1982 · Behind the Songs
The King of Pop handed her a workout — and a top-ten hit.
“Muscles” began with Michael Jackson. Written and produced by Jackson for Diana Ross’s 1982 RCA album Silk Electric — which would go Gold — it was recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles and released as the lead single on September 17, 1982, with “I Am Me” on the B-side. Jackson even sang uncredited background vocals, joined by Patti Austin and the Waters sisters, Maxine and Julia.
The band was pure Los Angeles session craft: Bill Wolfer, Michael Boddicker and Greg Smith on synthesizers; Ray Chew and Denzil Miller on keyboards; Eric Gale, Jeff Mironov and David Williams on guitars; Yogi Horton and Jonathan Moffett on drums; Neil Jason and Nathan Watts on bass — mastered by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in New York. The single came in three lengths: 4:05 for the video and seven-inch, 4:41 on the album, and a 6:40 twelve-inch.
The charts responded: No. 10 on the Hot 100, No. 4 on the Soul chart, No. 7 on the Cash Box Top 100 and two weeks at No. 2 on the Cash Box soul chart, plus No. 15 in Britain, No. 6 in Sweden and No. 10 in the Netherlands. It also earned Ross her twelfth Grammy nomination, for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. The video matched the song’s cheeky premise: Ross in bed, dreaming of muscle-bound men, at one point floating over a landscape that turns out to be a man’s body — with a young Gil Birmingham, years before The Twilight Saga, making one of his first media appearances.
“Muscles” kept flexing long after 1982. Club 69’s Peter Rauhofer cut it in 1997 with Suzanne Palmer on vocals; Lil’ Kim sampled it for “Diamonds” (left off her final album), Young Jeezy borrowed it for the title track of The Inspiration, and Victoria Beckham sampled it for “He’s My Lover,” slated for an album that never came out.