Dancing Machine by The Jackson Five

Dancing Machine

1974

The Jackson Five

If you were a living, breathing teenager in 1974, you may remember a dance craze known as 'The Robot', and while the Jackson Five didn't invent it, they're definitely the ones who made it, using this very tune to accomplish  that task.

Everyone remembers hearing 'Dancing, Dancing, Dancinnnnng!!!' bursting from their stereo speakers to kick this one off, and at first a lot of people didn't realize it was the J-5. Motown's The Corporation had parted ways with each other two years earlier, leaving the J-5 to rely on other songwriters. Now, a change of song-writers for a single tune here and there had served them well a couple of times in the past...most notably with 'I'll Be There'...but this time around they seemed to have lost some of their momentum.

 Oh, they were still around through '72 and '73, but while they'd been churning out minor hits, several of which made it into the Top 20, their absence in the Top 10 had been pretty notable. 'Dancing Machine' would snap that streak for them one last time. 

Hal Davis, Don Fletcher, and Dean Park took on the task of getting them back into 'Big Hit' territory, and in the process wrote what's remembered as one of the catchiest dance-tunes of The Seventies, which is saying something as The Awesome Music Decade produced some pretty stellar dance tunes.. Dancing Machine was nothing but a straight out, classic dance tune, with a melody, beat, and rhythm that dared you to try not to start head-bopping, hair-swaying, and hip swinging. The tune's lyrics even payed homage to the very much admired dance moves of an equally well admired, if fictional and very possibly robotic lady.

The writing trio pitched it right over the plate, and The Jackson Five knocked it out of the park, making it into the top 10 for the first time since 'Sugar Daddy ' in 1972, and the Top 5 for the first time since 'Never Can Say Good-bye' snagged the runner-up position earlier that same year. 'Dancing Machine' debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 16th, 1974 at #79 and began a steady climb as us Seventies Kids discovered it, cracking the top 20 just shy of a month after it's debut, and the Top 10, at #8, two weeks later, on April 27th. It snagged the Hot 100's runner up spot on May 18th...10 weeks in...and hung on to it for two weeks before starting down. "Dancing Machine' would spend a not at all shabby 21 weeks on the Hot 100, nine of them in the Top 10. The tune went one better on the Billboard R&B charts, where it snagged the top spot, and while it was at it, earned a Grammy nomination for best R&B Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocals. Rufas and Chaka-Khan beat them out with Tell Me Something Good. Sadly, Dancing Machine would be the last hit they scored as a Motown act, as well as their last hit as 'The Jackson Five'.

As noted above, the song popularized the 'Robot Dance'. Michael Jackson personally raised the dance to a new level by pretty much becoming the master of the dance, then making it his own and performing it often and with legendary perfection through-out his career.

'Dancing Machine' was simple and pure fun, both to listen to and to dance to, and it was all over the radio during the spring and the Summer of '74'. And, if you were in high school during the mid Seventies, not only would you hear this one on the radio, it's almost a sure bet you'd hear it at least once or twice during any school dance. It was a fast-dance, and us Seventies Kids would flood the dance floor and add our own personal touches to "The Robot Dance' when that familiar thrice-repeated intro would burst from the speakers and bounce around the gym or community center where the dance was taking place. 

 It's still just as danceable and fun to listen to now as it was when that iconic 'Dancing, Dancing, Dancinnnnng!!! was first heard forty-one years ago.  Like most of the J-5's hits, it'll still show up on Oldies stations occasionally, and it wouldn't surprise me if, every once in a while, a DJ will dust it off and spin it during a dance club's theme night.  Wonder if anyone still knows how to dance 'The Robot?

So enjoy!  Dancing Machine by The Jackson Five! 


And as a bonus vid, The Jackson Five performs Dancing Machine and a very smooth rendition of 'The Robot Dance' during a TV appearance. The Date and show/event wasn't listed so that'll have to remain a mystery...but their dance partner was pretty cool! Check out the robot dancing 'The Robot'