Marshall Jefferson recalls making “Move Your Body” as Jengi remixes it

Some 40 years after its release, Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body” has been remixed by Dutch DJ and producer Jengi, with the new version available exclusively on Amazon Music. To mark the release, Jefferson told 909originals how the track often called the house music anthem came together.

He first thought of it while working the graveyard shift at the post office, typing numbers into machines from midnight to 8:30am. He says it was the first house track with piano as the lead instrument, inspired by Elton John’s playing on “Bennie and the Jets” and by the way fuzz guitar led rock songs.

Jefferson recorded at slow speeds, around 40 to 60 beats per minute, then played the parts back at 120 or faster. Admitting he had no musical training, he credits technology: his Yamaha QX1 sequencer could lengthen every note on a track at once, which he used to make the sped-up parts sound human. Curtis McClain wrote the lyrics, “Gotta have house music”, in about 40 seconds.

The first reactions were lukewarm. At the club Sheba Baby, DJs Mike Dunn, Hugo Hutchinson and Tyree Cooper called it “nice”, as did Joe Smooth and K-Alexi outside the Music Box. Then Ron Hardy played it six times in a row inside the Music Box, and the crowd went wild.

Marshall Jefferson is an American house DJ and record producer, born in Chicago in 1959. His most recent studio album is “Day of the Onion” (1996), according to MusicBrainz.