Archie Bell & The Drells - Tighten up (1968)

[b3parker]

this will be stuck in your head for the rest of the month.

[madmax6144]

I have to admit, I don't even remember what the tighten up looks like, guess they're doing it in the video, just loved the song, red light parties in the basement.

[paintingsofpayne]

Thumbs up if anyone can still do the tighten up! Real music!!!!

[italiano718923]

I like this song but the remake from Yellow Magic Orchestra is better.

[RudeeGirlAlways]

@italiano718923 no its not his is the best

[oldschoolbx1970]

Although this came out three years before I was born,I gotta say that this is alos real music,too.

[ClassicTV4U]

When Archie Bell laughs as the bassist gets funky, that's the 1968 version of saying, "Yeah, that's the s#!t..."and when they "make it mellow", that's the musical version of an orgasm! Bonus points to Moraito for giving us the Lp version of this great soul classic.

[FrankinKal96]

DAT BASS

[trinitylancer]

I remember this song from June of 1968 as I finished up my freshman year in high school. Maybe around the time Bobby Kennedy was shot. The song was different and had what I thought of at the time was an appeal to even our parents since to me it was a rather soothing mellow song with great instrumentation.

[MrTony2575]

no one has any idea of the ramifications this record had in the south bronx. man everyone just dropped and tightened up big time. we capatilized on this texan original in the north east.

[chrislomas1]

Pure Brilliance !!

[lovelymzc]

I love this music.

[MegaKillWhitey]

BLACK PRIDE

[IH8H8]

Yep... Saw them at the " Sky Hop" in Olathe , Ks.in 1968...

Sounded original and we boggied!..Got pretty wasted too..

Now does that mean 'smoked-up' or 'drank-up"???

Either way it was a very good evening!!!

[kayin4o8]

i like macaroni and cheese

[HristinceTince]

I like potatos.....

[zapme9]

Sounds just as good as the day it came out back when a was a very young kid, growing up in the heart of S.F.  Cheers to timeless soul.

[sfgeminiman78]

It was a lowrider oldie in east san jose - great song to dance to at parties

[TheMrMegasamurai]

21 people can tighten up their Bieber and Gaga suitcases and get outta here.

[connie390]

@TheMrMegasamurai HaHa , I love that .

[cagervin]

This was dance craz!



[differentandalike]

God this song reminds me of growing up and how my dad, stepmother, other family, neighbors would play poker, drinking alcohol, dancing while we played as kids. Great memories.

[wordsworth64]

Soul me!

[protocol183]

love is the strongest emotion God gave us.respect ur bodies ,they are ur temples and u will be much happier with less drama

[billeybop]

I was 16 and she 35. I remember saying this to her as she took my boy-hood! Damn :)

[ohtxin]

Let me tell you, that I'm gonna be 59yrs. old and I can still "tighten up" like I did when I was at Mc Reynolds Jr. High in Houston Texas when this song came out! Heck, we thought we were so tuff cuz Archie Bell was from Houston, Texas and was played across the Country!

[MrZoWii]

Love this song

[kolardkid]

@MrZoWii

I remember when I first heard this song. My dad was about ready to go to Vietnam, for the second time. 173rd ABN. I always wanted to go to Houston, TX. LOL

[sweetlove1171]

monster bass!!

[benkatz80]

shut up giuseppe!!!

[eyvonne2006]

WHEN THIS RECORD CAME OUT I WAS LIVING IN DEERFIELD,BEACH FLORIDA.ON A FRIDAY NIGHT A LOT OF STUDENTS MEET AT A REC.FOR DANCING AND MEETING OLD AND NEW FRIENDS I MIS THOSE DAYS GOING TO POMPANO,BCH. SENIOR HIGH

[bullroper100]

@eyvonne2006 i was at northeast high class of 78 and we still liked this song

[lorrainegate]

The summer of 68,

Such a good time,

Still love this song, thanks for posting : )

[jakeleonardis]

Like this if ADVERB brought you here

[MrZoWii]

@jakeleonardis Na some movie brought me here

[504deebo]

Just saw Jimmy Kimmel on SNL using this classic as the background music to his skit. Nice Skit with a spin on Classical artists. LMAO!!!

[bps3013]

19 people need to tighten the f up.

[personagirl82]

Janet sampled this song on the Velvet Rope album

[personagirl82]

"eh, Pepe go for the face!"

[mobedick175]

oh my God, my grandma and grandfather danced to this in 2010 4th of july both were in their late 60's at this time. R.I.P grandma love and thanks for putting me on to THE TIGHTEN UP

[tvjeff53]

This is a great song I heard this when I was a teenager this is a classic and great old school

[106salem]

I have a friend who was their keyboard player back in the 70's! Great, Great tune and definitely a classic!

[01slover]

WOW 

[TheDolla100]

OLD SCHOOL CLASSIC!!!!!!!

[Drewmann45]

cool as fuck

[Launchballer]

Disappointing. This doesn't match the quality of some of their later work such as Don't Let Love Get You Down and even The Soul City Walk.

[mdhbigdog]

I love the hand clapping half way through.

[tonicforyoursoul]

Feel-good stuff!

[pompadourssuck]

holy shit



[TEJANO4LIFE]

Oh Hell Yeah Baby! Do it!

[ohtxin]

I was attending Mac Reynolds Jr. High in Houston, Texas and we thought we were so fine! Our school could dance up a storm! I LOVE IT! Those were wonderful memories for my siblings and me!

[saclrpfrl10]

LOVE the clapping (We're gonna make it mellow now)

[myfavedj]

If you like the Tighten Up you should check out Pete Donnelly's Can't talk at all. Great song and video with some awesome dancing.

[MsSuggestions]

This song was out the year I married I dance to this song cool

[MrsCharmaine25]

Another great song. I'm only in my late 30's and this song makes me feel that i was there!!

[kcmoviefn]

This song was number one when I was born...cool!!

[FreddieFlute]

@kcmoviefn same for me! Love it.

[Foxrrob]

I was in the Army the same time Archie Bell was and we were both stationed in Germany pretty close to each other. His brother played football for USC.

[LaVraieMomJojo]

This is the song of my birth

I NEVER heard it! My mother might well have given birth to me!

Ma mère peu bein avoir accouché de moi!!! Calvaire! LOL

[calboy2]

yay, this was #1 when I was born!

[jekiwe]

archie was wearing a U.S. Army uniform at the time this song was on the charts in the spring of '68

[joshua626]

@jekiwe How do you know that?

[upinhere7]

I too was 13 when this song came out, back in 1968. Loved it so much I played it in a R&R/R&B bar band that played guitar in for a number of years the the early-mid 70s in northeast Ohio called City Liights.

[eightdock]

I was 13 when this song came out.Im a good white boy who has loved this song for a thousand years. My favorite song ever.

[croutonthegreat]

Pepe go for the face!

[thaknotty1]

BASSLINE STILL FIYIAH!!...LMAO....TIGHTEN UP NOW!!....CTFU!

[onemeanscorpio]

The base line on this song was "FIYAH!!!!

[Casimmortal]

im 15 years old and i can apretiate this old school type music

[GiantDoucheNG]

@Casimmortal thanks for sharing. when i was 15 it wasn't cool to advertise the fact that you were 15. shut up and listen xox

[Geistclan]

oh, music for "them" people. no thanks.

[bjggjb]

I guess you'd call this proto-rap? (Or the oldest of old-school rap?)

[shihobo]

You'd better　look YMO's “Tighten Uｐ！”

[jazz1bro]

One of the first songs I played on guitar in a teenage band!

[gracefulmiracles]

Yep, I remember dancing to this will Willizie Nelson in cafeteria, 1968, 7th grade...Ha! Use to drive my mom nuts as I would play it over and over and dance in the kitchen...fun!

[comando0220]

There is a dance called the "tighen up". You will get a work out. Mannnnn what a song!!!

[superstaris1987]

@comando0220 lol.. My mom taught me the tighten up..

[jbrown081001]

I met one of the original Drells about two years ago. He said Archie bought a house and was quickly bamboozled into losing almost everything he had by unscruplous realtors, fans, everything. Hes said almost all of them have nothing they COULD have had, but they still love to sing and dance.

[shihobo]

It's funk,funker,funkest !!!



[galenmark]

I got plenty tight back in the day....

[woody231979]

My music teacher used to play this. Its also a good song to wake up to in the morning to get ya goin' on your way to work or school or whatever. Just smooth and soulful.

[italiarovinata]

Does anybody know who's the drummer in this track?

[robj1men]

At twelve I Only wanted to learn the tighten up! To this day I can still only to the tighten up.

[mamaprissy29]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!

[RonSafreed]

Some years back I was part of a group that played mainly Christian/Gospel music. One day we had a laid back practice session& our leader wanted us to learn this song-well we learned it, sounded almost like Archie&his group were playing at my house. Also the memory of hearing this song back in 1968 when I was 12 years old came back-been in love with this song ever since-lol.

[RAMLIA1]

So good!!!

[mesparzax1]

ahh yeaaa..

[GODSANGELTWO]

if you want to hear something funny i like a song that came out the year i was born 1/29/68

[sweetlove1171]

ahh tighten up on that bass...monster bass...back when real bands

hard & strong...none of that modern stuff yet!

[gorgonique]

This great song figures prominently in the James Ellroy novel, "Blood's a Rover", the latest in his Underworld U.S.A. series.

A senile J. Edgar Hoover decides that it sounds subversive and orders a file opened up on Archie Bell. From then on it keeps popping up amidst the intrigue, playing on radios and jukeboxes. At one point a Hubert Humphrey campaign speech is disrupted by a go-go girl who jumps up on stage and strips to "Tighten Up."

[SooperKewl]

Archie Bell said the reason he reps "Houston, Texas" in the spoken intro at the beginning of the song is because in the wake of the JFK assassination a famous DJ had disparaged his home state by saying nothing good ever came from Texas.

"We were from Texas and we were good, so we just let everybody know up front."

[SooperKewl]

Actually Archie Bell denied that the line was "we dance just as good as we walk."

In his interview with Michael Corcoran, he said the line is actually "we dance just as good as we want." "Hell, we dance a lot better than we walk."

[oleskool61]

in 1968 I was only 6 maybe 7 years old (late birthday month) and I remember like it was yesterday my mother dancing to this song, it has been an old time favorite for many years. Thanks for bringing back the memories.

[MEGATDWILLIAMS]

I GREW UP ON THIS KIND OF MUSIC. ITS TIME TO JAM.

[g00704285]

going out to my carnal in virgina eddie olfon heres a shout out carnal love you brother miss you mom mom does to when you coming home brother your sister from blythe/califas/ send me a kite if you no my brother

[ripjohnnyi]

a bunch of skinny white guys are playing the horn section in this song.

[miffedmax]

@ripjohnnyi

Hey, my kid's a skinny white guy and he's a hella funk horn player!

[ripjohnnyi]

archie was older than ricky ricky bell was born around 54 archies hit songs came in 68 do the math. lol

[uselessjoe]

Archie's oldest brother was Ricky Bell, famous USC running back and 2nd in the Heisman vote...

[LuvsNeoSoul302]

This is a tiny bit before my time BUT shout out to ButterBall & his Oldies from Philly WDAS FM 105.3 on Sunday nights, introduced me to this when I went out on a limb to listen to what "Oldies" were, and I heard it for the first time in the early 90's along with a gang of good music. Funny how times change now that I'm good and grown, best believe where you can find my dial Sunday @ 7, getting my mind right for another work week.

Gotta LOVE that hand clap and u can't help but dance!!!

[justTrinidad]

Do it to it Archie - Lol

[MsTburch]

Eighth grade spring song! Loved it then, love it NOW!!!!!

[bettyfelon1]

This always makes me think of David Addison. Moonlighting, anybody?  He loved this kind of music as much as I do.

[coldgamesLUPIN]

金麦はいい曲選びをした

[con44af]

will always be a very cool song!

[Polentakid]

Didn't Homer Simpson do this song with his one man band?

[VisionofOrion]

@Polentakid LOL thats funny because I just did a search for that.

[The60sfanatic]

@Polentakid Yep. "Hi everybody, I'm Archie Bell and I'm also The Drells." Hehe.

[ohtxin]

WHEN THIS SONG CAME OUT I WAS AT MC REYNOLDS JR. HIGH IN HOUSTON, TEXAS AND WE THOUGHT WE WERE SOOOOOOO BADDDDD ! ! !

[pmax57]

Imagine being a soldier in Nam and hearing your record has become a hit. Of course if he had been a college student he would not have to be in Nam!

[MrErnie408]

w.c.overfelt high school , san jose ca,

[Raquel5750]

OMG! How excellent is this, it was fabulous in the 60's and now...... music today can't compare, Thank you for the memories, God Bless:)

[daverow49]

We called it R & B back then. We now know it as Funk. The backline is what distinguishes it. Guitar and horns are funky too:)

[missfrostproof07]

this reminds me of Sing it Back from Moloko

[Gmancrap]

Kitty Craft would approve.

[demonmama]

that bass is like butter

[towerful1]

Oh hells yeah!

[EUROPLANNER]

MY wife and I saw Archie Bell and the Drells sing this at the Mannheim Germany NCO Club in 1970 or so.

[kONflictOD]

@EUROPLANNER Mannheim in the House!!!!! 2000-2005

[miseththeymiseththey]

Someone help me please, I can't stop dancin! I need an intervention like now. The replay link is my finger working like an auto pilot. And the PAUSE button is disabled.......The drums & bass line is Krackin!

[jko3139]

@miseththeymiseththey Sadly, I can help. The band did an add for a recycling and energy usage program. the commercials consist of them running around a house changing regular light bulbs for energy efficient ones. One of those things should have never been done!

[lucripet]

Like a lot of us white guys back then...being..Tightened Up was what the nuns taught us to do. Regardless...great tune...brings back memories....good ones...!

[cindygibbsbarfield]

Tighten up folks...doesn't this song make you wanna dance your booty off>???

[wklosek42]

his brother was ricky bell the great USC running back

[RoadNasty]

I was in tech school in the Air Force at Shepherd AFB Texas when this came out that spring/summer of '68 - good memories!

[Welshbluesman]

14 people are misanthropes....word of wisdom, don't thumbs down this song around a bunch of Vietnam war veterans...they loved this song!

[tp10488]

goddamn this song makes me smile. I don't get the same feeling with music these days.

[ootake]

かっこよすぎでコーヒー吹いた( ﾟдﾟ )

[ssur55]

Funky drums and bass.

[StarBucks718]

HOMER SIMPSON FTW!!!

[danpfd]

How can anyone... ANYONE, dislike this???!!!!!

[TheDlopez1994]

going out to my carnal in virgina his name is edward olfon love you brother this is for you this is his song if you no my brother send a kite i'm trying to get a hold of him please send a shout out to me soldiergirlsoldada13@yahoo.com if you no him

[Vikramlabuchette]

NIP TUCK



[alinoon55]

there has been no music like this since

[sexyabby1]

The music from the 60s and 70s will never die! Woo-Hoo!!!

[AlexKidd91]

Yellow Magic Orchestra version was also amazing.

[AlexKidd91]

Yellow Magic Orchestra version was also amazing.

[Zeppolino100]

Man, this starts grooving and never stops! Rightly deserves its ranking in top 500 greatest songs of all time.

[blackandtanful]

栄光､永久不滅のｷﾞﾀｰ･ｶｯﾃｨﾝｸﾞ､ｱｰﾁｰ･ﾍﾞﾙｽ­ﾞ&ザ･ﾄﾞﾚﾙｽﾞ･････TIGHTEN UP!～SO FUNKY!

[ElCid48]

I remember there was a second part to this song. No much singing and with the same funky sound and theme. Correct me if I got confused with another song by the same group.

[Cherokee9021]

I remember the fast foot work I did to this song. My those were the good old days. I am going to teach my 5yrs old granddaughter how to dance to this song.

[cindygibbsbarfield]

this song is awsome,, dance music,, whether it;'s tighten up dance or not..haha

[FSBMoneyGang]

it's the light skin Kid with the $Million $Dollar only i can do th!s.... *King *Jeffrey shout's 2...*King, D.J *Cam, *Born X *Musia D.J *Plexx... S&S..

[ocmar0415]

Brilliant music.

Greetings from Belgium.

[dancingmckay]

I like the slow part!

[yankeespy3]

What's a Drell?

[drelle504]

@yankeespy3 I'm a Drell! Actually. I'm Eddrelle! How are you?

[Graldaddy]

The guitar is irresistible

[GamecubeLPs]

Now this is real music! :D

[jarlcarrerorl]

THE TSU TORONADOS!!

[looploopok]

levi straight leg jeans, tee shirt , sir jack barracuda jacket, black low cut chuck taylors.those were the days

[championcole]

We lived on the same block in L.A. It made our neighborhood like Beverly Hills!! Ricky Bell made it to pro football....R.I.P.

The good days.......we're all connected through memories in music....

[moxie96]

check out the nazz's parody of this called loosen up!

[mthomas437]

yaa!!

[issy3607]

Love this one thanx for posting KTF xxxx S-T-O-M-P-

[ruler1978]

happy 67 bday archie

[MultiGemini666]

That´s so cool...

[msdelphine100]

WHEN TIMES WERE FUN....I MISS THOSE DAYS.

[JoeySunB]

... ever hear "loosen up " by the Nazz ????

[mattgendron]

thumbs up if you did the fishstick

[DancingSpiderman]

Gave mysef muscle cramps doin the Tighten Up

[vukovich45]

Forget the 1993 stuff...go for the real deal Archie and the Dells C'Mon Man..!

[doug092250]

This is great..still looking for T U 2...will blow yer mind

[aidanday]

Haha big time stereo



[SneakerZeeker]

Amazing song

[libbystu1967]

There will never be another dance song as good as this!!! FUCK disco!!!

[fishstory]

A REAL TIGHT PHILADELPHIA BAND - THE TORONADOS -PLAYED THE BACKGROUND ON THIS ONE. PHILLY HAD SOUL. HAD.

[raygu1818]

This is a great song. It's sad how black artists were treated back then. They

weren't even allowed to have their photo on the cover. Atlantic did the same type

cover for the Barkays debut album Soul Finger.

[nametakenuse]

@raygu1818 With all due respect, the statement you made is not correct. Did someone teach you this? If you walked into a store that sold LPs, (not just 45s) in 1969 you would have seen everybody from the then late Nat Cole and Dinah Washington to Nancy Wilson and Jimmy Hendrix (and many, many, other "black artists") staring back at you from the jackets and posters. That is what I saw. There were big time problems with the record producers and companies, like who got paid, how much and when.

[vintageclassik1990]

One of the best compostisions of live instruments I've ever heard. And Archie Bell's chill voice makes it all the better.