Dancing Machine

"Dancing Machine"
Single by The Jackson 5
Released	February 19, 1974[1]
Format	7" single
Recorded	April - May 1973 Hitsville West, Los Angeles
Genre	Funk, disco
Length	3:30 (album version) 2:43 (single version) 4:25 (alternate version)
Label	Motown M 1286
Writer(s)	Hal Davis Don Fletcher Dean Parks
Producer(s)	Hal Davis
The Jackson 5 singles chronology
"Get It Together" (1973) "Dancing Machine" (1974) "Whatever You Got I Want" (1974)

"Dancing Machine" is a 1973 song recorded by The Jackson 5, released as a single in 1974. The group's first US Top Ten hit since 1971's "Sugar Daddy", "Dancing Machine" hit #1 in Cash Box and reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, it hit #1 on the R&B charts.^[2] Billboard ranked it as the No. 3 song for 1974.^[3] It brought The Jackson 5 their second Grammy Award nomination in 1975 for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, losing to Rufus and Chaka Khan's "Tell Me Something Good".

Background

The song, which reportedly sold over three million copies,^[4] popularized the physically complicated Robot dance technique, devised by Charles Washington in the late 1960s. Michael Jackson first performed the dance on television while singing "Dancing Machine" with the Jackson 5 on an episode of Soul Train.

"Dancing Machine", originally recorded for the group's 1973 album G.I.T.: Get It Together, was also the title track of their 1974 album Dancing Machine released in 1974 as a remix for a response to the success of the single.

Cover versions

• The song was most notably sampled by MC Hammer, on his 1990 album Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em (for the song "Dancin' Machine").
• It was also sampled again in 1990 by Vanilla Ice on the album To The Extreme, later by Too $hort (featuring Bun B) on the song "Shout It Out", in 2008 by Q-tip on the album The Renaissance ("Move") and Yung Wun for his song "Tear It Up" on his album The Dirtiest Thirstiest (in which the sample was uncredited and also his sample was taken directly from the film Drumline when the marching band performed it in medley).
• "Dancing Machine" was covered by Suburban Legends on their Japan-only EP, Dance Like Nobody's Watching: Tokyo Nights.
• An alternate longer version (4:25) appears on the I Want You Back! Unreleased Masters compilation released in 2009.
• A remix by Polow da Don was featured in a commercial for Svedka.
• In D-TV Disney, it was set to the Dance of the Hours segment from Fantasia.
• Paula Abdul covered the song in 1997 as an unreleased demo.
• Roni Griffith covered the song in 1984.
• Justin Timberlake interpolated part of the song (Watch her get down, watch her get down) for his 2013 album The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2 for the song "Murder."

Personnel

• Lead vocals by Michael Jackson and Jermaine Jackson
• Background vocals by Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Tito Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Marlon Jackson, and Randy Jackson.
• Instrumentation by assorted Los Angeles musicians including James Gadson and Charles Wright

Notes

1. Hitsville USA, The Motown Singles Collection, Vol. 2: 1972-1992 (1993), liner notes
2. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 287.
3. Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1974
4. Sales statistics for Jackson 5 singles. Retrieved March 17, 2008