31 January 1987
Jackie Wilson’s ‘Reet Petite’ demonstrates an important caveat of number one single status: it’s not a reliable snapshot of pop music. No one was stanning for Jackie Wilson in 1987. Those of us who were addicted to Top Of The Pops and Smash Hits at the time had a far wider and deeper perspective; rap, dance and electronic music in 1987 had a mainstream prominence that percolated all the way down to my small child brain, even if it rarely bubbled right up to the very top of the charts.
So, ‘Jack Your Body’ at number one in Ireland and the UK wasn’t a surprise, just an overdue yet accurate reflection of the charts as a whole. As a bonus, this happens to be one of the most influential dance and electronic records ever: on this side of the Atlantic it’s pretty much the Rosetta Stone of what we know as the Chicago house sound. You can hear its mix of 808 hi-hat, soul-inflected bassline and strong vocals echoing through vast swathes of chart-land in the subsequent years. Best of all, it still sounds as fresh as tomorrow’s bread.
As well as enjoying ‘Jack Your Body’ for the great record it is, I’m happy it gives house and dance music a well-deserved place in the story of our number one singles (even if strictly speaking most of its sales were of the 12-inch mix that ran well over the stipulated time limit for what defined a ‘single’ as opposed to a ‘long-player’, meaning only the seven-inch version should have been counted and would therefore have barely put ‘Jack Your Body’ into the respective UK and Ireland top tens, but someone in 1987 chart HQ forgot to enforce this and here we are).
