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David Bowie ‘Let’s Dance’ history: Nile Rodgers explains how iconic song came to fruition

david-bowie-lets-dance-history-nile-rodgers-explains-how-iconic-song-came-to-fruition David Bowie's small lock of hair(1983) is displayed at a media preview June 22, 2016 at Heritage Auctions in Beverly Hills, California. A snippet of the singer's hair, tied together with blue thread, is affixed to the upper left corner of a black and white photograph depicting Bowie standing next to the current owner [a young woman who worked as a Wig Mistress at Madame Tussauds in London], she had the task of recreating Bowie's 1983-era hairdo for his wax figure that was being created for the famous museum; after she snipped this chunk of Bowie's hair. The lock of hair is one of the items up for auction which will run June 24-25, 2016. / AFP / Tommaso Boddi (Photo credit should read TOMMASO BODDI/AFP via Getty Images)

David Bowie is one of the most iconic musicians of all time, and many fans are still curious about the origins of some of his hit singles. Nile Rodgers, the legendary producer, recently revealed the origins of one of his songs.

The legendary record producer revealed the origins of “Let’s Dance” on the “Rolling Stone Music Now” podcast with host Brian Hiatt.

They were listening to different bands at the time, according to the musician, before going to Atlantic Records co-founder Jerry Wexler’s house.

When they were there, Rodgers mentioned that the music executive had a copy of “Peter Gunn” on the turntable, and Bowie suggested they listen to it.

They listened to the record, and the producer called the incident “the funniest thing.”

He said:

“It was like, instantly, we listened to the whole record – it wasn’t just Peter Gunn, it was like TV themes, but the theme song to Peter Gunn went [sings melody].”

Let’s fast forward to when they began working on “Let’s Dance!” Rodgers stated that he remembered their listening session and that it had become a fond memory in his mind.

They had no direction at first while producing the track, but they were immediately inspired when the musician remembered their bonding.

When creating the chart for the song, Rodgers recalled how Bowie was “diggin'” the track and recreated the melody from “Peter Gunn.”

According to Song Facts, many fans thought the song was about dancing with a love interest, but Nile Rodgers previously revealed the song’s deeper meaning.

He explained that Bowie was “talking about the fance that people do in life” when he wrote the song’s lyrics.

The musician went on to say that it was about the “conceptual dance” of not being honest with others, such as pretending to be happy when they’re sad.

Because the song’s title includes the word “dance,” he wanted the track to be upbeat so that people could dance to it.

In a previous interview, David Bowie stated that he wanted the song to be “warmer” and “more humanistic” than anything he had previously produced.

“Let’s Dance” was released in 1983 and quickly became one of the late singer’s most famous songs.