| "Blame It on the Boogie" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 A-side label of the US vinyl release | ||||
| Single bythe Jacksons | ||||
| from the albumDestiny | ||||
| B-side | "Do What You Wanna" | |||
| Released | September 8, 1978 (UK)[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1978 | |||
| Genre | Disco[2] | |||
| Length |
| |||
| Label | Epic,CBS | |||
| Songwriters | Mick Jackson, Dave Jackson and Elmar Krohn | |||
| Producer | The Jacksons | |||
| The Jacksons singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Blame It on the Boogie" onYouTube | ||||
"Blame It on the Boogie" is a song released in 1978 by English singer-songwriterMick Jackson.[3] It has been covered bythe Jacksons (no relation),Clock andLuis Miguel.
The song was co-authored byMick Jackson[4] (credited as Michael George Jackson-Clarke) as well as Mick'sbrother David Jackson and Elmar Krohn.[5][6]
Although Mick Jackson recorded the song in 1977, "Blame It on the Boogie" was written in hopes of being sold toStevie Wonder.
The two versions of the song were widely released by the artists' respective labels—Atlantic andCBS—within one day of each other. Mick Jackson's 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."[7] The Mick Jackson recording was released by Atlantic Records in the US in August 1978 where it reached #61, and #15 in the UK.
According toMichael 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."[8]
Record World praised Michael Jackson's "silky vocals and energetic youthful delivery."[9]
Despite the Mick Jackson original reaching a No. 61 peak on theBillboard Hot 100 in September 1978, Epic Records that month released the Jacksons' version of "Blame It on the Boogie" as the advance single from theDestiny 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.[10] However, "Blame It on the Boogie" did reach No. 3 R&B and would be coupled with "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" on an extended club play single which would reach No. 20 on the dance charts in 1979.[11]
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 onTop of the Pops... The Jackson's [sic] had the second week...Radio One played The Jackson's [sic] version andCapital Radio only played mine – it was fair."[12]
The Jacksons' version—incorrectly lauded byMelody 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 byNME as "far superior"—had peaked at number 15 on the chart for 21 October.[13][14]
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."[12]
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: theScanimate analog computer system and aQuantel DFS 3000 digital framestore.[15][16]The video also appears on the bonus disc of the DVD box setMichael Jackson's Vision.
Michael Jackson's 1993 biography states that the video marked his video debut.[17] The Jacksons' first promotional music video was "Enjoy Yourself".[citation needed]
| Chart (1978) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| CanadaRPM Top Singles[18] | 95 |
| UK[19] | 15 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[20] | 61 |
| USCash Box Top 100 | 64 |
The Jacksons version[edit]Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[37] | Platinum | 90,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[38] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
| "Blame It on the Boogie" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single byBig Fun | ||||
| from the albumA Pocketful of Dreams | ||||
| Released | 1989 | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Dance-pop,hi-NRG | |||
| Length | 6:27 | |||
| Label | Jive | |||
| Songwriters | Mick Jackson, Dave Jackson and Elmar Krohn | |||
| Producer | Stock Aitken Waterman | |||
| Big Fun singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
In 1989,Stock Aitken Waterman produced a cover version of "Blame It on the Boogie" for British boy bandBig Fun. Their version was released as a single the same year, and was later included in their 1990 albumA Pocketful of Dreams. Initially, a cover of the 1971 song byCarole King "I Feel the Earth Move" was planned to be released as the first single, but this was cancelled asMartika had just released her own cover, so thatPete Waterman decided to produce a cover of "Blame It on the Boogie" instead.[39] This version peaked at number four in the UK, number five in Spain and number seven in Ireland, becoming Big Fun's most successful single on the chart.
In a review published inSmash Hits,Dannii Minogue stated that "it's good, but it couldn't beat the Jacksons' version. A hit? Definitely,especially in the UK. But it really doesn't sound like they [Big Fun] can sing!"[40] In 2014, Matt Dunn ofWhatCulture ranked the song at number 13 in his "15 unforgettable Stock Aitken Waterman singles" list, adding that this cover "was the embodiment of [SAW] 1989 sound: approaching 120bpm, stuttered vocoder effects, some keys to capitalise on the emerging piano house craze, the driving 4/4 beat and that sampled drum loop". Regarding the music video, he stated: "With three pretty boys wearing bright primary colours and matching bumbags, some funky choreography, clever visuals and all that dodgy falsetto, it was hard not to like (or at least laugh at)".[41] In 2019,James Masterton considered that "to pop fans of 1989 the song was fresh and exciting", and although he deemed Big Fun not great singers, he attributed the song's success to their "gleaming smiles, perfect hair and perhaps more importantly a dance routine that was easy to copy".[39]
In the United Kingdom, "Blame It on the Boogie" entered the singles chart at number 25 on the week ending on 12 August 1989, climbed to the top ten the next week, peaked at number four in its fifth week, and spent a total of 11 weeks on the chart, five of them in the top 10.[42] It peaked inside the top 10 in three other nations: Luxembourg and Spain, where it was a top-five hit,[43][44] and Ireland, where it reached number seven and remained on the chart for three weeks.[23] In Belgium (Flanders), Germany and France, it peaked in the top 20, with almost 20 weeks on the charts in the two last territories.[45][46] In addition, it was a top-40 hit in the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.[47][48][49]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
In 2010, filmmaker Patrick Nation made aChannel 4 documentary about Mick Jackson and the story of the song, entitledThe Other Michael Jackson: Battle of the Boogie.[62] The documentary was co-written and presented by Mick's sonSam Peter Jackson and led to Mick Jackson's 1978 albumWeekend[63] (which features the original version of "Blame It on the Boogie") being re-released (for download on theiTunes Store) for the first time in 30 years by Demon Music. To promote the documentary, Mick gave a rare television interview toBBC Breakfast.[64]
While I worked at Image West, we did a number of effects using a Quantel 3000 framestore to create "trails", including this Michael Jackson video, "Blame it on the Boogie". This is from my archives of work from that era.
| Singles onSteeltown Records (1968) |
|
|---|---|
| Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (1969) | |
| ABC (1970) | |
| Third Album (1970) | |
| Jackson 5 Christmas Album (1970) | |
| Maybe Tomorrow (1971) | |
| Greatest Hits (1971) | |
| Lookin' Through the Windows (1972) | |
| Skywriter (1973) | |
| G.I.T.: Get It Together (1973) | |
| Dancing Machine (1974) | |
| Moving Violation (1975) | |
| The Jacksons (1976) | |
| Goin' Places (1977) | |
| Destiny (1978) | |
| Triumph (1980) | |
| Victory (1984) | |
| 2300 Jackson Street (1989) | |
| Notable collaborations and album tracks | |
