♪ Tighten Up ♪
James Brown's version of Tighten Up (1968)
And the original Archie Bell and the Drells version
Saturday, May 24, 2008 | 10:30 PM | Permalink
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Thanks for posting! That's been one of my favorites since I found it on one of those Atlantic R&B retrospectives.
Need to play it as the backdrop for the financial news...
Posted by: deejayoh | May 24, 2008 10:46:33 PM
In all fairness, Archie Bell was a DJ in Houston, and the Drells were a TSU lab band, if I remember correctly. Fun, you gotta admit. But admittedly, no Maceo Parker.
Posted by: Paul | May 24, 2008 11:29:12 PM
i chuckled a bit when i saw Archie's "greatest hits"
A & the Drells were 1 hit wonders as far as i knew, with "tighten up" occupying a place in the soul/funk pantheon akin to "angel baby".
Raw, fucked up, simple beyond belief, human scaled and COOL.
Posted by: brion | May 25, 2008 2:20:45 AM
Actually, Brion, Archie and the Drells had many hits over the years, first as a soul/funk band in the late sixties, and then as a soul/disco outfit on TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia -- the label of Gamble and Huff and many excellent soul/disco artists) in the mid-seventies. And his voice is excellent throughout.
Search for Archie on YouTube, and you will find many songs, although they are skewed to the TSOP era.
Thanks for this, Barry.
Posted by: Jim | May 25, 2008 3:10:14 AM
Love It. When I was a student in the 60's at the University of Illinois Larry Lujack a Chicago radio DJ broadcasted a mythical football game featuring the Illinois football team (one of the worst in the nation) against Archie Bell and the Drells. Instead of the National Anthem Archie played "Tighten Up." Funny, funny skit. Brings back memories. That's why I read this blog.
Posted by: Jesse Livermore | May 25, 2008 5:35:43 AM
Trivia point from the Houston area:
Charlie Robinson, who played rhythm guitar for Archie Bell & The Drells, was also 'Mac' the court clerk on 'Night Court'.
Posted by: ed in texas | May 25, 2008 2:04:23 PM
Simple tune, fun to play and watch people dance to this song. I played organ for a seven piece dance band(soul and rock music) in '68 and '69. This was a very popular dance song at that time. Brings back memories. Thanks Barry.
Posted by: Clay | May 25, 2008 5:05:51 PM
Simple tune, fun to play and watch people dance to this song. I played organ for a seven piece dance band(soul and rock music) in '68 and '69. This was a very popular dance song at that time. Brings back memories. Thanks Barry.
Posted by: Clay | May 25, 2008 5:06:48 PM
Simple tune, fun to play and watch people dance to this song. I played organ for a seven piece dance band(soul and rock music) in '68 and '69. This was a very popular dance song at that time. Brings back memories. Thanks Barry.
Posted by: Clay | May 25, 2008 5:06:59 PM
I grew up in the Galveston-Houston area and remember seeing the TSU Tornados many times during the '60's...really great band in their own right...I think they were the lab band that eventually backed Archie Bell...
Posted by: Meredith | May 25, 2008 5:23:54 PM
Fun stuff, JBs guys are smoking and relentless.
Posted by: catman | May 25, 2008 8:15:16 PM
If my earlier post which appears 3 times resulted from something I did, please accept my apology. Not sure how that happened.
Posted by: Clay | May 25, 2008 8:31:28 PM
hey barry-
since you like the JBs. Check out our premium content experiences at Getback.
I love your blog and think you should write we should syndicate some of your content on getback and provide your readers our original videos.
call me!
Posted by: fitzjohn flynn | Jun 4, 2008 10:13:58 PM
