857 Stevie Wonder “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” 1965

“When they finished working and released the record in December 1965, ‘Uptight’ exploded with a funky, exuberant expression of the gospel vision. Paying Stevie’s debt to Ray Charles in full, the song’s celebration of redemptive love rang out in a stirring call and response with the chorus of voices that was transforming the American soundscape…Most white rockers set themselves up in defiant opposition to the stifling worlds where they’d grown up. Wonder never gave a thought to rejecting his elders and ancestors. Backed by James Jamerson’s pulsing bass and Benny Benjamin’s thunderous drums, Wonder joyously declares himself a poor man’s son from the wrong side of the tracks” (Craig Werner, Higher Ground, 2004). 

Stevie Wonder “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”