Song Lyric Sunday | “Blame It On the Boogie” – The Jacksons
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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.
This week’s theme is “Boogie/Rock/Rolling Stone.”
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English singer/songwriter Mick Jackson recorded Blame It On the Boogie in 1977, however, the song was written originally 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.” In fact, the Mick Jackson recording was released by Atlantic Records in the US also in August 1978.
Despite the Mick Jackson original reaching a #61 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1978, the Jacksons’ version of Blame It on the Boogie, released as the advance single from the Destiny album, returned the Jacksons to the Hot 100 after five flop singles, and reached #3 on the R&B chart. The song would be coupled with Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) on an extended club play single and would reach #20 on the dance charts in 1979.
The UK music press, struck by the rival versions being by similarly named artists, (Mick’s legal name is Michael George Jackson vs. American Michael Joseph Jackson… who had yet to become a break-out solo star at the time) 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.”
FUN FACTS:
The Jacksons’ version was the more successful version reaching Number 8 on the chart dated 4 November 1978; the Mick Jackson version had peaked at Number 15 on the chart for 21 October.
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.”
A promotional music video by the Jacksons was created for “Blame It on the Boogie” in 1978. The video, featuring the group’s members dancing on a black background, relied heavily on electronic trail effects, created at Image West, Ltd. using then-cutting edge equipment. The video also appears on the bonus disc of the DVD box set Michael Jackson’s Vision.
I also posted Mick Jackson’s version for a double-play this week! 
