Bust A Move

We can thank Young MC for popularizing the phrase "Bust A Move," which means to take action of some kind. The song follows a guy who seems hapless with women, but somehow keeps getting lucky. In the first first, he busts a move by dancing with a girl who shows interest. Later, he considers becoming a monk but meets a girl in a movie theater. At the end of the song, he's the best man at a wedding, and when a bridesmaid shows interest, he gets to bust a different kind of move when she wants to "dance to a different groove." It's all good fun, and it helped make rap music acceptable for a much wider audience.

Flea from The Red hot Chili Peppers played bass on this song and appears in the video, but he didn't reap the rewards. He explained to Bass Player magazine: "I have a bitter taste in my mouth about that, because I feel as though I got ripped off. The bass line I wrote ended up being a major melody of the tune, and I felt I deserved songwriting credit and money because it was a #1 hit. They sold millions of records, and I got $200! Afterwards, my lawyer told them, 'You should throw down Flea some cash,' but the record company said, 'We told him exactly what to play.' No one was even in the room at the time but me and the engineer! It was ridiculous, but I learned from it."

Young MC's real name is Marvin Young. He was signed to Delicious Vinyl, a small label that had a big impact in the late '80s. The first hit for the label was "Wild Thing" by Tone Loc, which was released in 1988 and climbed to #2 in February 1989. Loc followed that up with "Funky Cold Medina," which peaked at #3 that April. Both songs were co-written by Young MC. "Bust A Move" was released in May and climbed to #7 in October. That chart position doesn't reflect the song's popularity: It stayed on the chart for 39 weeks and was a go-to jam anywhere there was dancing. It's still filling dance floors decades later.