50 Classic Records (Staff Picks)

Marshall Jefferson worked at the Chicago Post Office at night when he offered the first real national anthem for House Music – a distinct difference that he just named the song. The song was written in 1985, when Jefferson grabbed some colleagues into his studio, knocked on a track within six hours, and was convinced that he had done something special. His friends disagree, and even the DJ gave him a polite shrug, but Jefferson continued to move forward.

To be fair, pianos rarely (if any) appeared on the house tracks at the time, but inspired by the tickling of Elton John’s subject teeth, Jefferson went all out to “move your body” to bring improvisation into the hard, sweat of piano stings, piano thorns and fast speed percussion. On top of that, singer Curtis McClain sent a joyful command – “Gimme, that chamber music can keep me free! / Lost in family music! Where I want to be!” – It’s double the notification of the arrival of the genre.

Jefferson’s friends saw the place of doubt, DJ Ron Hardy saw the potential and immediately played the song in a scene in the Chicago Music Box to inspire crowd recognition. The local Jocks received a copy, and by the time the official release of the “Family Music Anthem (Move Your Body)” in 1986 at Trax Records (again, in suspicious cases), the craze had spread, with the sound of Chicago houses spreading to the global movement.

Jefferson may have already had the titles of the prescient single “The House Music Inthem,” but the song has certainly won the song. It also didn’t freeze in time: Jefferson’s 2019 collaboration with Solardo brought it roaring back to the festive phase, and 2025’s “Life is Simple (Move Your Body)” introduces it to another generation along with Maesic and Salomé Das.

Forty years, the song still calls and the dance floor still answers enthusiastically. – kr