Songfacts®:

• Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock are a duo from Harlem, New York who are best known for this early Hip-Hop anthem. Whilst Rob Base (real name Robert Ginyard), does the rapping, DJ E-Z Rock (real name Rodney "Skip" Bryce) mans the turntable.
• The introduction of the song is spoken over a sample of Galactic Force Band's 1978 tune, "Spacedust," and the main vocal hook, "It Takes Two", is taken from Lyn Collins' James Brown produced 1972 single, "Think (About It)." "Think" was also liberally sampled on Janet Jackson's 1990 hit "Alright."
• "It Takes Two" has itself been frequently sampled. The songs that have borrowed from it include Fatman Scoop's 2004 UK Top 10 hit, "It Takes Scoop," Snoop Dogg's 2009 single, "I Wanna Rock" and the Black Eyed Peas' 2010 disc "Rock That Body."
• At one point Base appears to be informing us that he "can't stand sex." In fact he is referring to "sess," a slang term for dope.
• In 1989 Spin magazine ranked this the greatest single of all time. The choice was criticized by some such as critic David Hinckley who, according to Dave Marsh's book The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, described it as "the equivalent of a three-year-old shooting his mother with a squirt gun in order to get her attention." The song was also ranked less controversially #37 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop and #18 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s .
• Carly Rae Jepsen and Lil Yachty did a new version of this song for a Target commercial that aired as a full-length video during the 2017 Grammy Awards. The video opens with a kid buying the original album.
• This plays during a bonkers promo celebrating 100 years of the NFL that debuted during the 2019 Super Bowl. In the spot, star players past and present are enjoying a banquet when a football falls to the floor, triggering a scrum and a series of plays.