Boogie In Your Butt

Album: Eddie Murphy (1982)
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Songfacts®:

  • Yes, this really happened. Eddie Murphy released a song called "Boogie In Your Butt," where he drops some bars about all the things you can put in your butt: a bumblebee, a dinosaur bone, a radiator. After each verse, Murphy gives commentary, explaining he's not down with putting the boogie or anything else in anyone's butt. But when he's offered a hundred-dollar bill, he gets on board, proving that he has his price (which explains Daddy Day Care).
  • This novelty song was released on Eddie Murphy's first album in 1982, which was mostly comprised of his comedy bits. He hadn't done any movies yet but was a cast member on Saturday Night Live. The song was released as a single and did fairly well, reaching #56 on the R&B chart. Some club DJs played it for a lark, and it got some airplay as well.
  • Murphy could be very profane, but surprisingly there's nothing in this song that's R-rated. This made it safe for airplay and suitable for children in the same way fart jokes are. Kids love this song.
  • Murphy wrote this with David Wolfert, who has done music for many TV shows and films and has co-written songs recorded by Dolly Parton ("Heartbreaker") and Barbra Streisand ("Songbird"). When you strip the lyric, "Boogie In Your Butt" stands up as a quality R&B jam, with a sexy hook and sly saxophone. And indeed, it earned Wolfert a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Instrumental Performance. The instrumental version was released as the B-side of the single.

    Murphy's rapping is pretty impressive too, holding up with MCs like Kurtis Blow and Melle Mel who were big at the time. He wrote the rap sections.
  • David Wolfert told Songfacts how this came together. "I thought it would be funny if Eddie, who was just getting noticed, would do a rap," he said. "It was just as hip-hop was starting to enter the consciousness of the music-listening public. I made the track, he did the rap, and then I added the background vocals. I am super proud of the track, which I think holds up really well."
  • In 1985, Murphy released an album of serious music called How Could It Be. Not surprisingly, the man who gave us "Boogie In Your Butt" had a hard time getting people to take it seriously.

    Still, his single "Party All the Time," produced by Rick James, got a lot of airtime on MTV and went to #2 in the US.
  • On the album, this runs 4:10; an extended version running 6:26 was released as a 12-inch single.

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