Dancefloor Rescues and Vinyl Legends: How Indeep's "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" Helped Build DJ Culture

The Twelve Inch 165 : Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (Indeep)

In the Benelux, where Indeep’s 1982 anthem "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" was a chart-topper, we sang along with our own cheeky lyrics—“Last Night A DJ Saved My Wife.” Just kids being kids. But while we joked, the track was no joke in Europe: it became a huge hit, selling over 100,000 copies in France alone.

Even with just a single moment in the spotlight, Indeep’s story is a fascinating one. For starters, most people today think of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life as a disco track, but wasn’t disco supposed to be dead after 1979? And while the song sold a huge number of copies, who actually made money from it? Why did Indeep become a hit in Europe but not climb the pop charts in the U.S.?

Yes, it’s partly about the waning influence of dance music in America and its continued dominance in Europe during the early 1980s. But there’s more to it than that. Last Night a DJ Saved My Life marks the birth of one of the most iconic dance tracks of all time, and a key milestone in the rise of DJ c…