I Know That Song! 1 Guy, 1 Mirror Ball, 1 Massive Career-Launching Song

Keep track of the songs thru the week and then on Friday call in to name the 5 songs and their common theme to win a $25 Jersey Mike’s gift card

A number one song from 1979, which was written by the keyboard player in the group Heatwave. He wrote their 1977 hit "Boogie Nights, which got the attention of the producer, Quincy Jones, who wanted to hire this guy to write some songs for today’s singer. 

This guy was busy with the next Heatwave album, but you don’t turn down Quincy Jones, and so he agreed to fly out to L.A. on the weekend and would work on three songs to submit, hoping that Quincy would choose one for the album.

He presented this song, along with two others, and was shocked when Quincy Jones said he wanted to use all three, one of which would ultimately be called "Off the Wall" (the title cut for the album), "Burn this Disco Out," and the song that his band Heatwave turned down, which became today’s song, a #1 smash that helped catapult the Off The Wall album to 10x platinum, and helped make today’s singer the biggest star in the world.

The video was directed by the same guy who directed Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," and he remembered working with a very tight budget, as he told Rolling Stone Magazine: "In those days they were done for peanuts. Absolute peanuts. I think about all we could afford was the laser. This one was probably about $3,000. If you look at it, there's nothing there but a laser and [today’s singer]”.

He added, “When we did this, this was the start of his solo career. He was very, very timid, very quiet, very unassuming. Really nice, he's an absolute professional, even in those days.”

It was filmed on a little stage in LA called the 800 Stage, a little stage that was cheap to rent. There was minimal editing as well, because obviously in those days editing cost money. It was about $350 per editing machine per hour. 

This song is kind of about dancing, but c’mon, the subtext is clear. When "rock" is used as a verb in a song title, as it is with today’s song, it typically means to play or enjoy rock music.

This song used the word as another way to describe dancing while implying something, uh, more ("boogie" and "groove" were often used in this context). Justin Timberlake used it the same way in his disco-tinged 2002 hit "Rock Your Body."

And get this: the original title of the song was "I Want To Eat You Up," which was wisely changed to fit this singer’s then wholesome heartthrob image and probably saved this song from the round file.

Michael Jackson...Rock With You....I Know That Song


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