This 1976 Funky No. 1, Which Holds Unique Record For Its Song Title, Topped The Charts 50 Years Ago Today

What is there to do when a song exhorts, "Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake / Shake your booty" but exactly that? It helps if the one proposing said booty-shaking backs up their request with some fine and funky beats. Thankfully, KC and the Sunshine Band did exactly this in 1976 when "(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.  

KC and the Sunshine Band hit U.S. mainstream disco success pretty early on in the mid-'70s, putting out four No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits from 1975 to '77. Disco — short for discotheque — had evolved from 1930s dance music in Germany and France into full-on club music in the '60s before arriving in New York City's underground dance scene in the early '70s. KC and the Sunshine Band founding members Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch were way down in Miami, Florida, working at T.K. Records at the time (who eventually signed the band), and wanted to follow suit. The duo assembled a crew in 1973, infused their songwriting with some local musical inspiration, and released their debut "Do It Good" the very next year in 1974. 

KC and the Sunshine Band's second, self-titled album completely blew up with songs that took over the summer of '75. Then came "(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty" from the band's third album, "Part 3." Like Donna Summer's later "Bad Girls" from 1979, it sounds even funkier today. It's all about attitude mixed with a highly danceable groove.

"(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty" is a nigh-perfect dance song on all fronts. Firstly, you got the shakin', then you got the booty, which is often good for shakin'. The lyrics don't get much more complex than that, as about 85% of all the words in the song are "shake," and the non-shake words talk about getting on the dance floor. No doubt this helped the song take off, though. You can switch off, live in the moment, lose yourself on the dance floor, and maybe bark, "shake, shake, shake," when the line hits. The Bee Gees echoed this purpose in songs like "You Should Be Dancing," which ought to be required listening for younger generations. Such songs contain an uncomplicated, lighthearted, fun-focused clarity of purpose that's hard to find nowadays.

But, it's the music of "(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty" that really does the job. The call-and-response trumpet bit carries the chorus, with trumpet blasts answering the "shake, shake, shake" line, back and forth. The song's plucked, syncopated bass line rolls underneath typically disco, shimmering, clean guitar shucka-shuckas. And of course, there's the tambourine, which indeed does not stop shaking across the whole song. 

The structure of "(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty" also begs to be repeated, much like its short, three-minute length. The music goes back and forth between two chords during the verse, ascends through the chorus, then settles back into those two chords. In other words, the song's music matches its clarity of purpose point-for-point, which makes lines like "Don't fight your feelings, give yourself a chance" sound sincere and legitimately encouraging. No wonder the song reached No. 1.