2 fans
Whether he’s reciting his personal motto over a high-octane electronic beat as in his new “Don't Quit!”
Phonk remix, matching BPMs to workouts in the genre-spanning, curated collection of up-tempo mixes
under his Body By Jake Music® label, or pioneering the workout playlist as he did in 1984 with Body By
Jake: Don’t Quit®, the first original soundtrack to an exercise video, legendary fitness icon, Jake
Steinfeld aka Body By Jake, has been using music to motivate and inspire millions of people around the
world to move their bodies, exercise and add fitness to their life for more than four decades.
Decades before workout mixes were ubiquitous, Steinfeld originated the playlist with the release of
Don't Quit!®, a groundbreaking collection of all-original pump-up music now recognized as the
precursor to the type of curated playlists found on Peloton and streaming services. The collection was
executive produced by Steinfeld at the beginning of a storied career that now spans more than four
decades.
Known as the man that created the personal fitness training industry, including as the first "trainer to
the stars" thanks to a celebrity client list that included Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Madonna,
Priscilla Presley, Bette Midler, and more, Steinfeld made personal fitness training an occupation in the
early '80s, eventually going on to create the first exercise segments on cable television (CNN), the first
24-hour all-fitness television network (FitTV), and the first on-demand fitness television service
(ExerciseTV), not to mention a branded fitness empire that has sold over two billion dollars’ worth of
exercise equipment and counting, helping to get countless people around the world in shape.
More than 35 years later, his album Don’t Quit!® was revitalized in 2022 for the streaming age via Body
By Jake Music/UMe, where the motivating music is once again raising heart rates, working muscles and
moving bodies. Featuring hitmakers like Bobby Caldwell, Michael Sembello, and Joseph Williams (Toto),
the album was previously unavailable since its original LP and cassette release in 1984 on MCA Records.
Steinfeld first partnered with UMe to bring together his love of music and exercise with his record label,
Body By Jake Music, which kicked off in 2012 with hour-long themed mixes organized by workout style,
beats-per-minute and decade. Intended as “the fitness version of the Now Series,” the Body By Jake
series, which includes hits and remixes from the biggest names in music, first appeared as CD and
downloads and currently serve as popular streams on Spotify and Apple Music. More new mixes are in
the works.
Released the same year as Steinfeld's best-selling “Body By Jake” book, Don’t Quit!® emerged at the
nexus of synthesizer-driven '80s radio, the spandex-stretching fitness trend, and the burgeoning home
video market, serving as the training montage soundtrack to countless at-home warm-ups, flexes,
stretches and cool-downs.
The crowded aerobic market of the early '80s brought a slew of workout albums by the likes of Jane
Fonda, Jayne Kennedy, Richard Simmons and more. But Steinfeld was left uninspired by their canned
music and "one-and-two-and-three-and" instructions.
"I don't think people thought about music the way I was thinking about music at the time," Steinfeld
says. “We created the album for people to work out to but to also play it loud in the car or when they’re
doing housework and need something to pump them up. It was great music to motivate you and make
you feel good. I’ve always been more about the motivation, more about the psychological, and more
about visualizing success.”
The album's lead single, "Don't Quit!®," came courtesy of Bobby Caldwell, the smooth-soul multi-
instrumentalist and hitmaker behind 1978's "What You Won't Do For Love." A pulsating AOR-funk jam,
"Don't Quit!®" came complete with encouraging words from Jake himself. The 12" mix ended up
breaking the U.S. Dance Club chart.
More than just a song, the phrase "Don't Quit!®" has been a motto that Steinfeld has carried since junior
high school.
"I was cut from my eighth grade basketball team. True story. It was devastating. I was an overweight kid
with a bad stutter," says Steinfeld. After I was cut I was given this poem from a friend which changed my
life: 'Stick to the fight when you're hardest hit/It's when things seem worse that you must not quit.’ In
1981, I trademarked the words ‘Don't Quit!®.’ I have beaten the corporate giants of the world numerous
times to keep those two words sacred."
The Don't Quit!® album, with production by André Fischer and Peter Bunetta, also features "Pump It
Up," a lively piece of digital swing via Michael Sembello, still fresh off of the No. 1 “Flashdance” mega-
smash "Maniac." The powerful voice of Maxayne Smith (the Ikettes, Maxyane) leads "Hard Work," and
Leslie Smith (a session pro known as part of much-sampled rare-funk crew L.A. Carnival) provides "Baby
Work Out” and “You Can Get It If You Really Want It.” Notably, two pieces of breezy synth-rock, “Fire
Power” and “Toughen Up” come courtesy of Joseph Williams, a then-unknown singer and composer
who would go on to provide the singing voice of the adult Simba in “The Lion King.”
Steinfeld has been connected with music since the very beginning of his career: As an 18-year-old New
York expat pumping iron in Venice, Calif., he was offered $100 to flex on stage as the Village People sang
"Macho Man” as the song soared up the charts. Remembers Steinfeld, "All I have on is my posing trunks.
I got baby oil all over my body… That was my intro to the music business."
Over the course of more than 40 years as an American fitness icon, Steinfeld has been a New York Times
and Wall Street Journal best-selling author, a sitcom star (The Family Channel's “Big Brother Jake”), a
voiceover actor (“Ratatouille,” King of the Hill”), starring roles in “Coming To America, “The Money Pit,”
and “Tough Guys,” a dominant infomercial giant, a Summer Olympic torchbearer, and even the
Honorary Mayor of Pacific Palisades, Calif.
In 2001, Steinfeld created Major League Lacrosse, America's first professional outdoor lacrosse league
and in 2015 founded the World Series of Youth Lacrosse. He twice served as Chairman of the Governor’s
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under California Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry
Brown. Today he serves as Chairman of National Foundation for Governors' Fitness Councils, bringing
fitness education and brand new $100,000 state-of-the-art fitness centers to underserved kids across
the country. As of this year, the NFGFC has dedicated DON’T QUIT!® Fitness Centers in all 50 states. Each
fitness center is financed through public-private partnerships with companies, including Coca-Cola
Company, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, and Nike, and does not rely on taxpayer
dollars or state funding. The foundation’s goal is to build a nation of the fittest, healthiest kids in the
world
