Skinner and Wallace headed the Muscle Shoals, Alabama session group Bama,[1] who first recorded this song and released it as a single in 1979 reaching number 42 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart and number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

It received a positive review in Billboard which praised the "smooth production" and said that the song "allows the group to achieve a strong identity".

[2] The Carpenters' version of "Touch Me When We're Dancing" was released on their Made in America album in the summer of 1981.

Placing at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was the last of their singles to reach the Top 40 after not having a song appear on that chart for over three years.

It went on to become a number one hit on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart later that year, their 20th straight chart-topper in a string that dated back to 1980.