The track was recorded at the famed Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis, a facility that had hosted the likes of Prince, Cat Stevens, and Bob Dylan. It was released in March 1980 as the second single from the group's debut album, Mouth to Mouth . The song came in multiple versions: a sprawling 7:50 album version, a 3:59 single edit, and an even shorter version for the music video.
Musical features
The song's legacy, however, is immense. It is widely considered "perhaps the last big hit of the Disco era" and a song that managed to outlast its own genre. Its influence helped bridge disco and synth-pop, shaping the direction of dance music in the early 1980s. Billboard ranked it at No. 15 on its list of the greatest era-defining funk tracks. VH1 placed the song at number 36 in their list of the 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 1980s. It was even highlighted at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland as part of a rotating exhibit dedicated to one-hit wonders. Funkytown