Boogie Oogie Oogie by A Taste of Honey

Album: A Taste of Honey (1978)

Charted: 3 1

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Songfacts®:

The band got the idea for this song when they played a show at a military base. It was a tough crowd, and the audience was not responding to their songs. Bass player Janice Marie Johnson admonished them from the stage: "If you're thinking that you're too cool to boogie, we've got news for you. Everyone here tonight must boogie and you are no exception to the rule."

Afterwards in her hotel room, Johnson wrote down the line, thinking it would be a good song lyric. It was: The single went on to sell over 2 million copies.
A Taste of Honey were a US R&B group formed in Los Angeles in 1972 by Janice Marie Johnson (bass/vocals), Hazel Payne (vocals/guitar), Perry Kibble (keyboards) and Donald Johnson (drums). They won the 1978 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, beating out Elvis Costello and The Cars. A Taste Of Honey had one other hit: Their cover of Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" went to #3 in the US.
Johnson came up with the famous bass intro when she was warming up before the recording session, unaware that she was being recorded. She wrote the song with keyboard player Perry Kibble.
Johnson felt there was a chauvinistic undercurrent to the audience's cold response to the female-fronted act. "We were knocking ourselves out but getting no reaction from the crowd," she explained in The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits. "In fact, they seemed to have contempt for two women who thought they could front a band."
Larkin Arnold, the record executive who signed the group to Capitol Records, thought the song title was too simple and tried to convince Johnson to change it. "But he also suggested that I take those African braids out of my hair because it was too ethnic and so I listened to no one," she noted in The Billboard Book Of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits.

But Johnson was grateful to Arnold for making sure the group retained the publishing rights to their big hit.
Johnson almost wrecked her 1967 Volvo when she heard "Boogie Oogie Oogie" over the airwaves for the first time. "I almost had an accident," she confirmed. "I ran a red light, I was so excited. I was trying to pull over but I didn't realize the light was red and should have stayed where I was."
Prior to the disco era of the '70s, the word boogie often referred to the boogie-woogie piano rhythm that was popular in blues tunes from the 1920s to the 1940s and influenced other musical genres. When acts like Kool And The Gang ("Jungle Boogie"), Heatwave ("Boogie Nights"), Earth, Wind & Fire ("Boogie Wonderland"), and A Taste Of Honey got hold of the word, it became a popular descriptor for dancing to disco hits.
Burger King used this in a 1999 commercial advertising their 99-cent double cheeseburger. The tagline noted the deal was "perfect for when you gotta boogie." In this context, boogie was a hip way to say you had to get going, so according to the fast-food giant, swinging by BK for a cheap burger was saving on time and money.
This was used in these TV shows:

Love & Death ("The Huntress" - 2023)
Music Box ("Mr. Saturday Night" - 2021)
Pose ("Life's A Beach" - 2019)
The Deuce ("What Big Ideas" - 2018)
Scandal ("Any Questions?" - 2013)
White Heat ("The Personal Is Political" - 2012)
Everybody Hates Chris ("Everybody Hates Rejection" - 2006)
My Name Is Earl ("White Lie Christmas" - 2005)
The King Of Queens ("Road Rayge" - 1998)
WKRP In Cincinnati ("Bailey's Show" - 1978; "The Creation Of Venus" - 1982)

And these movies:

Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool (2017)
The Nice Guys (2016)
The Hooker With A Heart Of Gold (2010)
Canvas (2006)
Screwed (2000)
Mystery Men (1999)
Contact (1997)
At Close Range (1986)

Comments: 13

The Lady That Sings For Blues from Heyheyhey, HeyvilleToby Van Buren from New York, Ny:

That really WAS a nice story and memory, I (quite unintentionally) visualized parts of it as I read it!!!!! GOD bless you my friend, in The Lord God Jesus Christ 's love and in His name friend!! Ciao!

Speaking of Big Band, I actually was just listening to ONE song from that era just now!!! Maybe right before this song!!!

-The Lady that Sings for Blues
Melinda from AustraliaI so love this song. Glad to see here I’m not the only one who gets real nostalgic when they hear this song. Toby I get ya.
1978 what a year.
For me, it brings back memory’s of High School Discos. And sunbaking in my parents backyard with my transistor radio.
No one cared about skin cancer then.
U just sunbathed ..or ‘sun baked’ as we called it.
The aim was to lie in the sun for ages.
Life was way simpler then.
One thing I do remember about this song. It was the 1st time I rang a radio station . It was a guessing competition. And the answer was this song, Boogie Oogie Oogie.
I felt so stupid sayin that on radio.
It was new. But I knew it was a really solid good track. And was obsessed in it. I was annoyed we didn’t own a copy of the single.
Letrice from New York, NyFrom reading a Pandora bio, I learned that this tune, which I've loved for years, is not only sung by ladies, but played by them too!! I do have one correction for the above information. It was Janice Marie Johnson(vocals, bassist), not Hazel Payne (vocals, guitarist) that created the catch line that has since become the beginning line of Boogie Oogie Oogie and Janice sang lead . I learned that from a YouTube interview with Janice Marie. Now that I know what I'm listening to, I can really tell. If you listen close, You hear Janice sing when it goes into the bass solo, "...listen to my bass play". I'm in love with this tune even the more....very inspiring. I just thought I'd make that point.
Thanks.
Camille from Toronto, OhYes, the famous bass intro: muy fabuloso!!!!! Combine that with the perfect vocals and chorus line: We gonna boogie oogie oogie till you just can't boogie no mo'!!!!! And then the bass throughout. One of the best disco songs of the era, and still fun to listen to now.
Dodge from Casper, WyThe band is named after the Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass song and album, "A Taste Of Honey". Ironically, the band was signed to Capitol and not Alpert's co-founded A & M label.
Mark from Monterey, CaBoogie Nights was by Heatwave
Reed from New Ulm, MnLet's not forget "Boogie Nights"...is that by the same artist Taste of Honey?
Jane from Austin, TxToby,
That was a very touching comment/story about your dad. Thanks for sharing.
John from This City, AustraliaGet down boogie oogie oogie.I just love it and you too.
Donna from College Station, TxThis song was No. 2 Oct 1978 Pop Singles list, source Billboard list of hits from 10 years ago Oct 8, 1988
Toby Van Buren from New York, NyI always liked "Boogie Oogie Oogie" (even though I am really a BIG BAND fan), from the time it came out, but as of April 27, 1979, it had much more meaning to me, as even yet today. Let me explain:

Well, first of all, I must tell you my dad died September 9, 1987, age 77 years and 77 days exactly - eight and a half years after April 27, 1979, and "Boogie Oogie Oogie" is one of two songs I will always remember him by - the other one - from "Over the Top", with Sylvester Stallone - "Meet Me Halfway"? I think that's the name of the song.

Okay. My dad lived on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico (the island of the Navy controversey), from 1978 to his death in 1987. From 1976 to 1978, he lived on the island of Tortola, British Virgin Islands. I need to say this before I go on re "Boogie Oogie Oogie".

April 27, 1979 was my second trip down to visit my dad in the Islands. We met in San Juan, PR at the main airport there, then flew in an old DC-3 prop to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. (My dad wanted to take me to Tortola the next day for me to see where he lived, meet an old drinking pal friend - Harry, etc. We then went to the Pineapple Beach area at the northeast end of St. Thomas, where my cousin had a condo the two of us could stay at. We had a few Heinekens, tunafish sandwiches, got rather drunk!

We took a walk down to the beach, sat out in beachchairs along the Caribbean, the waves lapping the shoreline, keels in evidence in the waters. I turned on my cassette tape recorder, recording our conversation. I was glad I did that, as I still play it today, over and over. It's really rather funny, both of us being drunk, carrying on conversation, laughing, etc., remembering old times, people.

Suddenly in the background, coming from a restaurant with an outdoor section, dance floor (no one on the dance floor yet - perhaps two couples, later), etc., was the sound of music, played by a combo, an organist, etc. It was very 'island' like - of the Caribbean. Maybe we heard three or four numbers, but when they played, "Boogie Oogie Oogie" the way they did, one of the longest versions of it I'd ever heard, it just went so well with everything - the 'scene' - the coming night, temperatures just right, I dressed in shorts, a sleeveless shirt - my dad more or less the same, minus the sleeveless shirt. It was so good, it is still good today!

This is why I love this song so much - "Boogie Oogie Oogie".

As for "Meet Me Halfway"? In 1987, after I'd visited my dad for the last time in April (he died September 9th, as I told you), I went to see the movie "Over The Top" at a San Juan, PR movie theater. I was thinking about my dad, the lovely visit I had with him, our staring at one another for the longest time, as the boat pulled away from the Vieques dock (I decided to take the boat back to Fajardo, then from there a publico and bus to the airport). Did we somehow know it was the last visit? "Meet Me Halfway", above all the other numbers in "Over The Top", stayed with me, my associating it with that last visit with my dad. It was a kind of halfway visit, since I'd not returned to the Caribbean since.

Sorry this was a LONG comment! Hope it's accepted!
Aj from Cleveland, GaI think this was their biggest hit
Joe from Oswego, NyA Taste of Honey won best new artist, in 1978, over Elvis Costello.

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