70s Dance Songs: 30 Tracks Built for the Floor

By Charlie · Published October 24, 2026

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The best 70s dance songs did one job: they got people onto the floor.

This page collects 30 of them, from 1970 to 1979, and you can play every one from the table below.

21 of the 30 reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Each row carries one line of chart fact, not a guess.

The 70s dance songs on this list with two or more weeks at number one.

Chart: Music of the 70s, from this site's weekly Billboard Hot 100 data.

30 70s Dance Songs, Playable and Sortable

Press Play on any row and the list keeps going, song after song, until you press Stop.

Tap a column heading to sort by song, artist, year or year-end rank.

Song titles in gold link to a full story on this site.

Year is the year-end Hot 100 the song appears on, and Year-End Rank is its place on that list.

The #1 Hit column and every date in the last column come from the weekly Billboard Hot 100 number ones, not from year-end rank.

Prefer a hands-off listen? Open the same songs on Listen Now and let the jukebox run.

The Short Answer: What Makes a 70s Dance Song

A 70s dance song is a Billboard Hot 100 hit from 1970 to 1979 built around a groove that people moved to.

The list below is tilted toward the disco floor, but it starts with Motown and funk.

Here is what the list shows at a glance:

• 22 of the 30 songs carry the disco tag in this site's song data.
• 7 titles name dancing outright, from "Dancing Machine" to "He's the Greatest Dancer."
• The longest run at number one is eight weeks, held by the Bee Gees' "Night Fever."
• 21 songs reached number one, and 9 stayed on the year-end lists only.

These 70s Dance Songs Skip the Party Singalongs

No song here repeats on the companion 70s party songs list.

That page leans on singalong hits like "Joy to the World" and "Y.M.C.A."

This one keeps the tracks where the beat does the work.

How These 70s Dance Songs Were Chosen

The starting pool came from this site's own song data, which tags every year-end Hot 100 song for 1970 to 1979 with a vibe.

235 songs are tagged dance and have a YouTube video on record.

From that pool, 30 made the list on three tests:

• The song is not already on the 70s party songs list.
• Its chart facts can be checked against the weekly or year-end Billboard data on this site.
• Its chart line is computed from that data, never typed from memory.

That is why the story column holds dates and neighbors, not trivia.

Where the Year-End Rank on These 70s Dance Songs Comes From

The Year-End Rank column is a position on that year's Billboard year-end list.

It is not the song's weekly peak.

"Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" sits at 4 for 1979, yet it spent four weeks at number one.

Not sure which of the 30 fits your night? The Mood Song Matcher works from this site's own mood tags.

Songs That Tell You What to Do

Plenty of 70s dance songs hand you the instruction in the title.

Counting the 30 titles by the words that name a move or a scene shows how often it happened.

Dancing Is the Favorite Word

7 of the 30 titles contain "dance," "dancing," "dancer" or "dancin'."

"You Should Be Dancing" and "Shadow Dancing" both reached number one.

"Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" did not, and sits at number 20 on the 1978 year-end list.

Boogie, Shake and the Disco Label

"Jungle Boogie," "Boogie Fever" and "Boogie Nights" carry the other favorite word.

"(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" and "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" ask for the same thing a different way.

Two titles use the word disco itself, "Disco Duck" and "Disco Inferno."

Four Stretches of the Dance Floor

Grouping the 30 songs by the year-end Hot 100 they appear on shows where the floor filled up.

1970 to 1973: Motown and Funk Lead the Way

The early years are the thinnest on the list.

"I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5 reached number one on January 31, 1970, and Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round in Circles" took two weeks in July 1973.

James Brown's "Get on the Good Foot" is here too, at number 99 on the 1972 year-end list. The Get on the Good Foot page tells the rest.

1974 to 1976: The Floor Gets Louder

1974 to 1976 holds the most songs, with 11.

It runs from "Love's Theme" in February 1974 to "Disco Duck" in October 1976.

On the weekly chart, Elton John and Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" gave way to "You Should Be Dancing" on September 4, 1976.

"(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" took over a week later, and "Play That Funky Music" followed.

1977 and 1978: Saturday Night Fever Takes Over

"Dancing Queen" reached number one on April 9, 1977.

"Don't Give Up on Us" held the top spot in between, and Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way" followed on April 23.

The Bee Gees' "Night Fever" and Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing" then ran for 15 weeks at number one between them in 1978.

1979: The Floor at Full Volume

1979 gives the list its busiest single year, with six number ones: "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?," "Hot Stuff," "Ring My Bell," "Bad Girls," "Good Times" and "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough."

For the genre's full arc, read 70s disco music, which follows how it peaked and nearly died.

The Longest Dance Floor Streaks

Staying power at the top is the clearest sign a dance song landed.

These 9 songs held number one for two weeks or more.

How the 30 70s dance songs on this list break down by year-end Hot 100 year.

Chart: Music of the 70s, from this site's Billboard year-end data.

"Night Fever" and "Shadow Dancing" Own 1978

The Bee Gees' "Night Fever" reached number one on March 18, 1978, and stayed for eight weeks.

Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing" reached the top on June 17, 1978, and held for seven.

Read the full Night Fever story, then spin the Random 70s Song Generator for a surprise.

Donna Summer's Summer of 1979

"Hot Stuff" spent three weeks at number one in June 1979, and "Ring My Bell" took over on June 30.

"Bad Girls" then held the top for five weeks from July 14, and Chic's "Good Times" followed on August 18.

The full Bad Girls story has the rest.

Dance Songs That Never Hit Number One

9 songs on the list never topped the weekly Hot 100.

Each is here because the year-end list proves it was played everywhere.

• "Get on the Good Foot" by James Brown: number 99 on the 1972 year-end Hot 100.
• "Dancing Machine" by The Jackson 5: number 5 on the 1974 year-end Hot 100.
• "Jungle Boogie" by Kool & the Gang: number 12 on the 1974 year-end Hot 100.
• "Boogie Nights" by Heatwave: number 93 on the 1977 year-end Hot 100.
• "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" by Chic: number 20 on the 1978 year-end Hot 100.
• "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps: number 54 on the 1978 year-end Hot 100.
• "He's the Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge: number 45 on the 1979 year-end Hot 100.
• "I Was Made for Dancin'" by Leif Garrett: number 37 on the 1979 year-end Hot 100.
• "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" by The Jacksons: number 25 on the 1979 year-end Hot 100.

A Rank Is Not a Peak

The year-end list measures a whole year of chart life, not the highest weekly position.

So these ranks say how big the song was, not whether it climbed to the top.

For the decade's biggest hits, see the 70s number one hits page, and for the quieter side of the same chart, the 70s love songs list.

The decade's full story starts at Music of the 70s.

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