Songfacts®:

• This song is about a woman who is blessed with the boogie. Most of the lyric is a description of her moves: automatic, systematic, filled with space-age design.
  
  Jackson 5 producer Hal Davis, who worked at Motown Records' headquarters in Los Angeles, said he came up with the idea after a woman on the staff would repeatedly come into his office and dance when he was playing music. "She's a dancing machine," he told Don Fletcher, another songwriter at the label.
  
  Hitting on the title, Davis and Fletcher composed the song with guitarist Dean Parks. They recorded it at the Sound Factory in Los Angeles with session musicians William Salter (bass), James Gadson (drums) and Joe Sample (keyboards). The funky track hinted at the disco sound that was on the horizon in 1973.
• Michael and Jermaine Jackson share lead vocals on this track. It was one of Michael's favorites and a precursor to his dance-flavored solo material in the late '70s and early '80s.
• The first version of this song was just an album cut, including on the Jackson 5 album Get It Together in September 1973. The group had cooled off by this point: their first four Motown singles went to #1 in 1970, but they didn't crack the Top 10 in 1972 or 1973 (Michael Jackson had a #1 hit as a solo artist in this time with "Ben"). On December 15, 1973, Jermaine married Hazel Gordy, daughter of Motown chief Berry Gordy. This may have encouraged the label to get the group a hit: In 1974, a remixed version of "Dancing Machine" was released as a single and went to #2 on the Hot 100. It also topped the R&B chart, giving the group their sixth and final #1 on that tally.
• The 1973 version opens with some space sounds and a robotic female voice that is low in the mix. According to Hal Davis, she represents an alien dancing machine emerging from her spaceship. She says, "What can I do for you, master?"
• This song provided a showcase for Michael Jackson's dancing. When the band performed the song, he would break out some captivating moves, including The Robot, while his brothers looked on. To this point, Jackson's dancing was usually integrated into group choreography, and his solo spots were variations of James Brown moves. With "Dancing Machine," he came into his own with his dancing, which would become as famous as his singing.
  
  The earliest TV appearance we know of where he activates the dancing machine is on Soul Train, November 3, 1973.