UpTight | ||||
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Soundtrack album by | ||||
Released | January 1969 | |||
Recorded | 1968 | |||
Studio | Stax Recording Studio, Memphis | |||
Genre | R&B, instrumental rock | |||
Length | 35:34 | |||
Label | Stax | |||
Producer | Booker T. Jones | |||
Booker T. & the M.G.'s chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
UpTight is a soundtrack album by Southern soul band Booker T. & the M.G.'s for the film of the same title. The album features "Time Is Tight", the single version of which became a US Top 10 hit (the second biggest of their career) and a signature song for the band.
The version of "Time Is Tight" included on the UpTight soundtrack album is an alternate recording, which differs from the single version in several respects: it is in stereo, it is played at a faster tempo, it runs almost two minutes longer (4'55"), and it includes both an extended introduction and an instrumental "breakdown" (beginning around 3'30"), neither of which are in the single version. "Johnny, I Love You" (the B-side of "Time Is Tight") features a rare vocal by keyboardist Booker T. Jones. Judy Clay provides vocals on "Children, Don't Get Weary."
The album was recorded at Stax Records' studios by Ron Capone, produced by Jones, and was overdubbed and mixed at Ardent Studios by Steve Cropper and Terry Manning.
The album charted at number 98 on the Billboard 200 album chart and number 7 on the Billboard R&B albums chart.
Village Voice critic Robert Christgau called it a "superb score" [1] and later said that until the band's 1971 Melting Pot album, UpTight was the exception to the "somewhat mechanical, boxy rhythms that always made their albums boring even though the individual cuts were unexceptionable". [2]
"Time is Tight" was covered by the Clash on their 10-inch vinyl Black Market Clash LP in 1980 (and later on their Super Black Market Clash CD) and by Paul Shaffer on his 1993 double CD The World's Most Dangerous Party .
All tracks composed by Booker T. Jones, except where indicated
Booker T. & the M.G.'s were an American instrumental R&B/funk band that was influential in shaping the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul. The original members of the group were Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the Mar-Keys, the rotating slate of musicians that served as the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor and Albert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, including the 1962 hit single "Green Onions". As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of its era.
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"Time Is Tight" is an instrumental recorded by Booker T. & the M.G.'s for their soundtrack to the 1968 film UpTight.