You Should Be Dancing

The Jacksons cut the song for Destiny in 1978, working from a demo brought to the group by producer Bobby Colomby after it was first heard at MIDEM. It was recorded at the Jacksons’ Hayvenhurst home studio in Encino, California, with Michael Jackson on lead vocals and Don Murray engineering. Released by Epic in 1978 as the lead single from Destiny, it returned the Jacksons to the Hot 100 and helped establish their move toward a more self-directed, disco-driven sound. The single was an international dance hit and reached No. 3 on the U.S. R&B chart. The song became one of the group’s signature recordings and remained a staple of late-1970s disco and pop radio. It has been widely covered and licensed, keeping it present in club, compilation, and nostalgia contexts long after its original release.