Album: Up-Tight
Year: 1965
. . .
It was clear that Motown had no idea what to do with Stevie Wonder for the first few years of his career. Sure they got an early #1 single by weaponizing the thing they hated about him — his disinclination to leave any stage he was on — but after the fluke of “Fingertips Pt. 2”, just one misstep after another. And whether or not the tribute album to Ray Charles — you see, he was also blind and Black! — or Stevie at the Beach, an album of surf music, was more misguided is not for me to ever figure out.
And so, after Wonder went a couple of years without any chart success — there was actually talk about Motown dropping him, which would have been one of the greatest self-owns in music history — the decision was made to pair him with producer Hank Cosby and songwriter Sylvia Moy, and they collaborated on a great turning point of his career, the joyous horn-flecked “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” And in fact, every year until 1978 Stevie Wonder would have at least one single in the Billboard Top 10, which only stopped because he didn’t put anything out in 1979.
Anyways, “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” started off with a ferocious double-time snare beat from Benny Benjamin — stolen from the Rolling Stones “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction“, which of course wanted to be a Stax song and the circle went round and round and round — and a horn arrangment that danced out of the speakers, all of which set up Stevie singing about a relationship with a girl from the right side of the tracks.
I’m a poor man’s son, from across the railroad tracks
The only shirt I own is hangin’ on my back
But I’m the envy of ev’ry single guy
Since I’m the apple of my girl’s eye
When we go out stepping on the town for a while
My money’s low and my suit’s out of style
And while it’s never said explicitly, it’s definitely in the subtext of the song that the girl in question is white, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to the folks for whom that would be a problem, and that’s because Stevie is mixed a bit low on the verses and the only words that jump out are on the chorus.
Baby, ev’rything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight
Baby, ev’rything is alright, uptight, ha ha ha ha, yeah
Baby, ev’rything is alright, uptight, way out of sight
Baby, ev’rything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight
Also helping: Benjamin, who augmented his four-on-the-floor beat with insanely ridiculous drum rolls that helped take the song to a whole new level. Those drum rolls weren’t strictly needed to put the song over, but they do take it to an ever higher level, making it one of the most visceral of mid-1960s Motown singles.
And so “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” was a massive smash, topping the R&B charts and making it to #3 on the Billboard Hot #100. It was also his first charting single in the U.K., topping out at #14. Stevie Wonder had turned a corner, and there would never again be talk about Motown dumping him. It’s also, like James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” a 60’s soul song that can be inserted into any TV show or film over a montage of people having fun, totally ignoring the subtext. In fact, we just watched an episode of Apple TV+ show Bad Sisters that did just that!
“Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”
“Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” Live in Glastonbury, 2010
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