Songfacts®:

• This joyous romp was a huge hit on the R&B charts, where it stayed at #1 for four weeks. It is perhaps the most famous song of the go-go genre, a funk/soul hybrid with a rolling percussion that originated in Washington, DC.
  
  Thanks to this track, Chuck Brown became known as the "Godfather of Go-Go." He formed the Soul Searchers in 1968. They quickly became a popular local act, and in 1972 got a deal with Sussex Records. They had some success with the singles "We The People" and "Blow Your Whistle," but when Sussex went out of business in 1975, the Soul Searchers recorded only sporadically, focusing instead on their live act, which was far more lucrative.
  
  Brown worked up "Bustin' Loose" in 1976. "I kept hearing it, like an engine turning over in my head," he said in the Billboard Book of #1 R&B Hits. "It stayed with me, so finally I wrote a song out of that particular groove."
  
  The song became a highlight of their live shows, and in 1978, his friend James Purdie convinced him to record the song and helped him secure a deal with Source Records. With Purdie producing, they recorded the Bustin' Loose album at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, laying down the title track first. They knew they had something special when they recorded it, and the song became Brown's signature tune.
• Getting the drums right on this song was the biggest challenge, according to Brown. He says he fired three drummers before Ricardo Wellman delivered the sound he was looking for. Ricardo is the son of Frank Wellman, who was Brown's original drummer in the Soul Searchers.
• The song was released as both a 12" single and a 7" single, both with "Bustin' Loose Part 1" on the A-side and "Bustin' Loose Part 1" on the flip. The 12" A-side is the one that got most of the club play; running 7:42, this is the version that was included on the album. The 7" was the radio edit, which was truncated to 3:52.
• The Nelly hit "Hot In Herre," where Nelly says, "I feel like bustin' loose," is based on this song. Other songs to sample or interpolate "Bustin' Loose" include "Eric B. Made My Day" by Eric B. & Rakim, "I Ain't Mad at All" by Public Enemy, and "Do It Again" by Cherokee.