"Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" was the second song that Ultravox performed during the Live Aid charity event at the old Wembley Stadium, on 13 July 1985, for which Ure also played the lead guitar.

"They knew it was the end but they had time to think about how they wanted to choose their final moments", Ure stated, "And that’s what "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes" was about.

The video thereafter depicts the actions of the narrator as described in the song; dancing with his wife (interpreted by Diana Weston),[10] listening to music, drinking champagne and awaiting the end.

The song concludes over the impact of a nuclear explosion viewed from inside the narrator's house, producing the windblown living room scene depicted on the cover of the single.

The video ends over silent cinefilm home movies of the narrator and his family in happier times, before the film is burned away by overexposure.