You Know What to Do. Bust a Move.

Gosh, I love the PopWatch Confessionals.

Today's is about those wedding reception/class reunion/office party/alone-in-your-house-rocking-the-radio songs that get you up and dancing everytime. There are some classics listed in the comments; I defy you to read through the lists and not get at least one song stuck in your head the rest of the day.

I, too, have a short list of songs that, no matter where I am, no matter how comfortably I have been seated at a table, no matter what kind of engrossing gossip I might be sharing, will make me literally drop everything and shake my groove thing.

1. "Love Shack." Not only does this song have the power to make me dance unabashedly in the midst of complete strangers, it is also the only song that makes me sing/scream along in full voice until I am hoarse the next day. Tin roof...rusted!

2. "Come On Eileen." Though I never quite know what to do when it slows down. And even though I have an irrational fear of breaking my thumb in the middle of it after hubby severely sprained his by swinging his arm up into a co-worker during a particularly, um, energetic interpretation during an office Christmas party.

3. "YMCA." It has its own choreography! How can you look like an idiot doing the same moves all the other idiots around you are doing?

4. "Chatahootchie." Don't judge me. This one has a story. My friends used to torture my Atlanta-native, country-music-hating college roomie by calling her up at 2am and playing this Alan Jackson classic, writing her letters while she was studying abroad that contained nothing but the lyrics, plunking it into their car CD players and hitting "repeat", etc. While we were setting up the reception hall the morning before my wedding, one of these friends put some money into the American Legion jukebox and told it to play this song, and as fate would have it, it got stuck and we heard it, like, 20 times in a row. At my roommate's own wedding, she put "Chatahootchie" on her DJ's "absolultely under no circumstances are you to play this song" list, but my friends talked the maid of honor into convinving the DJ that, secretly, the bride really DID want to hear a little Alan Jackson, and it found its way in. So now, when I hear it, I have to get up and do a little victory dance...(sorry, K!)

5. "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough." I defy you to not feel a little happier when Michael Jackson's little "Ooh!" breaks out in the opening of this one. Something weird happens to me when I hear this song; my hands start waving over my head and I really have no control over my suddenly joyful limbs. This song is like Prozac for the soul.

6. This one's for my mom: "Strokin'." You know, that song by Clarence Carter that probably shouldn't be played at family events. Many years ago, when I was in high school, my mom and her friends left their kids and took a vacation to sow some mid-life oats in Panama City. At a little club, "Strokin'" came on and my mom went out to dance and later remarked, "I love this song!" She wasn't listening to the lyrics. The next night, they went to another little bar and my mom went up to the DJ and asked that he play "that 'strokin' song." When her scandalized friends told her to listen to the lyrics, she was shocked. But not so shocked that she didn't come back and tell everyone she wanted a tape of that "cute" song she heard in Florida. I requested it as a dedication to her at my wedding reception; the DJ looked at me funny, but sent it out to the mother of the bride ...

7. "Bust a Move." It was Joy's first-dance choice at her classy little wedding on My Name is Earl. It was the last song played at my high-school reunion this summer. It's on my 5K playlist and usually comes on while I am struggling to finish mile 2. It makes me laugh and gets my rear in gear.

Now that I feel like dancin' right in the middle of my library, you tell me...what, if anything, makes you move it, move it?