#16: Instant Replay by Dan Hartman

City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: February 1979
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #4
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29
YouTube: “Instant Replay”
Lyrics: “Instant Replay”

Daniel Earl Hartman was born in West Hanover Township (PA) in 1950. He was a child prodigy who studied classical piano. Hartman joined his first band the Legends, at the age of 13 in 1964 at the request of his older brother David who asked him to play keyboards. Initially, the Legends were a soul band who morphed to a psychedelic rock band. Into the early 70s, Hartman left the Legends and joined the Edgar Winter Group. He sang on the pop hit “Free Ride” and played bass guitar on the number-one 1973 hit “Frankenstein”. Between 1974 and 1980, Hartman was a musician on three albums for Johnny Winter. In 1976, Dan Hartman released a promotional album titled Who Is Dan Hartman and Why Is Everyone Saying Wonderful Things About Him?

He followed up with his official debut album later in 1976 titled Images. 

In 1978, he release an album titled Instant Replay, along with the title track.

“Instant Replay” was written by Dan Hartman. With multi-tracking, Hartman provided lead vocals, backing vocals, keyboards, bass guitar and rhythm guitar. The song begins with a countdown from 10 to 1. The lyrics tell of a sexual attraction that provides a recipe for making love: You keep me dancing through the moonlight, I feel the pleasure in your touch. And everything you are is heaven.
Oh I can’t get enough.” As with most disco hits, the song’s strength was it’s high-energy beat that people could dance to at the clubs.

“Instant Replay” peaked at #1 in Harrisburg (PA), #2 in Seattle, #3 in New York City, #4 in Hamilton (ON), and Boston, #5 in Providence (RI), Ottawa, and Hartford (CT), #6 in Baltimore (MD), and Houston, #7 in Honolulu, #8 in Pittston (PA), Miami, and Los Angeles, #10 in Bangor (ME), and #11 in Winnipeg (MB).

Internationally, “Instant Replay” peaked at #5 in New Zealand, #6 in Australia, #8 in the UK, #16 in Canada, and the Top 30 in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the USA.

In 1990, Yell! covered “Instant Replay” which peaked in #10 in the UK.

In 1980, Dan Hartman produced the number-one US dance hit “Love Sensation” by Loleatta Holloway. The song was later sampled on Black Box’s “Ride On Time” and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s 1991 number-one hit “Good Vibrations”. In 1980, Dan Hartman released “Vertigo”/”Relight My Fire” which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Dance chart, #3 in the Netherland and #11 in Denmark. In 1984, Dan Hartman had his biggest international hit with “I Can Dream About You”. The song climbed to #3 in Australia, #4 in Ireland, #6 in the USA, #7 in South Africa, #11 in Canada, #12 in the UK and #13 in Sweden. It was the second and final Top 40 hit for Dan Hartman in Canada. “I Can Dream About You” appeared in the soundtrack for the 1984 film Streets of Fire.

Later in 1984, “We Are The Young” became Dan Hartman’s third number-one US dance chart hit. While “Second Nature” became Dan Hartman’s fourth and final Top 40 pop hit in the USA.

Hartman arranged and engineered several albums in the 1980s for Neil Sedaka. He was also a backing vocalist and keyboard player on an album in 1982 for the Average White Band.

In 1985, Hartman produced “Living in America”, a #4 pop hit for James Brown in the USA (and Top 5 in Belgium, Canada, and New Zealand). He also wrote “Gravity” which became at Top 30 R&B hit for James Brown. In 1987, Hartman was a backing vocalist on Steve Winwood’s Top Ten hit “The Finer Things”. That year his song “Sometimes” was recorded on an album by John Waite. In 1989, Dan Hartman produced Tina Turner’s album Foreign Affair, Joe Cocker’s albums Unchain My Heart (1987) and One Night of Sin (1989), Holly Johnson’s album Blast (1989), Living In A Box’s album Gatecrashing (1989), as well as albums by Dusty Springfield, Tom Robinson, Rick Derringer, 38 Special, Foghat, Rick Derringer, and Bonnie Tyler.

In 1994, Joni Mitchell covered a Dan Hartman song titled “How Do You Stop” on her Grammy Award winning Best Pop Album Turbulent Indigo.

Dan Hartman was a closeted gay man. He was diagnosed with HIV and in 1994 died of a brain tumor. In May 1994, the “Dan Hartman: A Celebration of His Life and Music” memorial concert was performed at New York’s Sound Factory Bar. Throughout his career he released six studio albums and 22 singles.

July 17, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
Dick Clark, “Dan Hartman interview,” American Bandstand, August 24, 1984.
“The Rise and Tragic Death of Dan Hartman,” YouTube.com, 2023.
“Dan Hartman Dies, Songwriter was 43,” New York Times, April 7, 1994.
Bryan Johnson, “10 More Notable People who Died from AIDS,” Listverse.com, December 18, 2011.
Take That feat. Lulu “Relight My Fire“, RCA/BMG, 1993.
Joni Mitchell, “How Do You Stop“, from Turbulent Indigo, MCA, 1994.