Yarbrough & Peoples, Don’t Stop The Music | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 92^nd edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Don’t Stop The Music” by Yarbrough & Peoples. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 92^nd edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Don’t Stop The Music” performed by Yarbrough & Peoples.

“Don’t you know you’ve got me mesmerized / Wit the beat I always fantasize / Don’t stop the music cause it tends to soothe / I can tell you want to groove.” Ooh-wee! Yarbrough & Peoples – Calvin Yarbrough and Alisa Peoples – delivered a surefire vibe in 1980.  That surefire vibe as “Don’t Stop The Music”, the opening track from their album, The Two of Us.  “Don’t Stop The Music” was the sole top-40 hit by the funk duo.  It performed superbly well on the pop charts, peaking at no. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The fun, irresistible joint was written by Peoples alongside producers Jonah Ellis and Lonnie Simmons.

So, what makes “Don’t Stop The Music” a surefire vibe? The instrumental is EVERYTHING. The picturesque sounds and effects make this song.  Scintillating synths, funked-out riffs, and a marvelous, rhythmic synth bass line excel.  The groove = I-N-F-E-C-T-I-O-U-S! Body movement is inescapable while listening to this.  Given all the ear candy from the instrumental, it’s unsurprising that “Don’t Stop The Music” is often sampled. Of course, it’s not only the instrumental that shines. Calvin Yarbrough and Alisa Peoples ‘bring the heat’ with their vocals.  Yarbrough secures the song’s excellence with the chorus,  “Don’t you stop it, don’t you stop / Don’t stop the music,” repeated throughout the song.  As for Peoples, she has her fair share of highlights.  One of her most memorable moments comes when she sings, “I just wanna rock you (Oh, baby) / All night long (To my love song).” The power of music and dancing are the big takeaways.  “I can tell you wanna boogie.” Indeed, Yarbrough & Peoples.  The duo still has us dancing something fierce to “Don’t Stop The Music”.

Yarbrough & Peoples // The Two of Us // UMG Recordings, Inc. // 1980

Yarbrough & Peoples, Don’t Stop The Music: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 92 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; UMG Recordings, Inc.; OpenClipart-Vectors, Speedy McVroom from Pixabay]