| "Blame It on the Boogie" | ||||
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| Single by The Jacksons | ||||
| from the album Destiny | ||||
| B-side | "Do What You Wanna" | |||
| Released | October 23, 1978 | |||
| Format | 7" single / 12" vinyl single | |||
| Recorded | August 1977 in Los Angeles, California |
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| Genre | Disco | |||
| Length | 3:36 | |||
| Label | Epic 8-50656 |
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| Writer(s) | Mick Jackson Dave Jackson Elmar Krohn |
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| Producer | The Jacksons | |||
| The Jacksons singles chronology | ||||
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"Blame It on the Boogie" is a disco song, originally released in 1978 both by English singer-songwriter Mick Jackson[1] as well as (in its most famous version) by The Jacksons (no relation), and was later also covered by numerous other artists.[2]
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The song was co-authored by Mick Jackson[3] (credited as Michael George Jackson-Clarke) as well as Mick's brother, David Jackson and Elmar Krohn.[4][5]
The song bears a remarkable similarity to "You Could Have Been a Lady," a 1971 single from Hot Chocolate covered by Canadian rock band April Wine; no songwriting credits acknowledge this similarity.
Although Mick Jackson recorded the song in 1977 "Blame It on the Boogie" was written in hopes of being sold to Stevie Wonder.
The Mick Jackson track was showcased in 1978 at Midem where according to Mick Jackson: "The Jacksons' manager [Peter Kerstin] heard the track being played...and took a tape recording of it...back to the States [where] The Jacksons quickly recorded a version so it would be out before mine."[6] - in fact the Mick Jackson recording was released by Atlantic Records in the US in August 1978.
According to Michael Jackson of the Jacksons, Bobby Colomby, who was producing the Jacksons' Destiny album, brought the group "Blame It on the Boogie". "It was an uptempo, finger-poppin'-time type song that was a good vehicle for the band approach we wanted to cultivate. I had fun slurring the chorus: [the lyric] 'Blame It on the Boogie' could be sung in one breath without putting my lips together."[7]
Despite the Mick Jackson original reach a #61 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1978, Epic Records that month released the Jacksons' version of "Blame It on the Boogie" as the advance single from the Destiny album. Although "Blame It on the Boogie" returned the Jacksons to the Hot 100 after five flop singles it was not the single to effect a major comeback for the Jacksons peaking at #54; it would be the follow-up: "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", which would briefly restore the Jacksons' Top Ten fortunes.[8] However, "Blame It on the Boogie" did reach #3 R&B and would be coupled with "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" on an extended club play single which would reach #20 on the dance charts in 1979.[9]
In the UK both the Mick Jackson version and the Jacksons' were released within a few days of each other in September 1978. The UK music press, struck by the rival versions being by similarly named artists, declared a "Battle of the Boogie" which Mick Jackson recalls as "great publicity...There was an equal balance of interest from the media about both releases - A good example is that my version came out first on Top Of The Pops... The Jackson's [sic] had the second week...Radio One played The Jackson's [sic] version and Capital Radio only played mine - It was fair."[2]
The Jacksons' version—incorrectly lauded by Melody Maker as their “self-penned song”—was the more successful version reaching Number 8 on the chart dated 4 November 1978; the Mick Jackson version—hailed by NME as "far superior"—had peaked at Number 15 on the chart for 21 October. [10][11]
Mick Jackson himself in 2003 said of the Jacksons' version of "Blame It on the Boogie": "[the original] version had 100% of our heart and soul in it but the Jacksons' version had the magic extra 2% that made it incredible."[2]
The promotional music video by the Jacksons was created for "Blame It on the Boogie". Michael Jackson's 1993 biography states that the video marked his video debut.[12] The Jacksons' very first promotional music video was Enjoy Yourself. The video, featuring the group's members dancing on a black background, relied heavily on vintage electronic trail effects, created at Image West, Ltd. using then-cutting edge equipment: the Scanimate analog computer system and a Quantel DFS 3000 digital framestore.[13] [14] The video also appears on the bonus disc of "Michael Jackson's Vision".
Tina Charles has stated that she recorded "Blame It on the Boogie" prior to the Jacksons; her version was not released as "Sony [felt] it was not a strong enough song."[15]
In 2010, filmmaker Patrick Nation made a Channel 4 documentary about Mick Jackson and the story of the song, entitled The Other Michael Jackson: Battle of the Boogie.[16] The documentary was co-written and presented by Mick's son Sam Peter Jackson and led to Mick Jackson's 1978 album Weekend[17] (which features the original version of "Blame it on the Boogie") being re-released (for download on the iTunes Store) for the first time in 30 years by Demon Music. To promote the documentary, Mick gave a rare television interview to BBC Breakfast.[18]
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