The History of House Music: The Story Behind the First Ever House Track

An Introduction To “On and On”

In the early hours of 1984, a 21-year-old DJ named Jesse Saunders sat down with his friend Vince Lawrence and a handful of electronic instruments in Chicago. What they created in those moments would fundamentally alter the course of popular music forever. That track, "On and On," is widely recognized as the first house tunes ever pressed to vinyl. A distinction that marks it as ground zero for a genre that would eventually conquer dance floors across the globe.

But like all origin stories, the tale of house music's first track is more complex than a single moment in time. It's a story woven from stolen records, underground gay clubs, revolutionary DJs, and a city's determination to keep disco alive when the rest of America had declared it dead.

The Theft That Changed Music History

The story of "On and On" begins, ironically, with a theft. Jesse Saunders had built his reputation as a DJ at Chicago's teen club The Playground, and his secret weapon was a bootleg disco megamix called "On and On" by Mach. This twelve-minute pastiche stitched together loops from several disco classics, particularly the infectious bassline from Player One's "Space Invaders" and elements from Lipps Inc's "Funkytown." It was Saunders' signature tune—the track other Chicago DJs didn't have access to, the one that made dancers lose their minds when it dropped.

Then someone stole it from his collection.

Faced with losing his competitive edge on the dance floor, Saunders made a fateful decision: he would recreate the track himself. But rather than simply trying to duplicate what he'd lost, he decided to forge something entirely new. Working with Vince Lawrence, whose father ran the indie label Mitchbal Records, Saunders set about crafting an original composition that captured the essence of what made "On and On" special while pushing the sound into uncharted territory.

The Recording Session

Armed with newly affordable electronic equipment—a Roland TR-808 drum machine, a Korg Poly-61 synthesizer, and a Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer—Saunders and Lawrence recorded the track on a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder in 1983. The production was stripped down, futuristic, and unlike anything that had come before. While it maintained the relentless energy of disco, it married those roots with the synthetic, mechanical precision of electronic music.

The original bassline from "Space Invaders" remained, but everything else was transformed through the cold precision of drum machines and synthesizers. Saunders added minimalist vocals, creating a hypnotic, repetitive groove that seemed to strip disco down to its essential elements and rebuild it as something leaner, harder, and more electronic.

Dancers Went Wild

Saunders debuted the track at The Playground, playing it from cassette tape. The response was electric and immediate. Dancers went wild for this strange new sound that somehow felt familiar yet revolutionary. Recognizing what he had created, Saunders and Lawrence took the track to Larry Sherman, who owned the only pressing plant in Chicago at the time—a company called Musical Products in Bridgeport.

The legend goes that they asked Sherman to press 500 copies, agreeing to pay him five dollars per record, and told him they'd be back in twenty minutes. When they returned, they asked if he could press an additional 1,000 copies. Sherman agreed, which is why the first 500 copies featured a white label with black text, while the second batch reversed the color scheme.

Saunders delivered the records to Importes Etc., the most popular record store in Chicago's dance music scene. They sold out in days. Sherman, recognizing the commercial potential of this new sound, would soon launch Trax Records, which became one of the two seminal labels (alongside DJ International) that defined Chicago house music.

The Warehouse: Where It All Began

To understand why "On and On" was possible - and why it emerged in Chicago in 1984 - we need to rewind to March 1977 and a club at 206 South Jefferson Street in Chicago's West Loop.

The Warehouse was the vision of Robert Williams, a New York transplant who wanted to recreate Manhattan's vibrant disco scene in Chicago. He initially approached Larry Levan, one of New York's hottest DJs, to be the club's resident spinner. When Levan declined, he suggested his friend and fellow DJ: a 22-year-old named Frankie Knuckles.

Knuckles had cut his teeth at New York's Continental Baths alongside Levan, learning the art of DJing in the heart of the disco era. When he moved to Chicago to take the Warehouse residency, he brought with him a sophisticated understanding of how to use music to create transcendent experiences on the dance floor.

The Warehouse operated on an unusual schedule - opening at midnight on Saturday and not closing until noon on Sunday. For five dollars admission, predominantly Black and Latino gay men packed into the three-story converted factory to dance to Knuckles' eclectic selections. He played Philadelphia disco, Salsoul records, European synth-disco from Italy, underground soul, and the occasional rock track. But more importantly, he began experimenting.

Using a reel-to-reel tape machine, Knuckles would edit disco records, extending breaks and adding drum machine beats to tracks that he felt needed more energy. He was essentially deconstructing and reconstructing disco in real-time, creating something that was simultaneously familiar and radically new. As Knuckles himself explained, "I had to reconstruct the records to work for my dancefloor, to keep the dancefloor happy, as there was no dance music coming out!"

The club became legendary. For many of its patrons, particularly young Black gay men who felt excluded from traditional religious spaces, The Warehouse offered something approaching a spiritual experience. As Knuckles would later reflect, "For most of the people that went to the Warehouse, it was church for them."

Record stores began noticing a trend: customers would come in asking for "Warehouse music" the tracks that Knuckles played at the club. The term was eventually shortened to simply "house music," forever linking the genre to the venue where it was born.

The Scene That Made It Possible

By the time Saunders created "On and On" in 1983, Chicago's dance music scene was primed for revolution. Knuckles had left The Warehouse in 1982 to open his own club, The Power Plant, and The Warehouse had been rebranded as the Music Box under the leadership of DJ Ron Hardy.

Hardy was a different kind of DJ than Knuckles. Where Knuckles favored a more soulful, musical approach, Hardy was raw, aggressive, and willing to take risks. He played strange, experimental tracks and often played records four times in a row if the crowd was feeling it. The Music Box became the testing ground for the city's most innovative producers.

Meanwhile, radio station WBMX-FM's Hot Mix 5—a collective of DJs including Farley "Jackmaster" Funk—were spreading this new sound to a broader audience. Young producers were beginning to experiment with the newly affordable electronic equipment that had flooded the market in the early 1980s. Drum machines like the Roland TR-808 and synthesizers that had once been prohibitively expensive were now within reach of bedroom producers.

This convergence of factors—legendary DJs creating the blueprint, radio stations spreading the word, affordable technology democratizing production, and record stores creating distribution channels—meant that when "On and On" dropped in early 1984, it landed in fertile soil.

The Debate: What Was Really First?

While "On and On" is generally accepted as the first house record pressed to vinyl, the question of what was truly "first" remains a subject of spirited debate among house music historians.

Some argue that Saunders' earlier track "Fantasy," recorded under the name Z-Factor for Mitchbal Records in late 1983, has equal claim to the title. "Fantasy" was actually recorded before "On and On" and was supposed to be released first, but numerous delays at the pressing plant meant that "On and On" beat it to market by several weeks.

Others point to tracks like J.M. Silk's "Music is the Key" from 1985, though that came out a full year after "On and On" and clearly built on the foundation that Saunders and others had already established.

There's also the philosophical question of what counts as "house music" versus what was simply "disco with drum machines." Some of the tracks that Knuckles and Hardy were playing on reel-to-reel tape at their clubs in 1982 and 1983 had many of the sonic characteristics we now associate with house, but they were unreleased edits and remixes rather than original productions.

Perhaps most importantly, there's the question of whether we should focus on records at all. House music was first and foremost a culture—a way of DJing, a philosophy of the dance floor, and a community gathering in clubs like The Warehouse and Music Box. The music existed as a living, breathing practice before anyone thought to press it to vinyl.

But if we're talking about the first house music track that someone could walk into a record store and buy—the first artifact of this new genre that could be owned, studied, and spread beyond Chicago's club scene—then "On and On" has the strongest claim.

The Sound That Changed Everything

What made "On and On" revolutionary wasn't just that it was early—it was that it sounded like nothing else. Previous disco and dance music had relied heavily on live musicians, string sections, horn arrangements, and traditional song structures. "On and On" was stark, mechanical, and repetitive in ways that would have seemed monotonous to mainstream listeners but were hypnotic on the dance floor.

The Roland TR-808's distinctive snap and boom created a rhythm that was both funky and robotic. The TB-303's squelchy bassline had an alien quality that became one of house music's signature sounds. The vocals were minimal and often processed, serving more as another rhythmic element than as a traditional sung melody.

This was music designed specifically for dancing, with no concessions to radio play or traditional pop sensibilities. It was functional in the best possible way—every element existed to serve the dance floor's needs. The tracks were often six, seven, or eight minutes long, giving DJs room to mix and dancers time to lose themselves in the groove.

The Cultural Significance

It's impossible to separate house music's origins from the communities that created it. The Warehouse, the Music Box, and the other clubs where house was born were predominantly Black and Latino spaces, with a strong LGBTQ+ presence. These were marginalized communities creating art in the margins, often without recognition or support from the mainstream music industry.

House music emerged during a particularly dark time for queer communities. The AIDS crisis was beginning to devastate gay men across America, and discrimination was rampant. In this context, the dance floor became a space of resistance, joy, and community building. As Frankie Knuckles noted, house music clubs were "church for people who have fallen from grace"—sacred spaces for those who had been rejected by traditional institutions.

The music also emerged from a specific moment of economic and technological change. Affordable electronic instruments democratized music production in ways that would have been impossible just a few years earlier. Someone like Jesse Saunders could create a revolutionary track in his bedroom with equipment that cost a few thousand dollars rather than the hundreds of thousands required for a traditional recording studio.

The Legacy

"On and On" sold thousands of copies in Chicago and helped establish the commercial viability of house music. Other producers quickly followed Saunders' lead. By 1985 and 1986, a flood of house tracks was pouring out of Chicago, from artists like Marshall Jefferson ("Move Your Body"), Jamie Principle ("Your Love"), Mr. Fingers ("Can You Feel It"), Phuture ("Acid Tracks"), and countless others.

Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "Love Can't Turn Around" became the first house track to chart in Europe in 1986, hitting the UK top ten and introducing the sound to a global audience. British DJs like Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling became evangelists for Chicago house, and by 1988, the Second Summer of Love had made house music the soundtrack to a generation.

Today, house music is one of the most influential genres in popular music. Its 4/4 beat and electronic production techniques underpin virtually all modern dance music, from techno and trance to EDM and beyond. Every time you hear a kick drum on every beat in a pop song, you're hearing house music's influence.

Jesse Saunders never became as famous as some of the other Chicago house pioneers. He suffered a stroke in 2022 and has been recovering since. But his place in music history is secure. That moment in 1983 when he sat down to recreate a stolen record and accidentally invented a new genre—that's as important as any moment in popular music history.

The Ongoing Debate and Recognition

The conversation about house music's origins continues to evolve. In June 2023, The Warehouse building at 206 South Jefferson Street was designated as a Chicago Landmark, officially recognizing its role as the birthplace of house music. In October 2024, the city held a block party to celebrate the designation, with legendary house DJs performing on what is now known as Frankie Knuckles Way.

Frankie Knuckles, who passed away in 2014 at age 59, has been widely recognized as the "Godfather of House Music." In 2004, Chicago declared August 25 as Frankie Knuckles Day. His personal record collection of nearly 6,000 albums is now housed at the Stony Island Arts Bank, where it's being digitized and preserved for future generations.

But there's an ongoing tension around recognition and credit. As with many Black American musical innovations—from blues to rock and roll to hip-hop—house music's pioneers often struggled to receive proper compensation and recognition for their contributions. Lawsuits over rights and royalties from the early Trax Records days continue to this day, with artists like Jesse Saunders and Vince Lawrence fighting to reclaim ownership of the music they created.

So, what was the first house track ever made?

If we're being precise about what we mean by "first"—the first house record you could buy in a store, pressed to vinyl and available to the public—then "On and On" by Jesse Saunders deserves the crown. Released in early 1984 on Jes Say Records, it was the Big Bang that set the house music universe in motion.

But the fuller truth is more complex and more beautiful. House music wasn't invented in a single moment by a single person. It emerged from the creative ferment of Chicago's underground dance scene, built on the foundation laid by Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy, enabled by affordable technology and a network of independent labels and record stores, and created by and for communities that needed spaces of joy, freedom, and belonging.

"On and On" was the match that lit the fuse, but the kindling had been carefully arranged over years. It's a testament to what's possible when underground communities are given space to experiment, when technology becomes accessible, and when the next generation of artists builds on what came before while fearlessly pushing into new territory.

Four decades later, every time the 4/4 beat drops in a club anywhere in the world, we're hearing echoes of that moment when Jesse Saunders pressed record and created something that would outlast us all. The first house track? Yes. But more importantly, it was the beginning of a revolution that continues to pulse through dance floors today, keeping alive the spirit of those Chicago clubs where, as one participant put it, "house music is a genre and a way of life."

Recently, Jesse Saunders health took a turn for the worse and an urgent fundraiser has been set up to raise funds to maintain his care. Donate if you can https://gofund.me/122bc220

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