Monday 27 July 2009

STEVIE WONDER - UP TIGHT (TAMLA 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve





"Uptight" was one of those albums that really didn't have a bad cut at all, and you could listen to both sides, all the way through, without your interest waning. The year started with the single of the title song still high in the top ten. Next, came a single whose both sides were equally good: the driving "Nothing's Too Good For My Baby" backed with a hypnotic ballad, just right for Stevie, "With A Child's Heart." Summertime saw a slightly edited version of "Blowing In The Wind" (a near-duet with Clarence Paul) climb high on the pop chart and to No. 1 on the R&B. The LP also reached back to January 1963 to carry the pre-`Fingertips' single, "Contract On Love." The album contained another duet as well: Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops giving Steve an assist on "Teach Me Tonight." Nowhere on the cover was this mentioned - you got the surprise when you played the record. "Hold Me," also, became a strong B-side in 1967 for "I Was Made To Love Her."
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"Uptight (Everything's Alright is one of his most popular early singles & it was the first Stevie Wonder song to be co-written by the artist.
The single was a watershed in Wonder's career for several reasons. Aside from the number-one hit "Fingertips", only two of Wonder's singles had reached the Top 40 of Billboard's 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, Wonder's 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 Wonder's now-mature tenor voice, Sylvia Moy and Henry Cosby set about writing a new song for the artist, based upon an instrumental riff Wonder had devised. On the day of the recording, Moy had the lyrics, but didn't 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 (Everything's Alright)", features lyrics which depict a poor young man's appreciation for a rich girl's seeing beyond his poverty to his true worth. A notable success, "Uptight" peaked at number-three 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 single's success.
Here

6 comments:

vincent the soul chef said...

Another excellent choice... I still have a dusty copy of the original vinyl in mono, and still enjoy it to this day. Top work once again.

Peace and blessings.

Gerard said...

Thank you for this upload!

Anonymous said...

Marvelous!
Rubens Dantas

College Research Papers said...

good and interesting

Term paper help said...

Excellent Article! Thanks very much for the info, and I will be writing my own (admittedly simplified) article on this shortly.

Custom Home Detailing said...

Stevie Wonder is a classic. He will go down in history. He is a very good man and we wish him well.