Songfacts®:

• "Party Rock" was in the house in 2011, bringing Los Angeles electro-hop to the masses and celebrating the "shuffling" dance trend, which you can see in the video. The song was everywhere, a global hit that spent six weeks at #1 in America that summer, when everyone was party rockin'. That hook line, "Everyday I'm shufflin'," is a variation of the "Everyday I'm hustlin'" line from the 2006 Rick Ross track "Hustlin'."
• LMFAO, named after text-speak for "Laughing My F-----g Head Off," was the duo of Redfoo (Stefan Gordy) and his nephew Sky Blu (Skyler Gordy). They specialized in kinetic party music, starting in 2009 with "I'm In Miami Trick," which was huge in the clubs but your mom definitely didn't know it - the song peaked at #51 in the US. "Party Rock Anthem" was the lead single from their second album, Sorry For Party Rocking, which ended up being their last.
  
  The party got a little out of control, and after performing it for about two years (2011-2012), LMFAO seemed to get tired of it, just like the rest of us. In September 2012, Redfoo announced their hiatus, and they never returned. "I was really passionate about bringing party music to the world, so I will always be making some kind of party music," he wrote.
  
  Post-LMFAO, Redfoo got really into tennis. In 2012 and 2013 he hosted the "Party Rock Open" professional women's tournament in Las Vegas; around this time he dated the pro Victoria Azarenka. Thanks to his wild hair, he instantly recognizable, and is often seen at tennis matches. Inevitably, the TV cameras will find him and one of the announcers will say, "Party Rock is in the house." He also appeared as a judge on X-Factor Australia and released a solo album in 2016 called Party Rock Mansion.
  
  Sky Blu has been less visible, sticking mostly to music.
• The shuffle dance had been around a while; it can be traced back to the Melbourne Shuffle, which originated in Australia in the '80s. It goes very well with electronic dance music, so it became common at raves. Redfoo and Sky Blu do some serious shufflin' in the video, and that's really what the song is about.
  
  "Before we just kind of partied and had some personal moves," Redfoo told Billboard. "But now there's dances that are out there that people are doing and shuffling is one that really caught my eye and it felt so good when I was doing it, so we just kind of made that song about shuffling."
• There are two featured artists listed on this track: Lauren Bennett and GoonRock. The English-born Bennett, who sings the "Get up, get down, put your hands up to the sound" line, took part in the UK version of X Factor back in 2006 as part of a duo called Fusion, who were dropped at the Boot Camp stage. Her connection with the party rock movement stems from her association with Paradiso Girls, an ill-fated attempt by Jimmy Iovine to create a European spin–off of his other girl group The Pussycat Dolls. Bennett passed away on May 29, 2026, aged 36.
  
  As for GoonRock, who is a producer on the track, LMFAO previously did a remix for his song "We Came Here to Party."
• The song's music video is a take on the 2002 British zombie movie 28 Days Later in which Redfoo and Sky Blu wake from a party-induced coma to find the world possessed to dance to this song. The director, Mickey Finnegan, explained, "The concept of the video, there's been an epidemic, the world has gone crazy, as soon as the song came out, everyone got possessed and all they want to do is to shuffle, everyone is a shuffler."
• This was the first song with the word "anthem" in its title to reach the Top 10 of the Hot 100. The previous best charting anthem tune was "Player's Anthem" by Junior M.A.F.I.A., which peaked at #15 in 1995. Three weeks after it reached the top tier of the chart, James Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem" jumped from #23 to #9 to become the second title sporting the word 'anthem' to reach the top 10.
• LMFAO had been hanging around the charts for a few years before this song hit it big. In 2009, they hit #51 with "I'm In Miami Trick" and #55 with "La La La." The next year, they made #31 with "Gettin' Over You," a collaboration with David Guetta, Chris Willis and Fergie.
  
  Redfoo told Digital Spy that he and Sky Blu weren't surprised when "Party Rock" blew up. "We made a decision for that to be the first single from the album for the very reason that we thought it could be a #1 song," he said. "It's a song that is quite unique as it's a party track that actually talks about how to party. It's like an instruction to dance. We were excited about it when we first finished it, especially as it took over year to make."
• This was only the second Hot 100 chart-topper with the word "party" in the title. To find the first, we have to go back to 1963 when Lesley Gore celebrated two weeks at #1 with "It's My Party."
• Billboard magazine declared "Party Rock Anthem" the 2011 song of the summer. Their Songs of the Summer chart ranks the most popular songs based on chart performance from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
  
  "We created a tool for people to use to get hyped up at their party, on their boat, at the club, at the gym, etc. People love it... it feels amazing!" Redfoo told Billboard upon hearing the news. "Because of how hard we worked on mixing the record and the dedication that went into the video, it was clear from the beginning that our goal was to take the party rock sound to number one."
  
  LMFAO were the first duo to top the Songs of the Summer chart since 1996 when another dance anthem, Los Del Rio's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" was the seasonal leader.
• According to Redfoo, the original chorus lyrics were, "I feel it in my soul tonight, everybody's gonna have a good time." Redfoo is the son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, so he knows that getting a lyric just right can make a huge difference in a song, something he may have learned in his time hanging out with Smokey Robinson. Thinking of the song as something you'd hear when you walk into a party, he changed the lyric to "Party rock is in the house tonight, everybody just have a good time."
  
  "The 'Just' was key," said Redfoo. "I made it a command, to focus people on what to do now that we're here together. Our lyrics are very calculated, even if they appear simple."
• Worldwide, "Party Rock Anthem" was the second-best-selling single of 2011, following "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele. Other big songs that year include Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" and Rihanna's "We Found Love."
• The video was choreographed by Hokuto "Hok" Konishi, who shows up as one of the "shufflers" in the video along with his team, Quest Crew. This was the first time Redfoo and his LMFAO partner Sky Blu used a choreographer.
• The song's party lasted 68 weeks on the Hot 100 - the longest ever residence by a song that hit #1. Only Jason Mraz's #6-peaking "I'm Yours" (76 weeks, 2008-09) and LeAnn Rimes' #2 hit "How Do I Live" (69 weeks, 1997-98) spent more time on the tally.
  
  The song had a very interesting chart run. Released on January 25, 2011, it first appeared on the Hot 100 on February 12 at #78. It dropped out the next week, then returned in April to the lower reaches of the chart. As the video (released March 8) picked up steam, the song slowly rose up the chart, finally peaking at #1 on July 16.
  
  The song's 47-week drop from #1 until it fell out of the Hot 100 broke the previous record of 44 weeks descending from the top spot set by Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply" in 1998.
• GoonRock (Jamahl Listenbee), who co-wrote and co-produced this song, is a childhood friend of Redfoo and was also in his late 30s when the song hit. He says when they started working on the song, it was intended for Flo Rida, but they decided to record it as LMFAO.
  
  Says GoonRock: "Even though it was for another artist (Flo Rida), by the time we realized that it was gonna be for us we really did sit and say, 'let's change the world.' Now 'change the world' is probably too big for what this song is, it's really just a feel good song that everybody can get into, but that's what we said - 'let's change the world. Let's do something that will make everything crazy and make everyone feel good in the club. Let's just do the best s--t we can do.' That energy is what we went into it with and it really carried through throughout the song. Every part was paid attention to. We wanted to take the listener on a ride. We wanted to do something great."
• Rick Ross took LMFAO to court over the similarity between "Everyday I'm shufflin'" and his "Everyday I'm hustlin'," calling it "an unauthorized derivative work."
  
  The suit also cited the numerous and lucrative licensing opportunities the song generated in TV shows, video games and commercials, as well as LMFAO's clothing line, Party Rock Clothing, which features the phrase on T-shirts and other clothing items.
  
  Ross has some experience with copyright infringement lawsuits. The rapper, born William Roberts II, took his stage name from the drug kingpin "Freeway" Ricky Ross, who sued over the appropriation. The original Ross lost the suit after years of appeal.
  
  After two years of legal wrangling, the judge decided to dismiss the entire case altogether.
• Is LMFAO a one-hit wonder? Far from it. Another single from the Sorry For Party Rocking album, "Sexy and I Know It," was a #1 hit the first two weeks to 2012.
• In 2011, "Party Rock Anthem" showed up in an episode of Glee ("Hold On To Sixteen") where we learn that Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) has a side gig as an exotic dancer. That same year, it was in the South Park episode "City Sushi" in a scene where the kids learn about "the diversity of Asian people."
  
  It was later used in episodes of The Diplomat, Quantum Leap, Parks And Recreation and Parenthood.
• Party Rock was in the house when Madonna played the Super Bowl halftime show on February 5, 2012. After spending some time with a toga-clad tightrope walker, Madonna made her way to the side of the stage where LMFAO was waiting for her. She jumped on Redfoo's shoulders and went for a ride as they sang some of "Party Rock Anthem," then she dismounted and did some shufflin' with the guys. Looking back, this was probably the moment when the Party Rock era ended. It was a hell of a run.