30 Day Song Challenge Day 9: Shake Shake Shake Shake Shake

Day 9: A Song That You Can Dance To

I’m going to slightly modify this one since it’s too broad as it is. There are pretty much infinity songs that I can dance to depending on what you mean by ‘dance.’ Slowdancing or slamdancing? Skanking or bootyshaking? Break? Interpretive? (OK, I can't do those last two.)

In the name of fun I’m going to assume this means bootyshaking. And not just a song that you CAN dance to. A song that you HAVE to dance to. A song whose beats conjure an irresistible urge to break-it-down. A song that, as if by magic, instantly forces feet to step and hips to shake, resulting in the inevitable busting of moves.


Now, before I get into the song I picked please feel free to peruse this Grooveshark playlist of songs that didn’t quite make the cut.

And now the main attraction:

I could talk about how it's the flourishes that make this song, from the short hits of keyboard to the splashes of smooth saxophone to Michael's velvet "heee hee" to the sexy blues guitar riffs that pick up towards the end. But I'm not a liar. Everyone knows that the lifeblood of this song, the engine that makes it move is one of the hottest bass lines ever written. Everything else balances on its ever-grooving shoulders. Remove any other element and this song is still a hit that makes your internal organs beat in time. Take away that bass and it's a nigh-unrecognizable shell of itself.

There are a lot of great dance songs out there, but, as is his wont, in this vein Michael Jackson created a song that stands tallest among giants. In the Highlander universe of dance songs in which there can be only one "Billie Jean" has beheaded all other challengers and absorbed their power. "Billie Jean" defeated M. Bison on level 7 difficulty without losing any health. "Billie Jean" successfully played DragonForce - "Through the Fire and Flames" on expert without missing a note on its first try. If a group did a routine on America's Best Dance Crew to "Billie Jean" they would lose because the judges would pick the song as the winner. Chuck Norris tried writing the best dance song ever and just ended up with "Billie Jean" again.

It's the first, last and everything.