Motown Classic !! :D Released on this day in 1965 Uptight (Everythings Alright) is a 1966 hit single recorded by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label. One of his most popular early singles, Uptight (Everythings Alright) was the first Stevie Wonder hit single to be co-written by the artist. The single was a watershed in Wonders career for several reasons. Aside from the number-one hit Fingertips, only two of Wonders singles had reached the Top 40 of Billboards Pop Singles chart, (Workout, Stevie Workout reached #33 in late 1963 and Hey Harmonica Man reached #29 Pop in the Summer of 1964) and the fifteen-year-old artist was in danger of being let go. In addition, Wonders voice had begun to change, and Motown CEO Berry Gordy was worried that he would no longer be a commercially viable artist. As it turned out, however, producer Clarence Paul found it easier to work with Wonders now-mature tenor voice, and Sylvia Moy and Henry Cosby set about writing a new song for the artist, based upon an instrumental riff Wonder had devised. Nelson George, in Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound, recorded that Wonder had also sought something based on the driving beat of the Rolling Stoness (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction, after playing several dates with the Stones on tour and being impressed with the British band. On the day of the recording, Moy had the lyrics, but didnt have them in braille for Wonder to read, and so sang the song to him as he was recording it. She sang a line ahead of him and he simply repeated the lines as he heard them. In 2008, Moy commented that he never missed a beat during the recording. The resulting song, Uptight (Everythings Alright), features lyrics which depict a poor young mans appreciation for a rich girls seeing beyond his poverty to his true worth. A notable success, Uptight (Everythings Alright) peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in early 1966, at the same time reaching the top of the Billboard R&B Singles chart for five weeks. An accompanying album, Up-Tight, was rushed into production to capitalize on the singles success. Uptight (Everythings Alright) continues to be popular on oldies radio.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 18:04:45 +0000
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