootin' pool
[Chorus]
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
[Post-Chorus]
Oh, and checking everything is in place
You never know who's looking on
A perfect body with a perfect face, mhm
[Chorus]
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
[Outro]
But I can walk
No, I can't dance
No-no-no, I can't dance
No, I said I can't sing
But I can walk