(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Archie Bell & the Drells - "Tighten Up"
Hit Number 1: May 18, 1968
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
After JFK was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, a 19-year old Archie Bell heard someone comment "Nothing good ever came out of Texas". Well being from Houston, this didn't sit too well with him. He wrote a song called "Tighten Up" with the help of another guy named Billy Butler, and Bell, along with his group the Drells, recorded it in October 1967. On the recording, Bell and the Drells were joined by a band called the Toronadoes. (That's really how they spelled it, and it's not to be confused with the Tornadoes, a band that previously appeared in this blog) The Toronadoes, just like Bell and the Drells, were native to Houston, and they performed the song live a few times before recording it with Bell and his band. So Bell figured this would be an appropriate time to call out any possible Texas haters. At the beginning, Bell can be heard saying "Hi everybody, I'm Archie Bell & the Drells of Houston, Texas, and we don't only sing, but we dance just as good as we want". He said he wanted to send the message that "we were from Texas and we were good".
Unfortunately for Bell, he was drafted into the Vietnam War not too long after recording "Tighten Up", so he never got to see how his song fared. It first picked up steam in Houston, where it became a hit, and eventually it was picked up by Atlantic Records for distribution in the Spring of 1968. In the summer of that year, Bell had the most popular song in the country, and had no idea because he was serving the country in Vietnam. Even though Bell was unavailable, the rest of the band rushed out an album upon the success of "Tighten Up". No other hits came from it.
"Tighten Up" is hardly even a song. It's mostly a bunch of funky grooves from horns and guitar struts, along with hand claps and Bell yelling "Tighten up", with other commands to his group. He sings a little bit, but there's nothing to note about his vocal performance. Those groovy riffs are what the song relies on, but it still works pretty well. The song is still a good deal of fun, and the "Tighten Up" became a notable dance for a brief time. It's also one of the first funk records to become a hit, which is a genre that would take off in the 1970s, making "Tighten Up" a precursor for future music, and a gateway for a whole new genre. It's a little bit of a rough draft for funk music, but it's a decent, quality rough draft. It was something to build off of. So even though Bell was in a different country when his song was #1, and he never scored any other big hits while back in America, he has a lot to be satisfied about with "Tighten Up".
GRADE: 6/10
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