Songfacts®:

• "We're going to dance and have some fun."
  
  That's the directive at the beginning of "Groove Is In The Heart" by Deee-Lite, one of the most spirited and danceable songs of the '90s.
  
  The group's ethos was to "accentuate positivity," which they certainly did on this track. Frontwoman Lady Miss Kier, a spiritual predecessor to Lady Gaga, called it "an alternative to the destruction that all people living on the planet are faced with: the environment, AIDS, social justice. It's important to make some positive music."
• "Dig!" that's the one and only Bootsy Collins with the vocal interjections throughout the song (astronomical!). Collins was a teenager when he joined James Brown's band in 1969; he spent much of the '70s pushing the boundaries of funk in Parliament-Funkadelic and with his offshoot group, Bootsy's Rubber Band.
  
  Deee-Lite got him on board by sending him a demo of the song in 1988. Bootsy loved it, and told them that if they got a record deal, he'd help them out with it. After Deee-Lite signed with Elektra, Bootsy not only kept his promise but brought two friends along: fellow funk-masters Maceo Parker (saxophone) and Fred Wesley (trombone), who gave the song its horn flourishes.
• Deee-Lite emerged from the New York City club scene in the '80s. Lady Miss Kier was born in Youngstown, Ohio and bounced around to different cities before landing in the Big Apple. There she met DJ Dimitry (Dmitry Brill), who came from Ukraine; and DJ Towa Towa (Towa Tei), from Japan. They spent a lot of time in the clubs and formed the group hoping to make music people could dance to while spreading their positive message (Kier and Dimitry were a couple).
  
  "Groove Is In The Heart" was their first single, released in 1990 ahead of their debut album, World Clique. The song quickly caught on in the clubs and went to #1 on the Dance chart in August 1990. MTV put the video in rotation, and radio stations gradually added the song. It reached its Hot 100 peak of #4 in November.
• The rap in the middle is by Q-Tip, a member of A Tribe Called Quest. He has been a guest rapper for many artists, including De La Soul, Mariah Carey, and The Beastie Boys.
• The song is built on the collage of samples - the only live instruments are Fred Wesley's trombone and Maceo Parker's saxophone (Bootsy Collins, one of the great bass players of his time, added vocals but didn't play on the song). Deee-Lite was comprised of two DJs and a singer, so sampling was their specialty. This was 1990, a time when laws surrounding use of samples weren't clear, so they didn't seek permission. Some of the samples that appear in the song include:
  
  "Get Up" by Vernon Burch (1979) - That's where the slide whistle, drums and main groove come from.
  
  "Bring Down the Birds" by Herbie Hancock (1966) - That's the bass, not Bootsy.
  
  The intro section ("We're going to dance...") and the music underneath it were sampled from a 1969 record called Music For Belly Dancing.
  
  It's not clear if or how these and the other samples were later cleared, but Herbie Hancock has a writing credit on the song.
• Deee-Lite had an image to match their funky sound. They wore exaggerated '70s clothes with loud colors, feather boas, and high platform shoes.
• The group got their name from a Cole Porter song called "It's De-Lovely," which is about falling madly in love. They mention that song in the line, "Just de-lovely and delicious."
• This wasn't the only hit from 1990 that first attracted attention in New York City clubs, particularly gay clubs: Madonna's "Vogue" also went mainstream after lots of club play.
• Deee-Lite's next single was "Power Of Love," which also went to #1 on the Dance chart but didn't cross over, stalling at #47 on the Hot 100. By the time they got to work on their next album, Infinity Within in 1992, clearing samples was required, which stifled their creative process. The group released two more albums before breaking up in 1996. Lady Miss Kier moved to London and became a DJ. She moved back to New York in 2005 and a year later started performing again.
• "Groove Is In The Heart" was used on the soundtrack to the 2000 movie Charlie's Angels. It was also used in commercials for Dasani water that started airing during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
• The verse lyrics don't make a lot of sense but work with the groove and carry a vibe. Lines like "My supper dish, my succotash wish" don't carry a narrative but sure are fun to sing.
• In the liner notes for the 2017 reissue of the World Clique album, Lady Miss Kier talked about how the song came together: "I wrote the lyrics for 'Groove Is In The Heart' before I heard the musical loop. Dmitry had a record by Herbie Hancock and I can't remember if he or Towa found the loop, but as soon as I heard it I laid down the melody that was in my head and we all added samples onto it, which I call 'fills.'"
• Bootsy Collins appears in the music video, which was directed by Japanese filmmaker Hiroyuki Nakano and has a very '70s psychedelic vibe. The dancing isn't choreographed - it's the way regular people would dance in clubs. This made it very relatable and helped it stand out from videos by the likes of Paula Abdul, Madonna and Janet Jackson.