Let the Music Play (Shannon song)

"Let the Music Play"
Single by Shannon
from the album Let the Music Play
ReleasedSeptember 19, 1983
Recorded1983
Genre
Length
  • 3:34 (album version)
  • 5:45 (12-inch version)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Chris Barbosa
  • Mark Liggett
Shannon singles chronology
"Let the Music Play"
(1983)
"Give Me Tonight"
(1984)
Music video
"Let The Music Play" on YouTube

"Let the Music Play" is a song recorded by American singer Shannon and released on September 19, 1983, as both her debut single and the lead single from her 1984 debut studio album of the same name. Written by Chris Barbosa and Ed Chisolm, and produced by Barbosa and Mark Liggett, "Let the Music Play" was the first of Shannon's four number ones on the US Dance Club Songs chart, reaching the top spot in October 1983. It also became a successful crossover hit in the US, peaking at number two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (behind Patti LaBelle's "If Only You Knew") and number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1984. It was Shannon's only top 40 hit in the US.

"Let the Music Play" was ranked 43rd on the 2009 VH1 Special 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 1980s, while Rolling Stone and Billboard featured it in their lists of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" and "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time" in 2022 and 2023, respectively.