"Let's Dance" was recorded at the Power Station in New York City, where Bowie recorded "Scary Monsters", during the first three weeks of December 1982, being completed in only 17 days. The engineer for the sessions was Bob Clearmountain. Rodgers felt that the record's sound was aided by the ambience of the studio, stating: "The Power Station is famous for its great drum sound. And we had great players too". Along with a new producer, an entirely new personnel section was hired for the record, with Bowie stating: "I wanted to have a little relief from the guys that I usually work with. I wanted to try people that I'd never worked with before, so that I couldn't predict how they were going to play." Pegg notes that it was the first time since "Space Oddity" (1969) that Bowie had not kept at least one musician from the previous album. Long-time collaborator Carlos Alomar, who had worked with Bowie since the mid-1970s and would continue to work with Bowie into the mid-1990s, was looking forward to working with Rodgers. However, he claimed that he was offered an "embarrassing" fee to play on the album and declined. He also said when working on Bowie's follow-up album "Tonight", that he did not play on "Let's Dance" because Bowie only gave him two weeks' notice and he was already booked with other work.