The Jacksons ~ Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) 1978 Funky Purrfection Version

While the Jackson Five were a family group, the spotlight shone the brightest on the youngest member, Michael. Right from the start, he displayed a spirit as old as music itself, with a powerhouse voice, charisma and dance moves in a combination that no one has been able to duplicate since. Soft spoken and meek in person, he was an intensely focused young man who demanded perfection and was rewarded with the best Motown had to offer in the hits "ABC", "I Want You Back", "The Love You Save" and in a surprising change of sound, "I'll Be There" and "Never Can Say Goodbye" where Micheal displayed his amazing versatility.

When the group moved to Columbia/Epic, Jermaine jumped the Jackson ship and stayed at Motown (he married Hazel Gordon, Berry Gordon's daughter) but the rest of the boys moved on to greater success with the Gamble/Huff produced "The Jacksons" LP from 1976, then lost traction again with the Top 40 placement of 1977's "Goin Places". The following year, after taking a more active producing role the band put out 1978's aptly named "Destiny", had two major hits; "Blame It On The Boogie" in the spring of 1978 and then "Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)" for the summer, both songs reaching #20 on the disco charts.

A 12" extended disco version gave the funk tune a new booming rhythm and latin style percussion track that turned it into a hurricane level rock dance track for the clubs. I always loved the original recording, its a lot funkier and fuller sounding to me, the opening cymbal fading quickly into this piano driven funk, and it feels like the sun is coming out from behind a cloud. I got the idea to remix this one a couple of days ago, before I realized that Michael's birthday on the 29th. Oh well, a day late, a dollar short, who cares when you can get out and dance to Michael and forget all about your troubles and shake that body down to the ground.

The album version has this really great breakdown segment that ended the song near the 8 minute mark that I thought would be more fun in the middle. It still sounds incredibly hot to me, I've been humming it for almost a week now.

[flymast]

Literally "The Greatest Entertainer of All Time"

[chiquitalove]

I PLAYED IT SO MUCH THAT THE VINYL WAS TURNING WHITE AND THE CD WAS NOT IN GOOD SHAPE EITHER BUT I BOUGHT THE 12" DISCO VERSION FOR THE SONG AND ITS 2024 AND I STILL PLAY IT ON MY TURNTABLES AND AND VINYLS ARE BACK!!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[robterm]

No Doubt, He was and still is the all-time best entertainer period, in a class by himself.

[jeffreychandler]

I can vividly remember back in the day, it was our destiny to continuously play this and dance to this song. Pure, safe, fun that we never desired to end. Late 1970's, truly a monumental treasured time.

[vgrandy]

Definitely one of the best dance songs by the Jacksons

[wingchundragon]

Michael and Randy killed it with this production! One of my favorite Jacksons songs. Reasons why they always closed their shows to this banger

[Jgeneraledger]

Always loved the background vocalists "yell-whisper" ("SHOUT.")

[shakiracharriez]

This was my favorite dancing song back in the day in the club. I love the bass in this song. I am dancing right now on a Sunday morning. What a way to start my day.💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽

[MsHappy-xzpx]

HE WAS ON POINT!!! HE DIRECTED HIS BAND MEMBERS, HIS BROTHERS AND EVERYTHING!!!

[blueskye]

Greatest of all time, this song never gets

[traviswooten]

40 years later, Michael and the brothers still rock.

[h.wylliamstranquility]

Still one of the funkiest bass lines in R&B! (Hence the hypnotic head bob😉)

[johnadedoyin]

Just came across this - THIS IS AWESOME. Can you believe it - this is over FORTY tears old and it still kicks ass!

[paulpayne]

I still have my 12” import from 1978 and it is still in good nick, and the sound quality is spot on even after 44 years 👍

[robterm]

The best all-time 1st family of music, THE JACKSONS NO.1.

[kingjahman]

Kings like MJ comes once in a life time.. There will never be any like MJ on this Earth..40years to century comes MJ Brothers will always rock

[MA-yhko]

The greatest "Jacksons" song bar none!

[deekaymusiclover]

My absolute favorite song by the Jacksons...and I like a lot of their songs.

[markhuddleston]

Awesome! Michael's voice fresh as ever!!

[AndyGGLA]

Now common sense tells me I shouldn’t get better quality on YouTube than on a decent sound system but what I love about these mixes is I can hear elements I’ve never heard on other setups or mixes. The background work to these mixes are just phenomenal & get me excited about disco music all over again. This one just spoils me for feelings of joy & getting my groove on.