"High Energy" is a song co-written and co-produced by

Ian Levine Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer, and DJ. A moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of Hi-NRG, he has written and produced records with sales totalling over 40 million. ...

(British) and

Fiachra Trench Fiachra Terence Wilbrah Trench (born 7 September 1941, in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician and composer from Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. Trench first studied Chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin, before moving on to t ...

(Irish), and performed by American

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

singer

Evelyn Thomas Ellen Lucille "Evelyn" Thomas (born August 22, 1953) is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the Hi-NRG dance hits " High Energy", "Masquerade", "Standing at the Crossroads", "Reflections", and "Weak Spot". Thomas has an ...

. The song was very popular in dance clubs around the world and topped the American dance chart in September 1984. It also spent four weeks atop the singles chart in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

and peaked at number 5 in the UK. It became one of the earliest successful songs within the genre of music that has come to be known as

Hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...

. On the SoBe Music compilation album ''Gay Classics, Volume 1: Ridin' the Rainbow'', the liner notes describe the song as "...engagingly captur ngthe spirit of the genre through uplifting lyrics tightly fused with dazzling synth work".

Music video

There are two different videos versions of the song. The original featured Thomas standing on a platform performing the song while everyone around her is dancing. The second, which was done for the American syndicated series ''

New York Hot Tracks ''New York Hot Tracks'' is a syndicated music television series which aired from 1983 to 1989 and achieved the number one music variety show spot in the United States. ''Hot Tracks'' was executive produced and syndicated by M.K. Thomas & Company ...

'', featured Thomas with a different set of dancers that was filmed at a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

nightclub, with two dancers acting out the song’s lyrics.

Impact and legacy

In 2022, American magazine ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' ranked "High Energy" number 177 in their list of ''200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time''.

Track listings

* 7" single # "High Energy" – 3:48 # "High Energy" (instrumental dub) – 3:30 * 12" maxi # "High Energy" (vocal) – 7:50 # "High Energy" (instrumental dub) – 7:28

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 1984 singles Evelyn Thomas songs European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in Germany Songs written by Ian Levine Songs written by Fiachra Trench Ariola Records singles 1984 songs Song recordings produced by Ian Levine