Songoftheday 1/25/24 - I'll have whatever you have, come on just give it a whirl...

 

 

"Rock Your Body" - Justin Timberlake

from the album Justified (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song comes from Justin Timberlake, whose debut solo album after leaving *NSYNC, Justified, had already spun off a pair of hits with "Like I Love You" and the Britney-bashing "Cry Me A River", with the latter making the top ten in beginning of 2003.  Justin also appeared on rapper Nelly's single "Work It", his first feature appearance, but that stalled down at #68 on Billboard's Hot 100 even though it rose to #7 in the United Kingdom. 

For the third single from Justified Justin went back to the producers of his debut single, the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo). Pharrell foretold his work with Daft Punk in the future with the disco throwback "Rock Your Body". Written with Timberlake, the song's lyrics are nothing but the usual getting down with a lady on the dancefloor. Justin does his best impersonation of Pharrell's phrasing flow, while the Neptunes' production is slick enough to make sure you know it's an homage to disco but completely using current electronic technology. The uncredited female vocals from Vanessa Marquez provide a really nice back and forth in the middle of the song. It's so clear that Justin wanted Michael Jackson to record this (and he really should have, it may have saved that album) but instead solidified his stance as that generation's wanna-be George Michael...

"Rock Your Body" became Justin's second solo top ten hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in May of 2003, while peaking at #45 on their R&B singles chart. On the radio, the song spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart, rose to #24 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 airplay list, and climbed to #7 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The remixes of the track, done by Paul Oakenfold and Sander Kleinenberg, helped it spend a week at #1 on the Dance Club Play chart, and come in at #3 on the new Dance Airplay radio list that started in the summer of 2003. Internationally, the single topped the Australian singles and Canadian radio charts, and reached the top ten in the United Kingdom (#2), Denmark (#3), Croatia (#3), Ireland (#4), New Zealand (#4), The Netherlands (#6), Finland (#6), Belgium (#6 Flanders/#14 Wallonia), and Romania (#6). It also hit #15 in France and #25 in Germany. 

Justin and the album will be back to the series.

(8/10)

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Here's the remix from Paul Oakenfold that leans even heavier on the disco production that helped it top the dance chart...

 

 Justin performed the song on the Kids Choice Awards to screaming (and too young for "rock your body") kids...

Next up, on tour...

Fast forward to 2013 at the iTunes Festival...

At the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016, Justin was the performer during the score-counting phase of the contest, doing this as well as his newer "Can't Fight The Feeling"...

And finally, live in the BBC studios with a nice organic version from 2013...

 

 

Up tomorrow: Emo nu-metal rockers feel wanted.