"Get It On" is a song by the English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band T. Rex, featured on their 1971 album ''

Electric Warrior ''Electric Warrior'' is the second studio album by English rock band T. Rex, their sixth since their debut as Tyrannosaurus Rex. The album marked a turning point in the band's sound, moving away from the folk-oriented sound of the group's pr ...

''. Written by frontman

Marc Bolan Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted in ...

, "Get It On" was the second chart-topper for T. Rex on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. In the United States, it was retitled "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" to avoid confusion with a song of the same name by the group

Chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England * Chase Co ...

History

Following the success of T. Rex's single, " Hot Love", the band went on a United States tour. While in New York in March 1971, Bolan asked drummer

Bill Legend Bill Legend (born William Arthur Fifield, 8 May 1944, Barking, Essex, England) is an English musician and former drummer for glam rock band T. Rex during their most successful period. Biography One of three children, Legend worked as a comme ...

to help him brainstorm drum patterns for a song idea that would later become "Get It On". Bolan claimed to have written the song out of his desire to record

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

's "

Little Queenie "Little Queenie" is a song written and recorded by Chuck Berry. Released in March 1959 as a double A-side single with " Almost Grown", it was included on '' Chuck Berry Is on Top'' (1959), Berry's first compilation album. He performed the song in ...

", and said that the riff was taken from the Berry tune. In fact, a slightly edited line (''And meanwhile, I'm still thinking'') from "Little Queenie" is said at the fade of "Get It On".Paytress, Mark, ''Bolan: The Rise And Fall Of The 20th Century Superstar'', p. 182, Omnibus Press (2003), According to producer

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

, this line was an unscripted

ad-lib In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The r ...

by Bolan during recording. This was the song that virtually ended the once-solid friendship between Bolan and John Peel, after Peel made clear his lack of enthusiasm for it on air after playing his advance white label copy. Bolan and Peel only spoke once more before the former's death in 1977. The track was recorded at

Trident Studios Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...

, London, and the piano on the record was performed by either Rick Wakeman or

Blue Weaver Derek John "Blue" Weaver (born 11 March 1947) is a Welsh rock keyboardist, session musician, songwriter and record producer. Career Weaver's career as a musician began as a co-founding member of 1960s Welsh rock band Amen Corner and its succ ...

. Mark Paytress notes that both pianists may have played separate parts on the song, with Wakeman contributing only the piano

glissandos In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...

that feature several times throughout the song. Wakeman, who was desperate for work at the time to pay his rent, had bumped into Bolan in

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...

, who offered him the session. Wakeman pointed out to Tony Visconti that the record did not actually need a piano player. Visconti suggested that he could add a gliss. Wakeman said that Visconti could do that, to which Bolan replied, "You want your rent, don't you?" Wakeman did, and earned £9 for his efforts. Saxophones were played by Ian McDonald of

King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...

. Producer Visconti later recalled: "He played all the saxes, one baritone and two altos. I kept the baritone separate but bounced the altos to one track. I bounced the backup vocals to two tracks, making an interesting stereo image."

Mark Volman Mark Randall Volman (born April 19, 1947) is an American vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the 1960s rock band The Turtles, and, along with his bandmate and friend Howard Kaylan, a member of the 1970s rock duo ...

and

Howard Kaylan Howard Kaylan (born Howard Lawrence Kaplan, June 22, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter, best known as a founding member and lead singer of the 1960s rock band The Turtles, and, along with bandmate and friend Mark Volman, a member of ...

(formerly

The Turtles ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

) provided back up vocals. During a December 1971 ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

'' performance, Elton John mimed a piano on the song. This performance is usually the video clip for the song which has aired on various music-video outlets such as

VH1 Classic MTV Classic (formerly VH1 Smooth, VH1 Classic Rock, and VH1 Classic) is an American pay television network owned by Paramount Media Networks. It was originally launched in 1998 as VH1 Smooth, an adult contemporary and smooth jazz channel. It w ...

Track listing

*US: Reprise / 1032 *UK: Fly Records / BUG 10 *Germany: Ariola / 10 327 AT *Denmark: Stateside / 6E 006-92700 *France: Columbia / CBS 7393 (without "There Was a Time") # "Get It On" (Marc Bolan) – 4:25 # "There Was a Time" (Marc Bolan) – 1:00 # "Raw Ramp" (Marc Bolan) – 4:14

Personnel

T. Rex

– lead vocals, guitar * Rick Wakeman – piano, hammond organ * Ian McDonald – baritone and alto saxophones * Steve Currie – bass *

– drums,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

– backing vocals

Chart performance

It spent four weeks at the top in the UK, starting 24 July 1971 (" Hot Love" was number one for six weeks from March to May), and it was the group's biggest hit overall, with Bolan claiming that it sold a million. It peaked on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart at #10 and at #12 in the ''Cash Box'' Top 100 in March 1972, becoming the band's only major US hit. The song reached No. 12 in Canada in March 1972.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

The Power Station version

"Get It On" was covered by the Power Station in 1985. Their version – referred to as "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" in the US – was released as their second single from their debut album. The track was a strong hit on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, where the single peaked at number nine (one place higher than the original) in the summer of 1985. Meanwhile, in the UK, the song reached number 22 on the

. When Robert Palmer heard that the other Power Station members had recorded demos of the song, he asked to try out vocals for it. Before long, the band had decided to record the entire album with Palmer. This single, along with " Some Like It Hot", became The Power Station's signature songs. On 13 July 1985, the Power Station (as well as Duran Duran), had a participation at '' Live Aid'', on the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

concert, in which the band performed the song, this time with the British singer

Michael Des Barres Michael Philip Des Barres (born 24 January 1948), the 26th Marquis Des Barres, is an English actor and rock singer. He appeared as Murdoc in the original '' MacGyver'', Nicholas Helman, Murdoc's mentor, on the new reboot of '' MacGyver'' (2016 ...

on vocals. The female dancer featured in the video is American dancer/singer-songwriter Sara Carlson. The song also was performed live with

on vocals, in the ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two M ...

'' episode "Whatever Works", which featured all of the then-touring group in

cameo role A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

Track listings

7" vinyl single

* US: Capitol Records / B-5479 * UK: Parlophone / R 6096 * Australia: EMI / A1510 * Europe: EMI / 20 0632 7

12" vinyl single

* US: Capitol Records / V8646 * UK: Parlophone / 12R 6096 * Europe: Parlophone / 1C K 060 20 0631 6 * Canada: Capitol Records / V 75107

Charts

Other cover versions

* Blondie recorded a live version of the song on 4 November 1978 at The Paradise Ballroom in Boston, MA, which can be found on their 1978 live album, ''Headlines'', and also on the 2001 reissue of ''

Parallel Lines In geometry, parallel lines are coplanar straight lines that do not intersect at any point. Parallel planes are planes in the same three-dimensional space that never meet. ''Parallel curves'' are curves that do not touch each other or int ...

''. * In 1979, studio disco group Witch Queen released a disco version of the song, titled, "Bang A Gong". It peaked at number eight on the disco charts. * In 2020 U2 covered the song, with Elton John on piano.

Sampling and references

British dance act Bus Stop (known in the US as "London Bus Stop") sampled the vocals from the T. Rex original in their 2000 pseudo-cover of the song, which charted at No. 59 in the UK.

References

{{authority control 1971 singles 1979 singles 1985 singles T. Rex (band) songs The Power Station (band) songs UK Singles Chart number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Songs written by Marc Bolan Song recordings produced by Tony Visconti Song recordings produced by Bernard Edwards 1971 songs Fly Records singles Reprise Records singles Parlophone singles