Songfacts®:

• This slice of electro funk was the big hit for Yarbrough & Peoples, the Dallas-based duo of Cavin Yarbrough and Alisa Peoples. Like Ashford & Simpson, they're a real-life couple - they got married in 1987. "Don't Stop The Music" is about what happens after the last song plays in the club - this couple can go home and make their own music, rockin' it all night long.
• Alisa Peoples wrote this song with their producers, Lonnie Simmons and Jonah Ellis (Simmons was head of their label, Total Experience Records). Ellis came up with the basic track on a Roland CR-78 drum machine and an acoustic guitar.
  
  "I was thinking when people go to a dance and it's over, my idea was that a guy wants to take this girl home and turn her on again," he said in the Billboard Book Of #1 Hits. "It was like a throwaway song."
  
  It became much more than a throwaway when Yarbrough & Peoples recorded it. It became clear they had a hit on their hands.
• The pitched-up vocals ("you don't really wanna stop") were a trend at this time, especially among acts that used electronic instruments on funk tracks, like Roger Troutman's band Zapp. As hip-hop emerged, many rappers used it - check out "Jam On It" by Newcleus.
• The original title was "When The Music Stops," but "Don't Stop The Music" was a popular saying on the dance club scene and there had recently been a movie called Can't Stop the Music starring the Village People. Rihanna used the title for her 2007 hit.
• This song was a huge R&B hit, spending five weeks at #1 on that chart. When it hit the top, it knocked off "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" by The Gap Band, which was also produced by Lonnie Simmons.
• The backup singers are the sisters Julia and Maxine Waters. Along with their brothers Luther and Oren, they sang on many hits of this era, including "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" by Michael Jackson and "Hollywood Nights" by Bob Seger.
• Yarbrough & Peoples landed another #1 R&B hit in 1984 with "Don't Waste Your Time." They later branched into acting and started their own production company, Yarbrough & Peoples Productions.