Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out

A SoHo night out, piano and a drum machine

Joe Jackson released Steppin’ Out in the United States in August 1982, and in the UK on 22 October. He wrote it. He and David Kershenbaum produced it. It was recorded in January 1982 at Blue Rock Studio in SoHo, New York, during the sessions for Night and Day, the album A&M issued on 25 June 1982. The album version runs 4 minutes and 23 seconds. The single edit runs 3 minutes and 43. In Britain the 7-inch B-side was Another World. In America it was Chinatown. Night and Day is split into a night side and a day side. Steppin’ Out closes the night side. There is no guitar on the album.

Jackson played the vocal, piano, Hammond organ, Minimoog, vibraphone and the drum machine, a Korg KR-55 from 1979. Session drummer Larry Tolfree added a real snare and cymbal hits. On a 2019 tour Jackson said that was the whole band on this track, and he still carried that drum machine to play it. The words are a night out in the city: lights through a misted window, leaving the television and the radio, a yellow taxi. The album title points at Cole Porter’s song of the same name. The sleeve art is a drawing by Philip Burke. The studio photograph inside the gatefold is by George DuBose. Night and Day reached number 3 in the UK and number 4 on the Billboard 200, Jackson’s only studio album to make the top five in either country.

The single became his highest US hit. It sat at number 6 on the Hot 100 for four weeks from 11 December 1982, reached number 4 on the adult contemporary chart and number 7 on the album-rock chart. Cash Box had it at number 5. The UK peak was also 6, one place behind It’s Different for Girls, his biggest British single. Canada had it at number 5, Ireland at number 5. At the 1983 Grammys it was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. Toto’s Rosanna and Lionel Richie’s Truly won those prizes.