The song was released at the time where both David Bowie and Mick Jagger were attempting to become major pop stars. Jagger, dissatisfied with the Rolling Stones and the friction with guitarist Keith Richards, sought to ignite a solo career. Bowie had found mainstream success in the 1980s and had been recording pop music to retain the audience he gathered since 1983's Let's Dance. Ultimately, Jagger's attempts at a solo career failed leading him to recommit to the Rolling Stones in 1989. That same year that Bowie formed the band Tin Machine to shed the pop music persona he had cultivated up to that point.
Bowie and Jagger performed the song at the Prince's Trust Concert on June 20, 1986.
It featured in Family Guy seaon 9 episode 9 foriegn affairs. Its classed as the Gayest song ever by Peter Griffin.
At one point, it was planned to have David Bowie and Mick Jagger perform this song together live for Live Aid in 1985. The idea was to have Bowie performing at Wembley Stadium while Jagger would have performed his part live at the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, which would have been transmitted to Wembley on a screen. However, the plan was later discarded due to technical difficulties, as the satellite link-up would have caused a half-second delay, which would have rendered a synchronous performance impossible. It was offered to Bowie and Jagger to mime each other's contribution to overcome that issue, which both declined.
In 1968, Jagger and fellow Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards had already borrowed a line from "Dancing in the Street" for their song "Street Fighting Man" ("Cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy.")