The original shoulder-popping dance dates back to the early 1980s, and Albert Leopold Boyce, known as "Al B," is credited with doing the dance at the Entertainer's Basketball Classic at Rucker Park in Harlem. He died in 2006. His mother, Sandra Boyce, told DNAInfo.com that the dance was inspired in part by her.

"This new thing is not the Harlem shake. When Al was dancing, we told him to try and put a patent on it," she told the website.

The dance evolved and adapted in New York, picked up by the Crazy Boys dance crew and others, according to the New York Times.

It was later popularized by rappers G. Dep and P. Diddy in the song "Let's Get It" in 2001.

Here is a tutorial on how to do the original Harlem shake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_cO0Y6jJoA

There is another Harlem connection to Baauer's "Harlem Shake." Azealia Banks, a popular young rapper from Harlem, was involved in a Twitter feud with Baauer after he had her version of the song pulled from a sound sharing service.

Banks later released her video, but the incident revealed what Baauer does know about Harlem shake: how to monetize it.

It is too early to tell how much Baauer, who is currently on tour in Europe and on the cover of Billboard magazine, will make from the sales of the song. When Billboard changed the calculations for its Top 100 list to include YouTube views, it paved the way for the viral video to not just dominate on You Tube, but, in a first, shoot to the top of the Billboard charts.

And despite the dispute over its origins, there is one thing many increasingly agree on.

The new Harlem Shake is one meme that may be nearing its end.