'Dancing in the Moonlight’ band reveal iconic track was actually inspired by an Adam Sandler movie

The band behind the legendary 'Dancing in the Moonlight' song has lifted the lid on some of the 'lies' that were told when the track first graced our radios 25 years ago.

The song first emerged back in 1972 after being released as a hit single by the French-American rock band, King Harvest, and was interestingly picked up again by 'Who Let the Dogs Out' Bahamian junkanoo band, Baha Men, in 1994.

However, neither of those are probably the version you know and love as it was Toploader who catapulted the track into a global sensation in 2000, and has been a staple club bop and firm wedding dance floor favorite ever since.

Now celebrating its 25th birthday and hitting the one billion streams club, guitarist Dan Hipgrave was keen to set the record straight on some of the decades-old 'lies' that spilled out at the time - and how one unlikely Adam Sandler movie inspired the process.

The band are currently touring the UK, click here for tickets.

Speaking to UNILAD, Dan said the song is 'like a little bell for a dog at dinnertime', making people burst into dance which Toploader, comprised of Dan, Joe Washbourn (singer), Rob Green (drummer), and former bandmates, Julian Deane (guitarist) and Matt Knight (bassist), who met as teenagers in Eastbourne, UK, said has been quite the 'thing to have' when they play it live.

The 'lies' about the song

But, Dan confessed: "There’s been so many lies that’s been said about this, mainly from us, so I’ll give you a reveal. I’ll just be honest.”

He said 'back in the day', the band had a running joke about what inspired them to remake the track, with Dan's favorite lie coming from Joe.

“His auntie went to school with David Bowie or was in the same year as him, and he used to say that she used to say - because he always thought it was a really cool story that his auntie went [to school with Bowie] - ‘Oh my auntie used to listen to it all the time when she was younger'.

“So, [he would say], ‘I just grew up listening to that song'.”

Dan laughed: “When you’re a young band and you’re trying to justify why you’ve done a cover of a song that has gone exponentially bonkers, you almost feel like you need a story. You want the romantic story.”

Toploader didn’t want to reveal the truth - that it was actually presented to them by ‘big LA producer', George Drakoulias, whose impressive portfolio spans School of Rock to Stark Trek, and from The Hangover to Barbie.

The Adam Sandler movie

Dan said the band weren't keen on making a cover, what with having their own songs to promote instead.

Yet he said George 'played a sample he'd been making in a movie with Adam Sandler', and it was that little riff that stunned them.

"We were like, ‘Oh that sounds really cool', like straight away," Dan continued. “I was equally as happy as I was scared. I was really scared about how amazing it was.

“I genuinely believed when I first heard it as we were making it, it could be a global hit.”

The 49-year-old couldn't trace what movie it was, but George did produce the version of 'Dancin' in the Moonlight' used in the soundtrack of Big Daddy (1999), which is probably safe to say is the movie in question.

Radio blockage

Another quirky anecdote to the song's international success comes from persuading a UK radio station to spin the track, who Dan said were 'a***holes' back then.

The station refused to play it, so Toploader hatched a plan to re-release it - with a twist.

"Radio One said, ‘We’ll consider playlisting it but you need something different'. So, we went to some Swedish producers who had just done a song with Britney Spears."

Dan continued: “They didn’t really change the song, they just put ‘Here we go’ before the chorus and their name over the front of it. And our label went, 'Radio One love it'."

Dan said he doesn't know if that version even 'exists' anymore but it helped them get into the 'supermarket world', as it featured on a grocery advert while their debut album, Onka's Big Moka, flogged around 80,000 to 100,000 copies a week from the shelves.

It then became the soundtrack of the 2002 American teen romantic drama, A Walk to Remember, followed by the 2010 comedy, Four Lions, and to the 2019 TV series, The Umbrella Academy.

Dangers of a 'one hit wonder'

Dan said there was 'always that danger' of 'having a song bigger than the band' but considers his glass 'half full' in hindsight.

“When I was younger, it felt more like it was half empty, because we were trying to release other songs and people weren’t playing them because they were playing 'Dancing in the Moonlight'.

"We were actively like, trying to delete it. Stop pressing it, stop pushing it. But it never went.

“It’s just unprecedented. It just doesn’t happen. It happens for certain people like Drake, but not for a band like us.”

And when they decided not to play the song at a gig, Dan joked they were almost 'murdered.'

"We needed security to get out of that building. We worked out quickly that it’s just not fair to do that to people.

“On top of that, when we see how happy it makes people, it’s really amazing. We see very, very smiley people."

A stag do to a reunion

The band did take a lengthy hiatus for eight years - up until Dan's stag do put the band back in the same room again in 2008.

Their third album, Only Human, came in 2011, and now they've just embarked on a special 25th anniversary tour after finishing a six-day tour with James Blunt.

Dan also teased they're planning on releasing brand new music this year with one track in particular being 'the best we've released in 25 years.'

So, watch this space as we might have another tune to dance the next 25 years away.

The band are currently touring the UK, click here for tickets.