Party Rock Anthem

Label

will.i.am Music Group

Genre

Electropop

Media Type

AC

Composer(s)

David Listenbee;Stefan Gordy;Skyler Gordy;Peter Schroeder

Entered Chart

Feb 12, 2011

Peak Date

Jul 16, 2011

Released

January 25, 2011

Recorded

Late 2009–2010

Catalog #

Party Rock/will.i.am/Cherrytree Digital

This club banger is a single by the Los Angeles Electro-Hop duo LMFAO. The song was released on January 25, 2011 via Interscope Records. The song spotlights shuffling, which LMFAO's Redfoo told Billboard magazine is part of Sorry For Party Rocking's focus on dance in general. "Before we just kind of partied and had some personal moves," he noted, "but now there's dances that are out there that people are doing and shuffling is one that really caught my eye and it felt so good when I was doing it, so we just kind of made that song about shuffling." The track features singer Lauren Bennett from the international girl group Paradiso Girls and newcomer GoonRock. LMFAO previously did a remix for GoonRock's track "We Came Here to Party." The English-born Bennett took part in the UK version of X Factor back in 2006 as part of a duo called Fusion who were dropped at the Boot Camp stage. Her connection with the party rock movement stems from her association with Paradiso Girls, an ill-fated attempt by Jimmy Iovine to create a European spin–off of his other girl group The Pussycat Dolls. According to Redfoo, the original chorus lyrics were, "I feel it in my soul tonight, everybody's gonna have a good time." Redfoo is the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, so he knows that getting a lyric just right can make a huge difference in a song, something he may have learn in his time hanging out with Smokey Robinson. Thinking of the song as something you'd hear when you walk into a party, he changed the lyric to "Party rock is in the house tonight, everybody just have a good time." "The 'Just' was key," said Redfoo. "I made it a command, to focus people on what to do now that we're here together. Our lyrics are very calculated, even if they appear simple." GoonRock (Jamahl Listenbee), who co-wrote and co-produced this song, is a childhood friend of Redfoo and was also in his late 30s when the song hit. He says when they started working on the song, it was intended for Flo Rida, but they decided to record it as LMFAO. Says GoonRock: "Even though it was for another artist (Flo Rida), by the time we realized that it was gonna be for us we really did sit and say, 'let's change the world.' Now 'change the world' is probably too big for what this song is, it's really just a feel good song that everybody can get into, but that's what we said - 'let's change the world. Let's do something that will make everything crazy and make everyone feel good in the club. Let's just do the best s--t we can do.' That energy is what we went into it with and it really carried through throughout the song. Every part was paid attention to. We wanted to take the listener on a ride. We wanted to do something great." The song's music video is a take on the 2002 British zombie movie 28 Days Later in which Redfoo and Sky Blu wake from a party induced coma to find the world possessed to dance to this song. The director Mickey Finnegan explained that, "The concept of the video, there's been an epidemic, the world has gone crazy, as soon as the song came out, everyone got possessed and all they want to do is to shuffle, everyone is a shuffler." Report this ad This was the first song with the word "anthem" in its title to reach the top 10 of the Hot 100. The previous best charting anthem tune was "Player's Anthem" by Junior M.A.F.I.A., which peaked at #15 in 1995. Three weeks after it reached the top tier of the chart, James Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem" jumped from #23 to #9 to become the second title sporting the word 'anthem' to reach the top 10. LMFAO had been hanging around the charts for a few years before this song hit it big. In 2009, they hit #51 with "I'm In Miami Trick" and #55 with "La La La." The next year, they made #31 with "Gettin' Over You," a collaboration with David Guetta, Chris Willis and Fergie. Redfoo told Digital Spy he and SkyBlu weren't surprised at "Party Rock"'s success. He said: "We made a decision for that to be the first single from the album for the very reason that we thought it could be a number one song. It's a song that is quite unique as it's a party track that actually talks about how to party. It's like an instruction to dance. We were excited about it when we first finished it, especially as it took over year to make." This was only the second Hot 100 chart-topper to sport the word "party" in its title. For the first to do so, we have to go back to June 1st and 8th 1963 when Lesley Gore celebrated two weeks at #1 with "It's My Party." The song was declared by Billboard magazine to be their 2011 song of the summer. Billboard's Songs of the Summer chart ranks the most popular songs based on chart performance from Memorial Day through Labor Day. "We created a tool for people to use to get hyped up at their party, on their boat, at the club, at the gym, etc. People love it... it feels amazing!" Redfoo told Billboard upon hearing the news. "Because of how hard we worked on mixing the record and the dedication that went into the video, it was clear from the beginning that our goal was to take the party rock sound to number one." LMFAO were the first duo to top the Songs of the Summer chart since 1996 when another dance anthem, Los Del Rio's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" was the seasonal leader. The song was the best-selling song on the UK version of iTunes in 2011. Adele's "Someone Like You" finished second with Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" in third place. Worldwide, this was the second-best-selling single of 2011, following "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele. The video marks the first time Redfoo and his LMFAO partner SkyBlu used a choreographer. He acknowledged to Billboard that, "now I'm definitely more conscious of how I'm dancing. But it's not, like, super choreography moves. We're not competing with Chris Brown or anything like that." The song's party lasted 68 weeks on the Hot 100 - the longest ever residence by a song that hit #1. Only Jason Mraz's #6-peaking "I'm Yours" (76 weeks, 2008-09) and LeAnn Rimes' #2 hit "How Do I Live" (69 weeks, 1997-98) had spent more time on the tally. The song had a very interesting chart run. Released on January 25, 2011, the song first appeared on the Hot 100 on February 12 at #78. It dropped out the next week, then returned in April to the lower reaches of the chart. As the video (released March 8) picked up steam, the song slowly rose up the chart, finally peaking at #1 on July 16. The song's 47-week drop from #1 until it fell out of the Hot 100 broke the previous record of 44 weeks descending from the top spot set by Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply" in 1998. The song contains the iconic phrase, "Everyday I'm shufflin'," in the chorus, which Rick Ross claimed is an unauthorised interpolation of the lyric, "Everyday I'm hustlin,'" from his 2006 single, "Hustlin'." The Maybach Music Group bawse, along with Jermaine "Mayne Zayne" Jackson (no, not that one), filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against LMFAO in which they claimed that despite the slight change it constitutes "an unauthorized derivative work." The suit also cited the numerous and lucrative licensing opportunities the song generated in TV shows, video games and commercials, as well as LMFAO's clothing line, Party Rock Clothing, which features the phrase on T-shirts and other clothing items. Ross has some experience with copyright infringement lawsuits. The rapper, born William Roberts II, took his stage name from the drug kingpin "Freeway" Ricky Ross, who sued over the appropriation. The original Ross lost the suit after years of appeal. After two years of legal wrangling, the judge decided to dismiss the entire case altogether. According to TMZ.com, the judge reportedly found Ross' copyright applications, "inconsistent and incomplete."

Party Rock
Yeah
Woo
Let's go

Party rock is in the house tonight
Everybody just have a good time (yeah)
And we gon' make you lose your mind (woo)
Everybody just have a good time (clap)
Party rock is in the house tonight
Everybody just have a good time (I can feel it, baby)
And we gon' make you lose your mind (yeah)
We just wanna see you
Shake that

In the club, party rock
Looking for your girl? She on my jock, huh
Non-stop when we in the spot
Booty moving weight like she on the block (woo)
Where the drank? I gots to know
Tight jeans, tattoo, 'cause I'm rock and roll
Half-black, half-white, domino
Gainin' money, Oprah dough

Yo, I'm running through these hoes like Drano
I got that devilish flow, Rock and Roll, no halo, we party rock
Yeah, that's the crew that I'm reppin'
On the rise to the top, no Led in our Zeppelin (hey)

Party rock is in the house tonight
Everybody just have a good time (yeah)
And we gon' make you lose your mind
Everybody just have a good time (let's go)
Party rock is in the house tonight
Everybody just have a good time (I can feel it, babe)
And we gon' make you lose your mind
We just wanna see you
Shake that

Every day I'm shufflin'
Shufflin', shufflin'

Step up fast and be the first girl to make me throw this cash
We gettin' money don't be mad, now stop, hatin' is bad
One more shot for us, another round
Please fill up my cup, don't mess around
We just wanna see, you shake it now
Now you home with me, you're naked now

Get up, get down, put your hands up to the sound
Get up, get down, put your hands up to the sound
Get up, get down, put your hands up to the sound (woo)
Put your hands up to the sound
Put your hands up to the sound (let's go)
Get up, get up, get up, get up
Get up, get up, get up, get up
Get up, put your hands up to the sound, to the sound (woo)
Put your hands up, put your hands up, put your hands up, put your hands up

Party rock is in the house tonight (put your hands up)
Everybody just have a good time (put your hands up)
And we gon' make you lose your mind (put your hands up)
Everybody just have a good, good, good time

Whoa (put your hands up)
Whoa (I can feel it, babe)
Whoa (put your hands up)
Whoa (put your hands up)

Shake that
Every day I'm shufflin'

Put your, put your (hands up)
Put your, put your (yeah)
Put your, put your (woo)
(Hands up)
Put your, put your (hands up)
Put your hands up
Your hands up
Put your hands up