So, there are a lot of disco songs that begin with the word “get”, clearly.

“Get On The Floor” closes out side 1 of Off The Wall. After a 1-2-3 punch of “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough”, “Rock With You” and “Working Day And Night”, one might think Michael would put the non-stop boogieing on hold for a second. As the late, great Charlie Murphy would say, WRONG. “Get On The Floor” (along with the first song on Side 2, Off The Wall‘s monstrous title track) keeps the party going hard.

Mike co-wrote “Get On The Floor” with Louis Johnson, the bass-playing half of The Brothers Johnson. One listen to this track and it’s easy to determine why Louis’s nickname was “Thunder Thumbs”. The song coasts along on an insistent bass line, goosed by Michael’s insistent vocals. He sounds feverish and passionate, singing at the top of his register for most of the song.

Perhaps most interestingly, Michael sounds like he’s having the time of his fucking life, even breaking into (spontaneous?) laughter as he glides into the last repetitions of the hook. As Michael got older, his music (while still good most of the time) became a lot less loose-limbed and it became more difficult to say something like “man, he sounds like he’s having an absolute blast singing this”. “Get On The Floor”‘s fun is infectious. I dare you to sit down while listening.