"Get Up Offa That Thing" is a song written and performed by James Brown. It was released in 1976 as a two-part single (the B-side, titled "Release the Pressure", is a continuation of the same song). It reached #4 on the R&B chart, briefly returning Brown to the Top Ten after a year's absence, and #45 on the Billboard Hot 100.[2][3] Thanks to its chart success, the song became Brown's biggest hit of the late 1970s. The song's lyrics urge listeners to "Get up offa that thing / and dance 'til you feel better." Due to his troubles with the IRS for failure to pay back taxes, Brown credited authorship of the song to his wife Deidre and their daughters, Deanna and Yamma Brown.
Background
According to Brown, the inspiration for "Get Up Offa That Thing" came to him during a club performance in Fort Lauderdale:
The audience was sitting down, trying to do a sophisticated thing, listening to funk. One of the tightest bands they'd ever heard in their lives, and they were sitting. I had worked hard and dehydrated myself and was feeling depressed. I looked out at all those people sitting there, and because I was depressed they looked depressed. I yelled, "Get up offa that thing and dance til you feel better!" I probably meant until I felt better.[4]
Unlike most popular music of the time, which made sophisticated use of multitrack recording and other techniques, "Get Up Offa That Thing" was recorded live in the studio in only two takes.[5]
The horn riffs of this song were sampled extensively in the late-1980s and early-1990s hip-hop scene, and are further sampled in other media including Mario Kart Wii and Pizza Tower.
The song was used as a parody called "Get Up Off that Tail" for the Dance Star Mickey toy.
The song is featured in the 2009 British film Fish Tank.
The song is used in the closing sequence of Paramount's 1996 film Harriet the Spy and Blue Sky Studios' 2005 computer-animated film Robots. In the latter film, Robin Williams' character, Fender, called the song, "a fusion of jazz and funk, it's called junk."[8]
The song is played at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, during the 4th inning to encourage fans to get up and stretch and dance. Similarly, if the game goes 13 innings, the song plays again.
