The Jacksons – Blame It On the Boogie

“Blame It on the Boogie” – Single by the Jacksons from the album Destiny. B-side “Do What You Wanna”. Released September 8, 1978 (UK).
Charted No.8 in UK and No.54 in US

The song was co-authored by Mick Jackson (credited as Michael George Jackson-Clarke) as well as Mick’s brother David Jackson and Elmar Krohn.

Although Mick Jackson recorded the song in 1977, “Blame It on the Boogie” was written in hopes of being sold to Stevie Wonder.

The two versions of the song were widely released by the artists’ respective labels—Atlantic and CBS—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 when it reached #61, and #15 in the UK.

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.”

Record World praised Michael Jackson’s “silky vocals and energetic youthful delivery.”

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 Scanimate analog computer system and a Quantel DFS 3000 digital framestore. The video also appears on the bonus disc of the DVD box set Michael Jackson’s Vision.

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

The Jacksons - Blame It On the Boogie

The Jacksons - Blame It On the Boogie (Official Video)03:33

The first “blame it” hit came in 1963 with “Blame It On The Bossa Nova.” The Bee Gees adapted the lyrical concept in the disco era in 1975 when they blamed it on the nights on Broadway. After The Jacksons blamed it on the boogie, more blame followed in the ’80s:

“Blame It On Love” by Smokey Robinson & Barbara Mitchell (1983)
“Blame It On The Radio” by John Parr (1986)
“Blame It On The Rain” by Milli Vanilli (1989)

Visits: 55