The song also appears in the 1995 film Mr.Bill Cosby is not related to the song's co-writer Henry Cosby. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.Ī note-for-note re-recording of Wonder's version was used as the backing track for Bill Cosby's 1967 musical comedy single, " Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)" which was a US#4 hit. The Funk Brothers – additional instrumentation.Ĭash Box described it as a "rhythmic, fast-moving, chorus backed pop-r&b ditty all about a lucky fella who’s got the world on a string." Personnel In 2008, Moy commented that "he never missed a beat" during the recording. She sang a line ahead of him, and he simply repeated the lines as he heard them. On the day of the recording, Moy had completed the lyrics, but didn't have them in Braille for Wonder to read, and so sang the song to him as he was recording it. Let's work with that.'" The resulting song, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", features lyrics which depict a poor young man's appreciation for a rich girl's seeing beyond his poverty to his true worth. "I asked, 'Are you sure you don't have anything else?' He started singing and playing 'Everything is alright, uptight.' That was as much as he had. As Wonder presented his ideas, finished or not, "he went through everything," remembered Moy. Nelson George, in Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound, recorded that Wonder had also sought something based on the driving beat of the Rolling Stones' " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", after playing several dates with the Stones on tour and being impressed with the British band. In addition, Wonder's voice had begun to change, and Motown CEO Berry Gordy was worried that he would no longer be a commercially viable artist.Īs it turned out, however, producer Clarence Paul found it easier to work with Wonder's now-mature tenor voice, and Sylvia Moy and Henry Cosby set about writing a new song for the artist, based upon an instrumental riff Wonder had devised. And despite receiving a modicum of chart success, the then 15-year-old Wonder was in danger of being let go. Aside from the US number-one " Fingertips" (1963), only two of Wonder's singles, "Workout, Stevie, Workout" (1963) and " Hey Harmonica Man" (1964) had both peaked inside of the top forty of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #33 and #29 on that chart respectively.
The single was a watershed in Wonder's career for several reasons.
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