Tighten Up (Archie Bell & the Drells song)
Encyclopedia
"Tighten Up" was a 1968 song by Houston
, Texas
based R&B
vocal group Archie Bell & the Drells
. It reached #1 on both the Billboard
R&B and pop
charts
in the spring of 1968. It is ranked #265 on Rolling Stone
's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is one of the earliest funk
hits in music history.
s including "She's My Woman". The instrumental music for "Tighten Up" had been developed by the T.S.U. Toronadoes in their live shows before and they brought it to Archie Bell & the Drells at the suggestion of Skipper Lee Frazer, a Houston disk jockey who worked with both groups.
Soon afterwards Bell was drafted into the U.S. Army
and began serving in Vietnam
. The song became a hit in Houston, and was picked up by Atlantic Records
for distribution in April 1968. By the summer it topped both the Billboard
R&B and pop
charts
. It also sold a million copies by May 1968, gaining an R.I.A.A.
gold disc
.
The introduction features Bell introducing himself and the Drells as being from Houston, Texas, and exclaims "We don't only sing, but we dance just as good as we want". According to the Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson
, Bell heard a comment after the Kennedy assassination in Dallas that "nothing good ever came out of Texas." Bell wanted his listeners to know "we were from Texas and we were good."
The song described an accompanying dance that the band had invented, also called the "Tighten Up"; this dance became popular concurrently with the song.
Although their leader was incapacitated, the phenomenal success of the single
prompted the band to rush out their first album
, which included the songs they had recorded in late 1967 and early 1968 with The Toronadoes.
In 1969 the group recorded their first full album with Gamble and Huff, I Can't Stop Dancing, which reached number 28 on the R&B chart.
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
based R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
vocal group Archie Bell & the Drells
Archie Bell & the Drells
Archie Bell & the Drells was a R&B vocal group from Houston, Texas, and one of the main acts on Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records...
. It reached #1 on both the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
R&B and pop
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
charts
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
in the spring of 1968. It is ranked #265 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is one of the earliest funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
hits in music history.
History
"Tighten Up" was written by Archie Bell and Billy Buttier . It was one of the first songs that Archie Bell & the Drells recorded, in a session in October 1967 at the Jones Town Studio in Houston, Texas, along with a number of songSong
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s including "She's My Woman". The instrumental music for "Tighten Up" had been developed by the T.S.U. Toronadoes in their live shows before and they brought it to Archie Bell & the Drells at the suggestion of Skipper Lee Frazer, a Houston disk jockey who worked with both groups.
Soon afterwards Bell was drafted into the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and began serving in Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The song became a hit in Houston, and was picked up by Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
for distribution in April 1968. By the summer it topped both the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
R&B and pop
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
charts
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. It also sold a million copies by May 1968, gaining an R.I.A.A.
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
.
The introduction features Bell introducing himself and the Drells as being from Houston, Texas, and exclaims "We don't only sing, but we dance just as good as we want". According to the Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson
Fred Bronson
Fredric M. Bronson is an American journalist, author and writer. He is best known for his appearances on American Idol, the weekly "Chart Beat" column in Billboard magazine, and as the author of books related to Billboard charts.Born to Irving and Mildred Bronson and raised in Culver City,...
, Bell heard a comment after the Kennedy assassination in Dallas that "nothing good ever came out of Texas." Bell wanted his listeners to know "we were from Texas and we were good."
The song described an accompanying dance that the band had invented, also called the "Tighten Up"; this dance became popular concurrently with the song.
Although their leader was incapacitated, the phenomenal success of the single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
prompted the band to rush out their first album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, which included the songs they had recorded in late 1967 and early 1968 with The Toronadoes.
In 1969 the group recorded their first full album with Gamble and Huff, I Can't Stop Dancing, which reached number 28 on the R&B chart.
Charts
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
1 |
Recorded
- Taylor HicksTaylor HicksTaylor Reuben Hicks is an American singer who achieved fame in 2006, when he won the fifth season of American Idol. Hicks got his start as a professional musician in his late teens and performed around the Southeastern United States for well over the span of a decade, during which he also released...
covered the song on his 1997 album In Your Time. - The JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese electro-pop band Yellow Magic OrchestraYellow Magic OrchestraSakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
covered the song on their 1980 EP X∞Multiplies, adding the subtitle "Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!". - Melbourne, Australia based The BamboosThe Bamboos (funk band)The Bamboos are a Soul band from Australia.-Biography:The Bamboos were formed in 2000 in Melbourne Australia by NZ-born guitarist Lance Ferguson. The initial line-up consisted of Ferguson, Ben Grayson on Hammond Organ, Stuart Speed on Bass and Scott Lambie on Drums...
covered the song on their 2006 album, Step It Up. - Yo La TengoYo La TengoYo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
covered "Tighten Up" on their album, Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the ClassicsYo La Tengo Is Murdering the ClassicsYo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics is a compilation album by the band Yo La Tengo, released in 2006.Yo La Tengo supported the fundraising efforts of New Jersey's world-renowned independent radio outlet WFMU with annual studio visits...
. - R.E.M.R.E.M.R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
covered the song during the ReckoningReckoning (R.E.M. album)Reckoning is the second album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in 1984 by I.R.S. Records. Produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, the album was recorded at Reflection Sound Studio in Charlotte, North Carolina over 16 days in December 1983 and January 1984...
sessions in 1984 and their version was included on the 1992 The IRS Years reissue of the album. - Beau JocqueBeau JocqueBeau Jacques was an American zydeco musician active in the 1990s.Beau Jacques is known for his gruff vocals, his fusion of many musical styles onto zydeco, and above all, for the powerful energy of his rhythm and sound...
has recorded a smooth cajun/zydeco-influenced cover of this song. - Booker T and the MGs also covered this song.
- James BrownJames BrownJames Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
covered the song, a live version appears on the compilation album Soul Pride: The Instrumentals 1960-69.
Live
- The melody of the song was performed live many times by the Grateful DeadGrateful DeadThe Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, listed as The Tighten Up Jam. It frequently appeared during extended jam segments in their performances of Dark StarDark Star (song)"Dark Star" is a song released as a single by the Grateful Dead. It was written by lyricist Robert Hunter and composed by lead guitarist Jerry Garcia; however, compositional credit is sometimes extended to include Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, the late Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Bob Weir...
and Dancing In The StreetDancing in the Street"Dancing in the Street" is a 1964 song first recorded by Martha and the Vandellas. It is one of Motown's signature songs and is the group's premier signature song.-Martha and the Vandellas original:...
in late 1969 and 1970, as well as a single performance on October 31, 1971. - JamiroquaiJamiroquaiJamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...
coveredCover versionIn popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
the song on their 1993 "Emergency on Planet EarthEmergency on Planet EarthEmergency on Planet Earth is the debut studio album released by British acid jazz band Jamiroquai. Released in 1993, the album features strong elements of the mixture of the R&B, and funk genres, but it is notable for being one of the group's definitive acid-jazz albums...
" tour several times.
Samples
- A sampleSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
of "Tighten Up" was used in Janet JacksonJanet JacksonJanet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
's song "Free Xone" from her The Velvet RopeThe Velvet RopeThe Velvet Rope is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Janet Jackson, released October 7, 1997 by Virgin Records. Prior to its debut, Jackson had been at the center of a second high-profile bidding war over her recording contract...
album.
Answer records and parodies
- The Philadelphia-based rock group Nazz recorded a parody-of-sorts called "Loosen Up", which appeared on Nazz IIINazz IIINazz III is the third album by American rock band Nazz, released in 1970, one year after the group disbanded. The songs on the album consisted of tracks recorded in late 1968 and early 1969 for an intended double album, to be titled Fungo Bat. When a single album was released instead, an album's...
. - The Indianapolis-based group Billy Ball and the Upsetters recorded "Tighten Up Tighter," with vocalist Roosevelt Matthews mimicking Bell's vocal throughout the song. The original single was released on King Records and would later be reissued on the 2001 compilation The Funky 16 CornersThe Funky 16 CornersThe Funky 16 Corners is a compilation of funk songs and instrumentals recorded by little-known performers in and around Indianapolis, Indiana during the late 1960s and the early and mid 1970s. The album is one of many funk compilations released over the years devoted to the recording scene of a...
.
See also
- Hot 100 number-one hits of 1968 (United States)
- R&B number-one hits of 1968 (USA)R&B number-one hits of 1968 (USA)These are the Billboard magazine R&B singles chart number one hits of 1968:See also: 1968 in music, List of number-one R&B hits...