Sometimes you just have to break out the old cheerleader uniform and see if it still peps the rally.

Toni Basil wasn’t a singer. She began her career in the 1960’s as a dancer and choreographer on the teen pop show Shindig! before scoring gigs shimmying in youth-oriented movies such as Pajama Beach and Viva Las Vegas. She graduated to choreographing for movies (American Graffiti, That Thing You Do, and Legally Blonde, to name a few), music videos (most notably the iconic “Once In A Lifetime” video by Talking Heads), and concert tours (most notably on giant productions for David Bowie in the 70’s and 80’s).

In 1971, Basil co-founded the seminal street dance troupe known as The Lockers, who profoundly influenced the breaking and hip-hop dancers of the 80’s. The group appeared on a wide variety of TV shows, from Saturday Night Live to Soul Train, and served as the opening act for everyone from Frank Sinatra to Funkadelic. So even if people didn’t necessarily know her name, they knew Toni Basil’s face.

Since she loved both film and dancing, in 1980 Basil made one of the first music video collections. She didn’t have a record deal or any songs yet, but that didn’t stop her, and she did already have an idea to make one of the videos about cheerleaders — after all, she still had her Las Vegas High School cheerleader outfit and knew the visual impact it would impart.

Eventually Basil decided to cover a song called “Kitty” by a group from England called Racey, who had released it as a single the year before but didn’t hit the charts. She imitated the original vocal pretty faithfully but made a few crucial changes, beefing up the music for a tighter, more powerful sound, adding the chant at the beginning which gets stuck in everybody’s head, and, of course, changing the title to “Mickey.” The video she ended up making featured Basil and two cheerleader champions from a California high school.

Released as a single on a small UK label in 1981, “Mickey” aerialed its way to #2 on the UK charts, but was rejected by all the US labels. It wasn’t until a year later when the song gained popularity on a Los Angeles radio station that Chrysalis Records finally released the single in the US. With the help of the newly launched MTV, “Mickey” shot to the top of the pyramid, reaching full extension at #1 at the end of 1982.

So don’t say no … to Toni Basil.