Career
The song was co-authored by Mick"s brother David Jackson and Elmar Krohn, and produced by Sylvester Levay. Jackson recorded his version first and The Jacksons" management team picked up the song at Midem, the music industry trade fair in Cannes, where it was offered to them by Mick Jackson"s publisher without Jackson"s knowledge. Due to a delay at the pressing plant which was producing Mick Jackson"s single, in the United Kingdom the two versions were released within weeks of each other.
The press at the time enjoyed the similarity in the names and release coincidence, calling the situation "The Battle of the Boogie" as the two records jockeyed for chart positions.
Radio stations got on the battle bandwagon. British Broadcasting Corporation Radio One only played The Jacksons" version, Capital Radio only played Mick’s single.
The music press was equally split. Mick Jackson"s original peaked at #15 and The Jacksons peaked at #8 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart.
Mick Jackson"s subsequent 1979 release, "Weekend" was released in the same week as The Jacksons" second single "Destiny".
The songs entered the charts on the same day, peaking at 38 and 39 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart respectively, and both "Michael Jacksons" appearing on the same edition of Top of The Pops. "Weekend" spent eight weeks on the chart. Thus equalling his earlier single"s tenure, and also avoiding the one-hit wonder tag.
Jackson released three albums - Weekend (1979 - Atlantic Records), Step Inside My Rainbow (1980 - Columbia Broadcasting System Records) and "Square Deal" (1982).
He has worked with many artists such as David Knopfler, Eric Burdon, Lisa Stansfield and Barry Manilow. In 2010, filmmaker Patrick Nation made a Channel 4 documentary about Jackson, entitled The Other Michael Jackson: Battle of the Boogie.
The documentary was co-written and presented by Mick"s son Sam Peter Jackson, and it led to Mick Jackson"s 1978 album, Weekend, (which featured the original version of "Blame it on the Boogie") being re-released (for download on iTunes) for the first time in thirty years by Demon Music. To promote the documentary, Jackson gave a rare television interview to British Broadcasting Corporation Breakfast.