THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

935-Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley-Jack Your Body

1987-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 6.20.The House that Jack built.Like many others, on first hearing this song, I knew I was listening to something brand new, a game changer.

‘Jack Your Body’ is a homage to a dance craze that was popular in the early 1980’s in Chicago, where the dancer ripples their torso back and forth in an undulating motion, known as ‘Jacking,; or ‘Jackin,’ or ‘The Jack.

At the back-end of the 1970’s ‘Disco’ music had all but run it’s course, and with Electronic instruments developing all of the time, even ‘Joe Bloggs’ could now experiment with making music in their own bedroom, using synthesizers and drum machines, such as the ‘Roland TR-808.’

Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley was an early pioneer of the genre that was to become known as ‘House Music,’ or in the case of this song, ‘Chicago House,’ as that was where he produced it.The idea for this track was developed by Hurley using the bass line (by speeding it up, and looping it) from a fairly obscure 1977 Disco song called ‘Let No Man Put Asunder’ by the all female group ‘First Choice’. The vocals were added by Hurley, who said his inspiration for the grunts, and some other sounds he produced were inspired by the actor ‘Mr T,’ and the comedian Richard Pryor.

The track was indeed a game changer, leading the way for many others to produce their own ‘House Music’ songs, and branching the genre off in many new directions, including the onset of ‘Acid House,’

‘Jack, Jack, ja, Jack, Jack your body.’