"Dance the Night Away" was Van Halen's first top 15 hit and the second song from their 1979 album Van Halen II. While the rest of the songs from this album had existed in some way, shape or form since their days doing demos and playing clubs, this song was possibly the only song written during the recording sessions for the album. Having become a hit in July, 1979, the band conceived the song during the recording sessions while the band members were standing in a circle humming to each other. It was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way". Eddie Van Halen purposely left a guitar solo out of the final version of the song, replacing it instead with a riff of Tap Harmonics. David Lee Roth originally wanted to call the song "Dance Lolita Dance", but Eddie convinced him that "Dance the Night Away" was more suitable and the chorus was changed to reflect that.^[1]

David Lee Roth claimed, during a rant in a 2006 performance in San Diego, California, that he wrote this song in tribute to an intoxicated woman who was having sex in the back of a truck and ran with her pants on backwards into the bar where the fledgling band was playing to escape police officers. This was also mentioned at a 2006 performance in Detroit, Michigan.