Uptight (Everything's Alright)

Album

Older

Label

Tamla

Genre

Funk

Composer(s)

Stevie Wonder;Sylvia Moy

Entered Chart

Dec 18, 1965

Peak Date

Feb 12, 1966

Released

November 22, 1965

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Tamla 54124

B-Side

Purple Rain Drops

Stevie Wonder was clearly a genius, and proved it in 1963 with his #1 hit "Fingertips (Part 2)," which was taken from an impromptu live recording. Motown Records put plenty of promotion behind him (getting him appearances in the movies Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach), but they couldn't get his talent to come across in a studio recording. With the top Motown producers passing on Stevie, it was looking bleak until he started working with Sylvia Moy and Henry Cosby. Moy had Stevie play her different song ideas he had come up with, but wasn't impressed with any of them. Pressing to make sure he didn't have anything else, Wonder reluctantly played her something he had been working on: a ditty where he sang, "Everything is alright, uptight." Moy likes what she heard and helped him develop the song along with Cosby. The song went to #3 in the US and from that point forward, Wonder was a regular at the top of the charts. In this song, Wonder is in bliss because he has found the girl of his dreams. He's dirt poor, but it doesn't matter because he's in love. Loggins & Messina expressed a similar sentiment in their 1972 track "Danny's Song." Wonder received his first songwriting credit for his work on this track. Just 15 years old it marked his first UK hit and his first US Top-10 since his days as "Little Stevie Wonder." In his teenage years, Wonder honed his craft under the tutelage of the Motown staff, and in 1969 he negotiated a deal that made him one of the first artists to write, produce, arrange, and perform his own songs. In 1972, Wonder was the opening act for The Rolling Stones on their North American tour. Stevie and The Stones didn't interact much offstage, but near the end of the tour, Wonder would join the band on stage to perform a medley of this song and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," which became a highlight of the performance. "We did it once and it was so exciting that we decided to just keep it in," said Wonder.

Baby, ev'rything is all right, uptight, out of sight
Baby, ev'rything is all right, uptight, out of sight

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

But it's all right if my clothes aren't new
Out of sight because my heart is true
She says baby ev'rything is alright, uptight, out of sight
Baby, ev'rything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight

She's a pearl of a girl, I guess that's what you might say
I guess her folks brought her up that way
The right side of the tracks, she was born and raised
In a great big old house, full of butlers and maids
She says "No one is better than I", I know I'm just an average guy

No football hero or smooth Don Juan
Got empty pockets, you see I'm a poor man's son
Can't give her the things that money can buy
But I'll never, never, never make my baby cry

And it's all right, what I can't do
Out of sight because my heart is true
She says baby ev'rything is alright, uptight, clean out of sight

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