Sherman Kelly's brother Wells Kelly introduced the song to the Paris-based band King Harvest in which he was drummer, and former Boffalongo member Dave "Doc" Robinson was lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist. King Harvest recorded and released "Dancing in the Moonlight," featuring a prominent keyboard countermelody, as a single with "Lady, Come On Home" on the B-side in 1972. Steve Cutler, a jazz drummer from New York City (standing on the base of the pole in the cover picture), played drums on the tracks and toured France and the UK with the band. The group disbanded after six months and the single languished for a year until it was bought and released worldwide by Perception Records. In Canada, the song reached number 5 on the weekly charts and number 71 on the year-end chart for 1973. It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States the weeks of February 24 and March 3, 1973.
King Harvest was a 1970s French-American rock band who was formed initially in Ithaca, New York State, U.S., but broke up and reformed in Paris where they began recording their first songs. They are known for their 1972 hit single "Dancing in the Moonlight". They took their name after the 1969 song "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" by The Band, one of their musical influences.
It was Wells Kelly who convinced the group to revisit "Dancing in the Moonlight", but he left Paris before the song was recorded. Steve Cutler, a jazz drummer and fellow expatriate from New York, joined King Harvest for their last six months in Paris, recording "Dancing in the Moonlight" and playing clubs and concerts in Paris and London. Reportedly, Cutler performed the drum/percussion parts on the recording using a toilet scrubbing brush, as opposed to the traditional drumsticks. The song was produced by Jack Robinson of Robin Song Music. Contrary to Boffalongo's original version, which included such disparate players as jazz flutist Jeremy Steig and Peter Giansante on drums, the King Harvest recording was more scaled back. A 45-rpm record of "Dancing in the Moonlight" was released in Paris, with "Lady, Come on Home" on the B-side. The single languished, and the group again (temporarily) disbanded.
However, in 1972, "Dancing in the Moonlight" began to generate interest back home in America, where the original four members signed with the Perception label. Perception promptly leased the tune from France's Musidisc Records and prepared the group, now re-established in Olcott, New York, to record a full-length album titled after the single. Meanwhile, the single went on to reach No. 13 in the US in early 1973 and No. 5 in Canada, and the band embarked on a lengthy U.S. tour. Australian drummer David Montgomery and bassist Tony Cahill, both of Python Lee Jackson (and the latter also of The Easybeats) officially joined King Harvest after the album's release and toured with them during the spring of 1973. "Dancing in the Moonlight" composer Sherman Kelly, who had not participated in King Harvest's recording of the single, also officially joined the band for the first time for this tour.
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