"Footsteps in the Dark" is a 1977 slow jam recorded by The Isley Brothers as an album track featured on the group's double-platinum album, Go For Your Guns. It was the B-side to "Groove with You", which reached #16 on the R&B singles chart. While the song didn't chart on either the pop or R&B singles chart, it still garnered popularity initially for its laid-back grooves and the solemn lyrics (the song discussed infidelity) and later would be the basis of a sample fifteen years later in 1992 by rapper Ice Cube, who used the musical instrumental of the song for his breakthrough hit, "It Was a Good Day". Both Footsteps in the Dark and It Was A Good Day were featured on the soundtracks of the Grand Theft Auto series of video games It Was a Good Day in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas while Footsteps in the Dark in Grand Theft Auto IV .
The song was covered by the R&B group Body in 1990 and reworked again by Black Milk on Slum Village's self-titled album on the track "Call Me feat. Dwele", and superproducer J Dilla reworked it into "Won't Do" on his posthumous album The Shining. Singer k-os used a sped-up sample from the song for his 2002 single "Heaven Only Knows".
Although lesser known, the song was also sampled by Usher on his second album "My Way" in the song "One Day You'll Be Mine." The song is also sampled on the Rhymefest song "All Girls Cheat", although the portion of the song used is sung by Mario, and not a sample of the original recording.