Songfacts®:

• "The House is Rockin'" is the first track of In Step, Stevie Ray Vaughan's fourth and final studio album with Double Trouble. Vaughan would record one more album in collaboration with his brother Jimmie before the end.
  
  Double Trouble is Stevie Ray Vaughan's backing band, as Crazy Horse is to Neil Young. They comprise Tommy Shannon on bass, Chris Layton on drums and Reese Wynans on keyboards.
• The title is a play on a popular bumper sticker of the 1970s, which said, "If this van's a-rockin', don't bother knockin'." You see, vans were all the rage in the early '70s, and part of their allure was that they could be used as an impromptu place for a "quickie." Many drivers tricked out their vans with ridiculous carpeting and a bed, as if it were a bachelor pad on wheels. Thus, the bumper sticker implies that if the vehicle is parked and moving back and forth on its suspension, there's obviously some romantic activity going on in there and you shouldn't disturb them. Amongst many cultural references, comedian George Carlin on the stand-up album What Am I Doing in New Jersey? once expressed his disdain of vans, with the words: "You want to haul lumber rent a truck. You want to get laid, go to motel like an evangelist would, for God's sakes!"
• Vaughan wrote this song, and a few others on the album, with fellow Texas songwriter Doyle Bramhall. Vaughan was in a band with Bramhall called The Nightcrawlers when they were starting out, and the two began collaborating on songs when Stevie Ray launched his solo career.
• One of the most prominent soundtrack uses of "The House Is Rockin'" is in the 1996 film Multiplicity. It plays while Michael Keaton (and his clones) work on fixing up their house in the first step towards getting his life (and his cloned selves) back together. It was also used in an episode of the TV series Supernatural.
• The album title In Step is a reference to Vaughan's recovery from substance abuse issues and successful completion of rehab. But of course, it's also handy to refer to dancing steps - fitting given this very dance-able tune.