"It's Your Thing"
Single by The Isley Brothers
from the album It's Our Thing
B-side	"Don't Give It Away"
Released	February 16, 1969
Recorded	January 1969
Studio	A&R Studios, New York City
Genre	Psychedelic funk[1]
Length	2:47
Label	T-Neck: TN 901
Songwriter(s)	Ronald Isley O'Kelly Isley, Jr. Rudolph Isley
Producer(s)	The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers singles chronology
"Put Yourself in My Place" (1969) "It's Your Thing" (1969) "I Turned You On" (1969)
Official Audio
"It's Your Thing" on YouTube

"It's Your Thing" is a funk single by The Isley Brothers. Released in 1969, the anthem was an artistic response to Motown chief Berry Gordy's demanding hold on his artists after the Isleys left the label in late 1968.

The lyrics of the chorus, which also serve as first verse, run: "It's your thing/ Do what you wanna do/ I can't tell you/ Who to sock it to". The song is ranked No. 420 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

History

Chart history

Cover versions and legacy

Over 60 artists have recorded their own version of the song.

• A version was recorded by Memphis soul singer Ann Peebles for her 1969 debut album This Is Ann Peebles.
• Saxophonist Lou Donaldson recorded an instrumental version on his 1969 album Hot Dog.^[12]
• In 1969 Atlantic recording artist Lotti Golden also recorded the song in a mash-up medley with "Sock It to Me Baby", to promote her Atlantic Records debut LP ^[13] The medley included the only two covers that Golden recorded as an artist. In 2000, the medley featuring "It's Your Thing", was reissued in an Atlantic compilation, with Golden as the sole female artist in the line up.^[14]
• The song has been credited for being one of the first fully-fledged funk songs at the time that such artists as James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone brought their own funk anthems to the scene. Brown used the musical background from the song for the songs "It's My Thing (You Can't Tell Me Who to Sock It to)", an answer song by Marva Whitney, and Brown's own 1974 single, "My Thang".
• Led Zeppelin would often perform an instrumental of the song in a medley format with "Communication Breakdown". Led Zeppelin included a four-bar snippet during the opening song sequence of their Playhouse Theater performance on June 27, 1969.
• In 1969 The Temptations recorded the song for on their Puzzle People album.
• In 1970, jazz guitar player Grant Green included the song in his album Alive!
• The Jackson 5, who were not yet established artists, first performed the song at their television debut on the Miss Black America Pageant, later recording it during sessions for their 1970 album ABC. However, this recording remained unreleased until 1995's Soulsation! box set.
• Former Motown label-mates The Supremes and the Four Tops recorded a duet version in 1971 that remained unreleased until 2009.
• Adriano Celentano's "Prisencolinensinainciusol", which was released three years later in 1972, has a very similar feel and chord structure.^[15]
• Aretha Franklin recorded the song for her 1982 album Jump to It.
• The song also has been heavily sampled by hip hop acts, most famously by rap group Salt-N-Pepa and DC go-go band E.U., who sampled it for "Shake Your Thang" (1988).
• The 1989 album Girl You Know It's True by Milli Vanilli contains a cover of this song.
• Like many of their earlier singles, the song has been featured in commercials. Some Canadian commercials for the Ramada hotel chain have featured a cover version of "It's Your Thing", modified so the lyrics say "Do Your Thing" instead.
• Lou Donaldson's 1969 cover has also been sampled for multiple tracks, mostly hip-hop, including Ghetto Red Hot by Super Cat, Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down by Brand Nubian, Bitties in the BK Lounge by De La Soul and Six Million Ways to Die by Funkmaster Flex.^[16]
• The song was covered by H-Town on the 1993 soundtrack album Addams Family Values: Music from the Motion Picture.
• It appears in the 1999 movie Muppets from Space, the 2007 film Superbad, the ending of the 2016 movie Sausage Party and the beginning of the 2017 movie Smurfs: The Lost Village, as well as in the teaser trailer for DreamWorks Animation's 2017 movie The Boss Baby.
• The song "Power" by Kanye West uses a sample from Cold Grits' instrumental cover of "It's Your Thing" in his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
• Walk the Moon covered the song on their 2015 Different Colors EP.^[17]
• It also appears in the English version of the adult animated film Bad Cat (2016).^[18]
• The song is covered by Peter Gallagher in Season 1 Episode 5 of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.^[19]
• It was the last song to be played by English DJ Janice Long on what would be her final radio show in her lifetime, for BBC Radio Wales on 9 December 2021. Long died 2 weeks later.

Personnel

• Lead vocals by Ronald Isley
• Background vocals by O'Kelly Isley, Jr. and Rudolph Isley
• Written, arranged and composed by Ronald Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Jr. and Rudolph Isley
• Produced by The Isley Brothers
• Drums by Woody Woodson
• Bass by Ernie Isley
• Guitar by Charles "Skip" Pitts
• Piano by Herb Rooney
• Saxophone and arrangement by George Patterson
• Horns arranged by The Isley Brothers

References

External links

• The Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing (Audio) on YouTube