Songfacts®:

• Miami Sound Machine broke into the English-language American market with their 1985 banger "Conga," a celebratory song inviting all comers to get on the dance floor and "feel the rhythm of the music getting stronger."
  
  In 1987 they released "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," which has a similar theme. Both songs have a party vibe and are infused with Latin rhythms reflecting their Cuban roots. The group was formed by percussionist Emilio Estefan in 1975 as Miami Latin Boys. In 1977 Gloria Fajardo joined on vocals and they became Miami Sound Machine. They got married a year later, and she became Gloria Estefan.
• Like "Conga," the song blends keyboards, drum machines and other electronic elements with real drums. This was Miami Sound Machine's secret sauce, but unlike your typical party band, they could also score with heartfelt ballads like "Words Get In The Way" and "Anything For You."
• Oddly, there's no mention of dancing in this song. In fact, "the rhythm" is presented like some kind of boogyman that's coming for you. Check this out:
  
  In bed
  Throw the covers on your head
  You pretend like you are dead
  But I know it
  The rhythm is gonna get you
  
  What happens when the rhythm strikes while you're trying to sleep? We don't know, but it seems to have bad intentions.
• "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" is part of Let It Loose, 1987 album Miami Sound Machine used to transition to a Gloria Estefan solo project. It was credited to "Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine," the same way The Supremes became Diana Ross & The Supremes on their way to simply being Diana Ross.
  
  This caused no small amount of tension, as the group felt marginalized, but as Emilio Estefan explained, she was more marketable as a solo artist, and that's what the record company wanted. The next album, Cuts Both Ways in 1989, was indeed a Gloria Estefan solo effort, although the subsequent tour was billed as Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine.
• Gloria Estefan wrote the song with Enrique "Kiki" Garcia, a drummer in Miami Sound Machine who wrote "Conga." He and Estefan also wrote the Let It Loose track "1-2-3."
• The song was used in the 1987 movie Stakeout, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez. That same year, the Miami Sound Machine song "Bad Boy" was used in a much more popular movie: Three Men And A Baby.