“It’s not about being unable to dance.  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.”

— Phil Collins on I Can’t Dance

Ok, Phil.  Whatever you say.

Tony Banks, Genesis’s keyboardist, has said that the song actually came about because he and Mike Rutherford were fooling around with various sounds in the recording studio and Phil, hearing what they were doing, suddenly sang out, “I can’t dance!” The song started out as an improvised joke but then went on to become one of the band’s biggest hits.  It was also nominated for a Grammy.

The end of the video is meant to be a parody of the original ending of Michael Jackson’s video for Black or White.  Black or White originally ended with Michael Jackson’s dancing erratically and destroying a car.  I Can’t Dance ends with Tony and Mike dragging Phil away before can do too much damage.

Enjoy!