Songfacts®:

• "Get It On Tonite" finds Montell Jordan out with his girlfriend at a nightclub when another woman catches his eye. The song chronicles Jordan's growing attraction to his stranger across the room as he reflects on a relationship that has lost its spark. He begins plotting how to make his move while his unsuspecting partner is otherwise occupied.
  
  As the song unfolds, Jordan pleads that the woman he's just encountered is where he truly belongs. The bridge's call-and-response exchange between Jordan and a group of female vocalists serves as a moment of revelation, though his girlfriend likely uses less flattering terminology.
• Montell Jordan wrote "Get It On Tonite" with Brian "Lil Bee" Palmer, Sergio "PLX" Moore, Darren Benbow, LeVar A. Wilson, Jörg Evers, and Jürgen Korduletsch. Evers and Korduletsch are credited as co-writers because the song's groove is built around a sample of Claudja Barry's 1976 disco song "Love For The Sake Of Love."
• A remix pairs Montell Jordan with fellow Def Soul artist LL Cool J. LL's verses add a harder hip-hop edge to the track's smoother R&B base.
• Julien Christian Lutz, better known as Director X, directed the video. He became one of the most influential video directors of his generation, working with the likes of Drake and Nicki Minaj.
• "Get It On Tonite" is the second track from Jordan's fourth album, Get It On...Tonite. It is preceded by an intro spoken by Sidney Jordan (Montell's toddler son), who says:
  
  My name is Sydney Jordan
  We're gonna have a party
• Released as the lead single and title track from Get It On...Tonite, the song was one of the biggest hits of Jordan's career. It reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent three consecutive weeks at #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. The success helped propel the album to Gold certification and marked Jordan's final solo appearance on the Hot 100.
• The song appeared in the 2001 film Save the Last Dance, starring Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas. Its themes of attraction and crossing established boundaries fit neatly into the movie's central romance, making it a natural choice for the club scenes.
• "Get It On Tonite" has enjoyed a long afterlife through sampling and interpolation. Artists who have borrowed from the song include:
  
  Da Brat and Tyrese on "What'Chu Like"
  Cassie on "Show Me"
  Azealia Banks on "Esta Noche"
  Mahalia on "Whenever You're Ready"
  Roy Woods on "Little Bit of Lovin"
  Jeremih on "I Think of You"
  Silva Bumpa on "On 2nite," a UK garage/bassline track by a Yorkshire-based producer that generated significant buzz online and became a UK chart hit in 2026.
• In 2010, Jordan announced his retirement from secular music to become a pastor and Christian minister, giving the song's themes of temptation and moral compromise an ironic retrospective weight. The man who once sang so vividly about straying from his partner now spends his days guiding others to resist those very same impulses.