It's May Day and thoughts for some may turn to Maypole Dancing or just dancing for joy that the cold weather is mostly over. Whether it's merely a song about dancing or the dance as a metaphor for life, there are many great country songs that mention dancing. The songs listed here have some variation of the word "dance" in the title, followed by the name of the artist with the songwriter(s) in parenthesis. Songs like "Two-Step Too", solely written and performed by Delbert McClinton, don't make the cut. The songs:
Ask That Girl to Dance - Wade Hayes (Wade Hayes)
Asking Us to Dance - Kathy Mattea (Hugh Prestwood)
Could I Have This Dance - Anne Murray (Wayland Holyfield/Bob House)
Dance the Night Away - Mavericks (Raul Malo)
Dance With My Father - Kellie Coffey (Luther Vandross/Richard Marx)
Dance with Who Brung Ya - The Western Swing Authority, featuring Ray Benson (Ray Benson)
Dancing in the Minefields - O'Shea (Andrew Peterson)
Dancing in Circles - Love and Theft (Stephen Liles/Robert Ellis Orrall/Roger Springer)
Dancing With No Music Playing - Collin Raye (Billy Montana/Don Ellis)
How to Dance - Kree Harrison (Maren Morris, Lucie Silvas, Ashley Ray, Jenn Decilveo)
If Bubba Can Dance - Shenandoah (Bob McDill, Michael McGuire/Marty Raybon)
If the Devil Danced in Empty Pockets - Joe Diffie (Ken Spooner/Kim Williams)
I Hope You Dance - Lee Ann Womack (Tia Sillers/Mark Sanders)
I'm Still Dancing with You - Wade Hayes (Tommy Lee James/Richard Bowles)
In Between Dances - Pam Tillis (Craig Bickhardt/Barry Alfonso)
Land of a Thousand Dances - Lisa Brokop (Marcus Hummon/Wayne Tester/Lisa Brokop)
Let's Dance - Sara Evans (Randy Scruggs/Sara Evans)
Life's a Dance - John Michael Montgomery (Allan Shamblin/Steve Seskin)
Old Dance Floor - The Western Swing Authority (Shane Guse & Jason Blaine)
Play Something We Can Dance To - Billy Dean (Dennis Morgan/Billy Dean)
She Doesn't Dance - Mark McGuinn (Shane Decker/Don Pfrimmer/Mark McGuinn)
Slow Country Dance - Mary Chapin Carpenter (MCC)
Some Days You Gotta Dance - Dixie Chicks (Troy Johnson/Marshall Morgan)
The Dance - Garth Brooks (Tony Arata)
Touch Me When We're Dancing - Alabama (Kenneth Bell/Terry Skinner/JL Wallace)
When Cowboys Didn't Dance - Lonestar (Therman Green/Richie McDonald)
Why Don't We Just Dance - Josh Turner (James Beavers, Darrell Brown, Jonathan Singleton)
You Never Take Me Dancing - Travis Tritt (Richard Marx)
"The Dance" and "I Hope You Dance" are probably the best known but the ones that will get your toes tapping are those recorded by the Western Swing Authority, Josh Turner, the Dixie Chicks, Sara Evans and Travis Tritt. The Joe Diffie and Shenandoah songs add humor to the equation. To pick out my favorite is a nearly impossible task - one of the reasons the songs are listed alphabetically. I'm sure I've missed quite a few songs since there are more than a few artists I either am unaware of or don't care for. A few of my selections are country covers of pop hits, however the Lisa Brokop song is not a cover of the 1965 hit by Cannibal and the Headhunters. What are your favorite country dance songs?
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