Gentrys – Keep on Dancing

This song was written by Allen A. Jones and Willie David Young. The Gentrys were from Memphis and best known for this 1965 hit which rose to the Top 10 and became a million seller. It’s not a great song but it’s a fun one.

The song is interesting for the fact that it is actually one short recording repeated, to stretch the record out to the length of the typical pop single of its day. The second half of the song, after the false fade, beginning with Wall’s drum fill, is the same as the first. Many modern recordings today more or less use the same trick on songs.

Keep on Dancing peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 in 1965. The Gentrys did manage an appearance in the 1965 movie It’s a Bikini World and kept releasing singles up to 1971 but they had no other top 40 single and the Gentrys disbanded.

I owned a Gentrys single before…they did a cover of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl which I placed below the Keep On Dancing video. It’s odd that its the same group that did Keep On Dancing.

I’m not a wrestling fan at all but this band included Jimmy Hart who would make his name as a bad guy wrestling manager.

Keep On Dancing

I keep on dancin’ (keep on)
Keep on doin’ the jerk right now
Shake it, shake it, baby
Come on & show me how you work

Yellin’ in motion
Keep on doin’ the locomotion, yeah
Don’t worry, little babe
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, yes!

[Chorus:]
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)

[Organ Solo]

I keep on dancin’ (keep on)
Keep on doin’ the jerk
Shake it, shake it, baby
Come on & show me how you work

Yellin’ in motion
Keep on doin’ the locomotion, yeah
Don’t worry, little babe
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, yes!

[Chorus:]
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)

[Organ solo, temporarily fadin]

I keep on dancin’ (keep on)
Keep on doin’ the jerk right now
Shake it, shake it, baby
Come on & show me how you work

[Chorus:]
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)
Keep on dancin’ & a-prancin’ (ah)

[Fade]