“Rock with You” is a song by American singer Michael Jackson, written by Rod Temperton and produced by Quincy Jones. It was first offered to Karen Carpenter, while she was working on her first solo album, but she turned it down. It was released in October 1979, by Epic Records as the second single from Jackson’s fifth solo studio album ‘Off The Wall’ (1979). It was also the third number-one hit of the 1980s, a decade in which the pop singles chart would quickly be dominated by Jackson.
It reached number one on both the US pop (Jackson’s third number-one on this chart) and R&B charts (Jackson’s second number one on that chart). It spent a total of four weeks at the top position on the former chart from January 19 to February 9, 1980, and five weeks (from January 5 to February 9, 1980) on the latter chart. According to Billboard, the song was the fourth biggest single of 1980. It is also considered one of the last hits of the disco era. It was re-released as a single on February 27, 2006, as part of the Visionary: The Video Singles box set. In 2021, Rolling Stone placed it at number 354 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The track received generally positive reviews from music critics. J. Edward Keyes of Rolling Stone said “What’s remarkable about ‘Rock with You’ is how unobtrusive it is: a silky string section and barely-there twitch of guitar — Michael doesn’t even hit the word ‘Rock’ all that hard — he just glides over it, preferring to charm with a wink and a smile rather than with aggression or ferocity.” Steven Hyden called it his “favourite song”, and noted the line “Girrrrrrl, when you dance, there’s a magic that must be love” as being “the most purely joyful moment [Hyden] has ever heard in a pop song”. AllMusic highlighted the song on the album itself.Robert Christgau called it a “smooth ballad”. Cash Box praised the production, calling the song a “soft, classy number” with “multi-tracked harmonies,” “a modified dance beat,” “shimmering flute tones and jazzy guitar work.”
A music video was released for the song, using the shorter single version. It features Michael in a sparkly sequined suit singing the song with a bright laser behind him. The video was directed by Bruce Gowers and filmed in 1979 at the 800 Stage in Los Angeles, California. The music video was included on the video albums: Video Greatest Hits – HIStory, Number Ones and Michael Jackson Vision.
Michael Jackson first performed the song on the Jacksons’ Destiny World Tour on the second leg. He performed the song on the Jacksons’ Triumph Tour and Victory Tour. He performed the song on his solo world tour Bad. He also performed the song during the HIStory World Tour, as a part of the Off The Wall medley (also featuring “Off the Wall” and “Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough”) in certain concerts. “Rock with You” was rehearsed for the Dangerous World Tour, but was not performed. Jackson also would have performed it for the This Is It concert series, but the shows were cancelled, due to his sudden death.
