Jack Your Body

"Jack Your Body"
Single by Steve "Silk" Hurley
from the album Hold on to Your Dream
Released	1986
Genre	Chicago house
Length	3:13
Label	Underground
Songwriter(s)	Steve Hurley
Producer(s)	Steve "Silk" Hurley
Steve "Silk" Hurley singles chronology
"I Can't Turn Around" (1986) "Jack Your Body" (1986) "Let the Music Take Control" (1987)
Alternative cover
2010 re-release cover

"Jack Your Body" is a song by American music producer Steve "Silk" Hurley, originally released as a single in 1986. It was included on the album Hold on to Your Dream (1987) under the alias J.M. Silk. The song topped the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in January 1987.

History

One of the landmark records in the history of house music,^[1] "Jack Your Body" was composed and produced by Hurley. The title refers to jacking, an ecstatic dance style that emerged within the Chicago house scene since the early to mid 1980s. The song climbed to number 25 on the US Billboard Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart and number 37 on the 12-inch Singles Sales chart. The song became a hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number one for two weeks in January 1987.^[2]

"Jack Your Body" was the first UK number one single to achieve the majority of its sales on the 12-inch format. Under the chart rules in place at the time, the 12-inch sales should not have counted toward the song's chart position, as its running time exceeded the then-current 25-minute limit.^[3] However, the 25-minute rule was not enforced, since the running time was not brought to the chart compilers' attention until the record was already at number one.

Hurley never promoted the track, as he was "under pressure" to complete the Hold on to Your Dream album.^[4] He did not know that the track had reached number one on the UK Singles Chart—when his manager mentioned, in passing, that the track had hit number one in the UK, he assumed this meant on the UK Dance Chart.^[4] In spite of the song's success, Hurley has had no further solo singles whatsoever (under his own name) on the UK Singles Chart. "Jack Your Body" was re-released, each time with new remixes, in 1987, 1992, 2000, and 2009.

Impact and legacy

In 1996, Oliver Bondzio of German electronic music duo Hardfloor chose "Jack Your Body" as one of the tunes that changed his life, saying, "This was one of the first tracks I heard being played in Checkers, a club in Düsseldorf I went to for three years. It had the best sound system and DJs. It was the first to play house and acid house tunes. I like the way they sampled the 'jack' in the old skool way. You can't forget this one."^[5]

In 2014, Rolling Stone featured it in their "20 Best Chicago House Records" list, adding, "Arriving a few years into house's existence, Hurley's "Jack Your Body" came out swinging with unapologetic experimentation — its Roland-centered electronic spine helping to touch off the acid house revolution in the U.K. Here was something far removed from disco's orchestral feel and entirely new. It was ultimately the first house song to hit Number One in the U.K."^[6] In 2020, The Guardian ranked the song number 50 in their list of "The 100 greatest UK No 1s",^[7] writing, "It's hard to imagine now how strange and alien 'Jack Your Body' sounded in 1987. Other early house hits had at least come with a song or a hook attached, but this had neither: it may be the most minimal No 1 of all time. It isn't by any stretch of the imagination the best Chicago had to offer in 1987: as a signal of a vast shift in the way pop music sounded, it's unbeatable." In 2024, Classic Pop ranked "Jack Your Body" number 10 in their list of "Top 20 80s House Hits".^[8]

Track listings

• 1986 7-inch single

1. "Jack Your Body" (edit) – 3:13
2. "Dub Your Body" (edit) – 3:35

• 1986 12-inch single

1. "Jack Your Body" (Club Your Body) – 6:50
2. "Jack Your Body" (Dub Your Body) – 6:25
3. "Jack Your Body" (Home Made) – 6:34
4. "Steve 'Silk' Hurley" – 7:03

• 1987 12-inch single

1. "Jack Your Body" (Monty 'House' remix) – 6:29 (remixed by Simon Harris)
2. "Jack Your Body" (Club Your Body) – 6:50
3. "Jack Your Body" (Dub Your Body) – 6:25

• "Back to Jack Your Body '92" (12-inch and CD single)

1. "Back ro Jack Your Body" (remix) – 4:52 (remixed by Burger Industries)
2. "Jack Your Body" (Def-mix) – 6:47 (remixed by Burger Industries)
3. "Jack Your Body" (Ambient-remix) – 9:38 (remixed by The Bionaut)

• "Jack Your Body 2000" (12-inch single 1)

1. "Jack Your Body" (original 1986 mix—digitally re-produced & edited) – 9:17
2. "Jack Your Body" (Silk's Y2K mix) – 6:56
3. "Jack Your Body" (Silk's Y2K dub) – 5:31

• "Jack Your Body 2000" (12-inch single 2)

1. "Jack Your Body" (Jazz Yo Body dub)
2. "Jack Your Body" (Peppi & Kokki remix)
3. "Jack Your Body" (Kidd's Classic remix)
4. "Jack Your Body" (Swing Yo Body)

• "Jack Your Body" (2009 digital release)

1. "Jack Your Body" (Hardfloor radio edit) – 3:15
2. "Jack Your Body" (Hardfloor remix) – 6:52
3. "Jack Your Body" (Ambient remix by Burger Industries)^[9] – 5:03
4. "Jack Your Body" (original club mix) – 6:53

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1986–1987) Peak position Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[10] 25 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[11] 18 Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)[12] 9 Ireland (IRMA)[13] 1 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[14] 14 Netherlands (Single Top 100)[15] 16 UK Singles (OCC)[2] 1 US 12-inch Singles Sales (Billboard)[16] 37 US Dance/Disco Club Play (Billboard)[17] 25 West Germany (GfK)[18] 14

Year-end charts Chart (1987) Position UK Singles (OCC)[19] 38

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[20]	Silver	250,000^^
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

See also

• Lists of UK Singles Chart number ones

References

1. Rogers, Jude (19 January 2017). "How Jack Your Body began house music's squelching electronic revolution". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
2. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
3. "Jack Your Body" was released on a 12-inch single that was over 25 minutes long, exceeding the maximum time for a record to be classified as a single. The track should have been classified as an album instead; therefore, during the two weeks it spent at number one, "Reet Petite" should have been number one for a fifth week and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" would have become number one a week earlier.""Record-Breakers and Trivia: Quirks of the Number One Position". everyHit.com. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
4. "How Jack Your Body began house music's squelching electronic revolution". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
5. "Jock On His Box" (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). 4 May 1996. p. 5. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
6. Castillo, Arielle; Dayal, Geeta; Harris, Keith (2 April 2014). "20 Best Chicago House Records". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 9 June 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
7. Beaumont-Thomas, Ben; Petridis, Alexis; Snapes, Laura (5 June 2020). "The 100 greatest UK No 1s: 100-1". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
8. O'Brien, Jon (2 May 2024). "Top 20 80s House Hits". Classic Pop. Retrieved 11 November 2024.
9. This version is an edit of the 1992 "Ambient Remix" originally credited to The Bionaut. Burger Industries and The Bionaut are both pseudonyms of Jörg Burger.
10. "Steve %22Silk%22 Hurley – Jack Your Body" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
11. "Steve %22Silk%22 Hurley – Jack Your Body" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
12. "European Hot 100 Singles". Music & Media. Vol. 4, no. 10. 14 March 1987. p. 18.
13. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Jack Your Body". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
14. "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 11, 1987" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
15. "Steve %22Silk%22 Hurley – Jack Your Body" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
16. "Dance Singles Sales". Billboard. 31 May 1986. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
17. "Dance Club Songs". Billboard. 16 August 1986. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
18. "Offiziellecharts.de – Steve "Silk" Hurley – Jack Your Body" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
19. "Gallup Year End Charts 1987: Singles". Record Mirror. 23 January 1988. p. 36.
20. "British single certifications – Steve 'Silk' Hurley – Jack Your Body". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 22 July 2023.

External links

• Steve "Silk" Hurley on AllMusic
• J.M. Silk on AllMusic