Tighten up
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Added: 5 years ago
From: yaoyasan
Views: 440,187
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  • If you dig this song, you should check out Pete Donnelly's Cant Talk At All. Great video and song. Great dancing!

  • They probably learned how to read music. Most people who want to play instruments don't realize that the ability to read is the key. And yes, this tune was cool. I didn't know the bass player was white Cool.

  • I always liked this tune. I remember seeing this group on a teenage music TV show and was struck it included white musicians. I hadn't seen many integrated groups before. Let me now I had a chance to play R&B/Soul music too. I guess that's why I like Booker T and the MGs also

  • hi,y all

  • I love when they make it mellow!!!! This song will get play @ our wedding reception!!!!

  • George Foreman's favorite group!

  • @Jeishein would not even worry about a white man, black man, or blue man why???? Because he himself is a MAN. The word nigga is not saying nigger just a stupid ass variation of the original word. And the Honorable W. Deen.Mohammed is a truly TRULY righteous brother far more enlightened the kahn

  • @jeishein first and foremost Farrakhan has u brain washed broths, trying to find and fight an ancient battle against the white man lol. Secondly the white man has not locked us up and has us programmed and all that BS, 95 percent of the black men that are in jail are there because black on black crime is truly a mothafucka, last but not least, a true strong black man

  • @Robertsmith2002 abraham lincoln-emancipation proclamation-four score and seventeen years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men(and i assume women)are created equal and due certain unalienable rights. that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...dave kelly, songwriter.abe was a honkey.

  • The Enemy has you calling Brothers filthy names calculated to keep us locked up, locked down and locked out. You are either one of the Enemy or a Brother who is still unenlightened. In either case don't come at me with your Devilish vocabulary. You got the wrong strong, proud Brother for that.

  • Who says white men can't bass?

  • Under the authority of The Honorable Louis Farrakhan, it must be pointed out that these young Brothers are getting exploited before our eyes. The Enemy took our music, our dancing, our art sold it to America, and paid us pennies on the dollar, if that. The Enemy got these Brothers grinning, while they count the money in the back office.

  • @jeishein nigga puh leaze

  • @jeishein The White entertainers were and are exploited just like the Blacks. Elvis was practically broke when he died. He wasn't the only one. Think for yourself sometimes. You're being exploited.

  • Wow, super rare live version! Looks like you could strain something doing this dance.

  • And Sybil Shepherd was the actress ! Lol. It was a good show - Moonlighting.

  • I remember a TV series with Bruce Willis (he played an investigator with an Actress whose name I do not remember) and he came in the office singing Tighten Up. If anyone remembers this series can you please post the name and also who the actress was? Thank you for the posting.

  • congratulations to archie! he got married today :) i was the best man

    

  • @MrSky0224 boy, im havin trouble getting thru.third try.is archie still playing?if this gets through, please e mail me at odd4kelly@yahoo ,com.thanks d.kelly-songwriter,chgo.

  • 'The Tighten Up' was the sh*t in Houston,TX in summer of 1968.

    The song created a new dance by the same name.

  • The 19 mongs who dislike this need to see a doctor - there is some physiologically wrong with you people...

  • THANKS FOR POSTING !!

  • OHHHHHHHH BOY EVERYONE TIIIIII TEN IT UP!

  • @:23 i thought that martin luther king for a second

  • Thank You so Much for posting this!

  • This is one of my all time favorite songs for sure. i was 10 yrs old and would sing it in the living room and dance the "Tighten Up". Boy those were the days. i am 52 now and have recorded so much music from the past and play it and family gatherings/parties. I told my son (the oldest) to please please save my misic when im gone and pass it down for genorations to come. I LOVE all music.

  • @cisogonzales let me send you a video or two of my stuff i think youd appreciate. i was dancin to elvis 45s when i was seven.songwriter david kelly chgo.odd4kelly@yahoo.com

  • The dancing is hype. 5 star funkin'.

  • music went from being fun like this to "kill that n****" f*** those b****suck this that and the third...tragic.

  • And not just Tighten up.. The LIVE version of Tighten up. MY MAN!

  • what happened to black folks being this cool? all we have these days is soulja boy and t-pain.

  • 1972??? It was 1968 - lol

  • 1972??? It was 1969

  • danced on stage with him in 1997 in WV, I was only 9 or 10 but he taught me the tighten up dance

  • It is soul funky rap?

  •  That's cute dancing.

  • @Khultan lol

  • Archie Bell was just being interviewed by George Klein on Sirius Radio Elvis 24/7 very interesting. His brother played in the NFL and another brother in the NBA

  • awful, totally childish

  • they're doin the carlton at 2:30

  • @DMEN03 - and cotton eyed joe at 1:30 !!

  • @jmm1000

    The dance to this song had two other name's that I know of.....the Typewriter and the Four Corner's.. The music you have recorded, is truly a treasure...

  • skinny jeans? lol

  • just hearin this song for the first time. bangin!!!

  • @ bswarm187 I saw Archie Bell & the Drells at a club in Lexington, Kentucky in 1973. They were a lot more polished by then.

  • this video promotes the vision of stereotypical blacks..............

  • Archie Bell has a brother whom won the Heisman Trophy at what school?

  • During the Disco era I requested this song in NYC studio 54 and it was a still jamming yeah.Tiberious in LA and Sheik Ricks in Chi-town.Had a lot of partying.

  • There was no faking back then. You either had it or you didn't. Today's music sounds the same and much of it is overshadowed by sexual lyrics and gestures. The artist of old didn't have to rely on that.

    Old school ROOOOOCKS!!!!

  • negrotastic!

  • H-Town, I luv 'ya !! 3rd Ward, South Park, 5th Ward, Kashmere Gardens, Acres Homes , The Heights, East End and all other 'hoods, I salute you !!!

  • great song!

  • classic.....

  • bloods a rover, wayne tedr ow

  • This song was in the top 10 in the world charts in 1968

  • I LOVE THE WAY THEY MOVE..LOVE IT!!!

  • just love all the exuberance! And not a synthetic sound in sight! It don't come much better than this! GREAT posting!

  • tighten up with me (:

  • LOL, I remember some chick with a silver dress messed up this song at Apollo

  • It's all about Houston, Texas

  • the breakdown on this song is SOOOOOOOOOO hot to me. you had to have a lot of energy and stamina to be in a singing group back in the day. they danced the whole time. GOOD MUSIC NEVER DIES!

  • alright now lol.

  • I luv videos of OLD SCHOOL. Post them when ever you can

  • Is this the "Tighten Up" that the Black Keys are doing on their new album?

  • This song is so HOT!!! Who cares about the video, I just like hearing them!!!

  • Great Early Funk Song, The Dancing....... Not So Much. The line in "Tighten Up", "we dance just as good as we walk" was a little ironic, given that Bell had been shot in the leg and was consigned to a military hospital bed at the time. LMFAO.

  • this song is badass the vid def takes away from a good version, i like the dancing haha

  • i think he made this up on the spot when he told the promotor he had a song

  • what the hell is this?

  • alhajem, I am with you: what the hell is this????? Great song totally ruined by bad film......

  • @alhajem an awesome song

  • funny it is

    awesome? Far from it.

  • Bugging you are

    Out of your mind? without a doubt

  • dis song needs 2 tighten up

  • Bad Assssssssssss song

  • Happy Birthday My Brother Don Suazo. RIP. My brother.. I remember my brother playing this jam on the guitar. I miss you my Don.

    brother.

  • I think that Archie Bell's band was a university jazz band in Houston...the TSU Tornados

  • what the hell does having kids have to with this lousy backing band...huh??

  • bass player locked that pocket down wih a pick! hard to groove with a pick

  • if these guys were backing up James Brown, they'd be fired by the third measure. Christ- this band is so weak. It's actually so retarded it's cool. The track of "Tighten Up" is a different story of course- that thing was magic.

  • @RAM71 I hope you don't have kids. If you do...ease up!

  • @RAM71 Listen to the studio version. It is a little more polished. The sound system sucked. Not much of a song anyway.

  • Everybody in the band is white except the drummer. Word to the honky nation. Tighten up y'all.

  • Dude thats where they got the "Jerk" dance from see someone always copies the classics and makes their own dance by amping it up alittle...

  • lol at those 3 dancers

  • where do you find a dog with no legs?

    right where you left it!

  • i would like miss america tighten up on my johnson

  • So what part of what the guys in the front are doing is the actual tighten up?

  • let this comment in fall in there now, oh yeah!

  • I've heard that it's "just as good as we want" and that it's "just as good as we walk".

    Which is right?

  • Is the drummer Steve Irkle? Haha great song

  • I remember when this song came out. I was a little girl. My family drove out to Los Angeles, California and while there, we visited family. I remember watching in awe as a relative did the "Tighten Up", as I heard the song for the very first time. Even though I lived around the corner from Texas Southern University, the school of the backing band, the TSU Toronados, and even though I hailed from Houston, I had to go over a thousand miles before I heard the song for the first time. LOL!

  • I met a drummer in Clinton SC who claimed he played the the TUS Toronadas.who back Archie Bell.I Guess he wastelling me the truth.

  • I love that story. I lived in Houston and I believe Archie Bell & Drells were from around N. Shepherd area. They were great. Too bad you had to go to "La-La" land before you heard 'em.

  • @pgh45rpms, the TSU Toronados were from Texas Southern University in Houston.

  • We still dance just as good as we want in Houston. Even if it's kind of as bad as we want.

  • This is the song that should be playing in the Titans locker room. Their D needs to tighten up!

  • They will get back on track in like 9 hours,Jets luck is going to run out this week.

  • I am hoping so. With all that money they spent to tighten up the offense, it ironic that they are 0-2 (and comical, too). Anyway, I am hoping that they will get a W this week. Take care:)

  • Well I was wrong.lol

  • We both were, but, oh well!

  • Is that Earl Palmer on drums?

  • Is that Dennis Coffey on geetar??

  • I read that the Drells are the guys dancing to Archie's left. And the guys with the instruments were originally known as the TSU Tornados, from Texas State University.

  • I don't know who the white guys are in this video, but I assure you that they are NOT the TSU Toranados. TSU was at that time 100% Black, and the Toranados were students there. Just do a Google search and you will see what I mean.

  • I recently met the original bassist from this band! He is kool as hell and still has them funk skills

  • who waz he ?

  • A great song by a great band.

  • The drummer was tight! Archie was good looking.

  • Fellas....."Grab that pretty girl...and y'all get on that dance floor now"

    1972....good times....good times....

  • @Anglovox it was 1968 - not 1972 ;)

  • I would love to hear "Let's Groove". Does anybody have that? I can't seem to find it.

  • bring back memories from the project days in Atlanta. Hot summer days eating watermelon and rent parties and WAOK

    Back down memory lane...lol..lol

  • Bristol based proto-crusty funk band The Moonflowers covered this and I have to say it is rather good. Even for a band fond of stripping off naked at their gigs and wigging out. They were also responsible in part for knock out funk and groove night Dig In at various venues in Bristol.

    Sadly missed.

  • This is still a good tune, Lots of Soul and good beat,another Favorite.

  • Oh I get it, it`s one of those "sock it to me" songs.

  • Great track... but is there a better video version somewhere?

  • Oh so funny, first time I heard this song was in the local oldies station, then I was day by day listening to the station waiting for the song to be aired but it never happened for me. I never understood the name, I thought it was Titan up, so that's why I never found it in the records. Some coincidental search in hit lists of 1968 gave me the clue. I like this classic a lot, and I wasn't born by that time...

  • They need to tighten up the graphics

  • @bswarm187 it looks cool.

  • @bswarm187 This is from like 1969.

  • @bswarm187 This is from like 1969. This is sad though. This song was like #1 on every chart.

  • This is just good music. :)

  • im 11 and this is som good shit

  • 16* i love this shit

  • im only 29 but i love this music

  • Whomever is playing the bass is killin' it! That bass line is sweet - one of the best I've heard.

  • I picked up the bass because of this song. I met Archie in the mid nineties and told him so. He told me who played on the record but I can't remember his name

  • "Tighten Up" was frequently part of Prince's set during his stint in Las Vegas. Not sure if he's still playing it though.

  • JImi Hendrix turned the "Tighten Up" bass line into "Third Stone From the Sun".

  • Damn billphoria~ Yo Dog that GOOD?!!!

    You Need 2 Put his Azz on AMERICAN IDOL........ FO SHIZZLE MY NIZZLE!!!!!!

  • LOL, that was hillarious!! (You see he didn't respond!!)

  • Sorry you got me wrong.If I say "almost good as my dog";that's means almost as good MY God!! I LOVE Archie Bell,but ain't a soul in this world better than my dog! I wouldn't humiliate my BEST FRIEND;putting him on American Idol.That show is cruelty to humans...

  • That drummer is GREAT! I love him. I was in a band in college and played bass guitar on this song. Not really too difficult but a lot of fun.

  • Beautiful music, Archie Bell was the man!

  • I wasn't born at the time but I heard it for the first time on the first black radio station in the nation AM1070 WDIA. They still play the classics like this one and we are discovering great old school. Archie Bell and the Drells should sue GS Boys for stealing their dance. I smell lawsuit

  • Comment removed

  • this song is the shit

  • This is actually going to the Supreme Court because Archie Bell could categorically prove in this short video, that he and the Drells indeed invented The Stanky Leg! In a side note, my brother-in law, Stan Bradham, used to party with these guys and added some interesting variations to the tighten up dance.

  • OMG< i'm so glad someone else noticed this. We were at a family party and this song came on from one of my moms mixed CD's and the "older folks" started to dance. I took one look at it and I bust out, "OMG, It's the Stanky LEG!!" So now my cousin has a theory that all the young generation does is take preexisting dances and nasty them up..LOL Good times.

  • was reading an old, tattered copy of 'Dispatches' and saw this song in the front....what an era...

  • Oh ok, yo thanks man! The draft ruined a lot of lies!

  • I finally found this video of the audio I have :) KEWL!!!!!!!!!!

  • this is a song for Sam Farha

  • My mom's boyfriend saw these guys after 3 other headliners of the time had cancelled at his senior dance, Greenbriar Hotel @ White Sulphur Springs, WVA. Imagine this...if you will.

  • love it

  • As a teen I danced so hard off this song, I got a weeks worth of excercise done. The fun we had was incredible. No fears, and no worries. Didn't need "no drugs" to get high. Life was wonderful and the memories make it even better--to this day. I was on the floor and I did the "tighten up"!

  • sooooo goooood

  • i dance just as good as i want to... i think i have little desire though... :(

  • You know Arche Bell's brother Ricky Bell was a runningback for the Tampa Bay Buccanners in the late 70's and early 80's.

  • it's a shame that the nam war screwed his life up! such talent!

  • Vietnam screwed up his life? How?

  • Nothing like the old School wow!

  • Excellent!! Thank you for sharing!

  • damn sadly i heard the bamboo's version and i thought they made it up... im dumb! i was listening to URGE Radio on my tv and this song came up i was like WOW COOL!

  • damn yall r old lol jp....nuthin better than old school

  • staggering mate - what a great posting - luv this tune but never seen that piece of video - even with the slighty wonky sound it's brilliant !!

  • You can do it...just don't get too tight...

  • 1968- I was dancing on my Momma's furniture!!!

  • 1968 -- That was where I was dancing as well, when my mother wasn't watching (at four you have to).

  • yeah!

  • 1968 - I was doin the Tighten Up in my momma's belly. LOL X-D

  • I'm with Coming Up Brass and we got to be Archie's backup band a few years back when he would come to the Carolinas. He's great guy, very down to earth, and his wife was real peach of a lady. `

  • This song cracks me up..common now..lets do the tighten up!

  • I got to dance up on the stage with archie in memphis last year, at the Ponderosa Stomp. fantastic and still rockin'

  • We did the "Tighten Up" in Chicago in 1968 on WJPC -Thom Joyner's old station.

    I'm 45 and my older sister (who was 17 in 1968) and my older brother (then 15) showed me

    (then 5 years old) how to do the "Tighten Up").

    Chicago went crazy over the Tighten Up. I still stop and get chill bumps 40 years later

  • The drummer is SICK.

  • Not a bad song, but a silly-looking dance.

  • le plus beau groupe rythmique du monde !

  • im in the proses of makeing a skate vidio with this song in it

  • Fishsticks!

  • i rally like the diversity in the band i did not remember it being intergrated thought that was the doobies and kc, archie you are bad thanks for the music and your service to the country

  • You are right.  The TSU Toranados were Black. I don't know who the White fellows are.

  • i don't know what everyone is arguing about but, hey, this is a kickass song.

  • My dad came in second in a dance contest after dancing to this song.

    Yea, he's cool...and kinda old.

    :P

    this song is great.

  • real music, no digital programs or pro

    -tunes! everything you hear is from the heart and soul!!!!! too bad todays music doesn't have it

  • I agree 100%. Archie Bell is an honest act, true talent, great sound, and it felt good!!