Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)

"Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)" is a song co-written by British pop musician Elton John with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It is the closing track of his 1976 album, Blue Moves. It came out as a single two months after the release of the album. The US b-side was another album track, "Chameleon", which was also featured on the "Crazy Water"-single that only came out in the UK, only four days later, but the UK release of 'Bite Your Lip' was released as a double-A side single, which was backed with 'Chicago' by Kiki Dee, making the release a joint chart effort. The single peaked at #28 in both the U.S. and the UK.

"Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)"
Single by Elton John
from the album Blue Moves
B-side"Chameleon"
ReleasedJanuary 1977 (US), 3 June 1977 (UK)
RecordedMarch 1976
GenreRock, pop, disco
Length3:37 (7" single) 6:39 (12" single)
LabelMCA (US)
DJM (UK)
Songwriter(s)Elton John, Bernie Taupin
Producer(s)Gus Dudgeon
Elton John singles chronology
"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"
(1976)		 "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)"
(1977)		 "Crazy Water"
(1977)

Lyrical meaning

The song is a party-song. It mentions various places. There is a choir singing throughout most of the song. It could be put in the same vein as disco, but also uses rock and roll, gospel, and pop elements.

Musical structure

The song opens with Elton on piano, and then kicks off to the beat, with the song's first of two slide guitar solos by Davey Johnstone along with the heavy percussion rhythms of Ray Cooper. The rest of the band notably includes, among others, Caleb Quaye. The song begins to turn into a jam after about the first two minutes, prominently including a choir of singers chanting "Bite your lip - get up - (get up) - get up and dance - bite your lip - get up - (get up - get up and dance - bite your lip - get up - get up and dance, dance, dance! (Dance, dance...) (Dance, dance, daaaaaance!)". Like the amount of vocals, the amount of instrumentation increases significantly during this portion, but with John on piano, the piano is obviously the dominant instrument; there are three piano solos in the song. As a result of the musical free-for-all, the song is six minutes and forty-three seconds, making it one of John's longest.

The song closed his "last" concert in 1977, which featured Stevie Wonder on stage. He also played it dressed as Donald Duck at the free concert in Central Park in 1980. The most recent performance dates from 2004, the first time since his throat surgery. The song was played as part of his tour for Peachtree Road but played in just a handful of concerts and then dropped from the set (a performance was later issued as a b-side of the Electricity single).

Reception

Billboard described "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)" as an "all -out disco rocker" and praised its "dynamic and cheerful energy."[1]

Personnel

With:

  • The Cornerstone Institutional Baptist and Southern California Community choirs (In this song, total of 5 males and 16 females)
  • The Gene Page Strings (In this song, five wide cellos, two normal cellos, six violins, and two violas)

Instrument with uncredited players:

  • additional rhythm guitar
  • bongo and conga set
  • pair of tambourines
  • vibraphone
  • french horn
  • trumpet
  • trombone
  • flute

References
  1. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. February 12, 1977. p. 70. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
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