I was raised largely on a platform of indoctrination to the music of Michael Jackson, David Bowie, and Billy Joel.

While Bowie and Joel were my mother’s favorites, MJ was my own pick – entirely on the basis of Thriller.  If the 80s had YouTube I would have been on it doing my toddler version of the “Thriller” dance.

I wound up with all of the Jackson 5’s hits encoded in my DNA. I don’t know how that happened; I don’t remember owning any of their LPs. Nonetheless, when any one of them starts playing it evokes a physical and emotional rush that at makes me want to jump up and down and cry at the same time.

“Blame It On the Boogie” was part of the Jacksons’ Destiny album sessions before Michael recorded his first major solo hit, Off the Wall (a gem overshadowed by Thriller). Along with “Shake Your Body” (another all-time fav), it’s disco infused with the sheer joy of Michael’s aerobic, still-adolescent vocals, and backed by the assembled Jackons, who were a robotically perfect backing choir long before auto-tune was even invented.

To this day, very few songs not by Madonna can get me on the dancefloor faster than something by the Jackson 5, and “Blame It On the Boogie” is high on that list.