Who Are The Robots?: “Dancing Machine” by The Jackson 5

It is fair to say that in 1974 Motown had little idea what to do with, or about, the Jackson 5. In fact one could say that in 1974 Motown had little idea what to do about anything; I recall a doom-laden piece by Bob Edmands in the NME at the time which bandied about words such as “Hubris” and “Nemesis,” while the optimistically-titled Motown Chartbusters Volume 9 included three reissued oldies from the sixties.

Nevertheless “Dancing Machine” is the second consecutive Motown single to appear in this list so they must have remembered how to do something, and indeed the J5’s first US top ten hit since 1971’s unfortunately-titled “Sugar Daddy” – in Britain they had a few more hits, including two top tens with the tune-free “Lookin’ Through The Window” and their bizarre cover of “Doctor My Eyes,” but the hits dried up altogether after 1973 and when they resurfaced in the charts a few years later they had signed to Epic Records and become The Jacksons.

Actually disco suits the group quite well, and fifteen-year-old Michael in particular has a whale of a time with the song’s robotic determinism – witness his exclamatory “She’s geared to really BLOW YOUR MIND!” The mid-song instrumental breakdown reminded Lena of Kraftwerk and the prospect of teenage Michael grooving to Autobahn – which emerged just a few months later – is, in its own logical way, mind-blowing. You can clearly tell where Michael, if nobody else, is going and the “Robot” dance he did on Soul Train spelled that out even more obviously.

Date Record Made Number Two: 18 May 1974

Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 2

Record At Number One: “The Streak” by Ray Stevens

UK Chart Position: None

Other Information: The song was subsequently sampled by many artists, most notably by MC Hammer on "Dancin' Machine" and Justin Timberlake on "Murder." Laura Mvula and Naughty Boy also revisited the song in 2017.

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