Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)

"Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" is a song recorded by The Jacksons for their 1978 album Destiny, and released as a single on March 9, 1979. It peaked at no. 7 in the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1979.

The most successful of the Jacksons' recordings for Epic, "Shake Your Body" (originally demoed as "Shake a Body") was produced by the Jackson brothers, written by Randy and Michael, and featured Michael on lead vocals. The chorus "let's dance/let's shout (shout)/shake your body down to the ground" was inspired by an ad-lib from Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up": "Let's dance/let's shout (shout)/gettin' funky's what it's all about" and the rhythmic pattern from Teddy Pendergrass's "Get Up, Get Down, Get Funky, Get Loose" (from his album Life Is a Song Worth Singing, released a couple of months previously).

Release

Released to radio in a single edit of three minutes and forty-five seconds (and played in its full eight-minute album version by clubs), the single reached no. 3 in Cash Box magazine and peaked at no. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also peaked at no. 3 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart. The ensuing 12" Disco Single Remix featured a more focused drum and rhythm track, as well as the new synthesizer-voiced three octave climbing glissando that was not heard on the album version. "Shake Your Body" sold over two million copies, attaining double-platinum status from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Shy FX

Shy FX is the pseudonym of Andre Williams, an English DJ and producer from London. He specialises in drum and bass and jungle music.

Biography

Shy FX's debut record was "Jungle Love", released in 1992 on the Permission to Dance label. Soon after, he signed to Sound of the Underground Records (often abbreviated as S.O.U.R.) and in 1994 released the breakthrough ragga jungle track "Original Nuttah" (featuring vocals from MC UK Apache) which helped to cement his position as a mainstay producer of the jungle/drum & bass scene.

Throughout his career, he has collaborated with T Power, both as Ebony Dubsters and Shy FX and T Power; their 2001 breakthrough track "Shake Ur Body" with vocalist Di was a number 7 hit in the UK Singles Chart. Released on EMI subsidiary Positiva, it gained widespread support from both club and commercial radio DJs and helped to further popularise drum & bass as a mainstream music genre.

The success of "Shake Ur Body" was followed by the duo's album Set It Off, released in 2002 on Pete Tong's label FFRR. Several EPs and single releases followed; by 2005, Shy FX had made the decision to consolidate his releases onto his own label and founded Digital Soundboy Recordings. In collaboration with T Power, they subsequently released the album Diary of a Digital Sound Boy on 17 October 2005, featuring the songs "Feelings", "On The Run" and "Plastic Soul". Shy FX and T Power also released "Don't Wanna Know" featuring Di and MC Skibadee. The song was notably used on the UK television programme Soccer AM as part of the 'Skills Skool' feature.