Give Dick Clark credit with all those young people around him he never as involved in any scandals or bad press his entire life. He was one of a kind for sure can't be duplicated.
@@bbb8997 No Clark was smart enough to hide his payola (all the big DJs took money to play records at the timewake up) but Freed too the money didn't he? Seems to me one guy was smart the other a dummy who got caught and ruined his career.
@@bbb8997 A little more info for you about your hero Alan Freed who stole writing credits from performers and also stole their recording royalties. Dick Clark never did that to anyone connected to him. Next time do some research before you open your big mouth.
Can't argue with you about the Archie Bell tune but the one I remember that was most popular in my neighborhood in Chicago was "Nobody But Me" by the Human Beinz. Hot tune 🔥
Hearing this song makes me feel like an 11 year old kid again when I was grooving to this song on my 9volt Transister radio. It was such a groovy time despite the Viet Nam war and the political asisinations.
I was in the army stationed in Germany and Archie Bell was stationed in K-town at the same time. We had a band called the Profiles and he performed with us often. Along with Peaches and Herb and Lou Rawls and others.
I was 17 living in Watts....missed those days. Now I am 68. Hard to believe how time goes by so quick. All these young people, If they are still alive, are around my age.
Gilbert Sanchez I lived on Imperial Hwy, below Western Ave. I was 15 when they burned Watts. Were you there then? I remember the tanks coming down the street and the curfew.
i was born in 80 at kaiser in bellflower, while parents were living in compton. unfortunately I got to see the murders from the gang wars of the 80's 😢😢😢
Gilbert Sanchez: I was 12 years old in the late 60s while walking with a friend through a Watts neighborhood when a couple black teens looked at us and said: "Ooo, Ooo, you in da wrong neighborhooood". But I made it out alive obviously.
I was 16 and playing guitar in a local band. We probably played this song 2 or 3 times every dance night due to requests from the people. I’m 67 now and only play those memories in my mind.
"Tighten Up" was such a garage recording - not typical for Gamble & Huff, who produced the Delfonics and so many other great Soul artists. But what a soulful groove! You couldn't help but dance to it. Archie and his boys had it goin' on!
Gamble and Huff picked them up after this was recorded in Texas. Their next hits were produced in Philly, some written by Gamble and Huff. My memory may be fuzzy on this but close.
Thank you Archie for your service and thank you to all who served. I was born in '69 and I grew up a free American and I love and thank you all for that. Thank you for the excellent music too. Hugs G.
"Tighten Up" was brilliant, with its Garage Soul feel! We all wanted to dance just as good as we walked - and we DID whenever it came on the radio on 77 WABC in New York City. Thanks, Archie!
Notice how tight and skinny the men's slacks are? See nothing is new kiddies. I was 19 in 1968 and I had just bought a brand new Chevy Camaro in butternut yellow with a black vinyl top, black bucket seats, and black strips down the sides - we had fun back then.
I'm with you all the way, even though I was a child back then and did remember the songs that were playing on the radio back then and barely remember seeing this episode of AB
Archie Bell and The Drells played our Senior Prom, Forest Park H. S., Class of ‘69. We knew how to Tighten It Up. You put your left hand on your left hip, and pointed you first finger on right hand, and pretended it was a screw driver, and you were tightening it up! Rock with the Beat. Archie and Drells had at least 3 more hits, check them out!
I don’t know what most of them were dancing, but this little boy soaked it in, song, dancing, and all. I remember this! Still love Archie Bell & The Drells!
Thank you to all the brave people who went to Vietnam, sad some did not return home, when I look back on the music and dancing, everyone looked so nice, it was the best of times, the world is pretty sad now, just my opinion anyway.
I and Archie bell were both in boot camp at Fort Polk, Louisiana...He went to Germany to be a truck driver and I went to Vietnam to be a dog handler...Via Okinawa, where the dog school was... 1967.... ..this was all before Tighten Up came out...His people came to get him in a 57 Chevy Bel Aire...
Lovely to see those young folks get down to good music back in the day, I was just getting into my formative years, but it bring back good memories and lifts my spirits. Thank goodness for Dick Clark and his love for youth, dance, and music. RIP Mr. Clark.
TIME IT WAS AND WHAT A TIME IT WAS....IT WAS A TIME OF INNOCENCE A TIME OF CONFIDENCES LONG AGO IT MUST BE I HAVE A PHOTOGRAPH PRESERVE YOUR MEMORIES THEY'RE ALL THATS LEFT YOU!😢
Vietnam War an everlasting Legacy of Sorrow for our Boys! I have lived with this Grief all of my Life. 70 years old now, PTSD consists. I Thank God every day and Night and at the foot of my bed is a Tapestry of PSALM 23, it has carried me through Life for 30+years!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤Welcome home Soldiers! Jesus is Always With Us! AMEN and AMEN!❤
That had to be one of the best songs of 1968. I think I was 12 and my friend used to have crowed house parties on Sunday afternoon and we would get down!
What i really enjoy besides seeing the dancing and styles change over the years is reading the history behind each episode you post. Who everyone is, what's going on at that moment in time across the world or in the U.S. , little tidbits that make it more real. Thank you for taking the time to do some research and then post.
It is Aprl 23, 2020. I enjoy some of the past shows. This is one from 1968. Great to have actual instrumentals and songs with no profanity and degrading lyrics. I also would had loved to be a dancer on a television dance show. Not all desires are fulfulilled. I can see that they were enjoying the music and dancing to it.
How many people here know that Charles Robinson (Mack from Night Court) was in Archie Bell and the Drells before they hit it off? They were even on an episode that paralled his actual story with them.
I'd rather have the bike than the radio that the girls got. Lol! Those companies got their advertisements in with the product give aways. Mr. Clark was an awesome announcer.
Yeah... The "Good People" days of church bombings... The My Lai Massacre... The Manson/Tate murders... The Kent State shootings... Sorry. That "good ole days goodness" is a myth.
KindaLikeWater Thank you for the Reality Check. People are *still good:* What’s changed is the hype inherent in the 24 hr. “News” that hypes Fear and Divisiveness (as well as good ol’ sex) because they sell.
I saw Archie and his guys on the NJ Turnpike! It was a Sunday afternoon in 1976.I was driving from Philadelphia to North Jersey when I came alongside a silver Cadillac with this stenciling on the driver's side door:ARCHIE BELL AND THE DRELLS. The windows were blacked out,so I could not see inside. Things went along swimmingly for about 50 miles,with each of us passing each other depending on the traffic flow.Then,I lost them. I saw them again,stopped on a safety island in the middle of the road,with all of them outside of the car looking up at the road signs atop the highway,attempting to figure what fork in the road to take to get them to the right part of NYC.I assume that the State Troopers finally got them going in the right direction.
Shortly after this hit, Archie Bell was drafted and went to Vietnam. He came back and recorded some more. Love Archie Bell and the Drells from H Town !
when I was little this was our song in my neighborhood back home in N.C., and yes, we were tightening it up bigtime outside cause we weren't, allowed into the "juke joints" , back then those places were for worldly adults only, we could hear the jukebox just fine outside where we would cluster around the door begging for spare change.
Then came "wolfman Jack" with the " juke joints" on AM radio til he had to go "out-law" then he was on any freed up number on the dial but it the signal had to be found.
Are you kidding me I had that exact little indian mini bike all chrome 2 speed, LOLOL the first thing I learned was how to take the govener off for more speed
I was a junior at Wilmer-Hutchins high school just south of Dallas when this song was all over AM radio KLIF and KBOX . Memories of girlfriends Kay, Melanie and Susan. Hope they are still around and rockin to the sixties!
When this great dance song was sky rocking to the top of the music charts,Archie was in Vietnam and shot in a rice patty in Vietnam.Luckily he survived.
![Tighten Up 1/2 [Bernard Perdie, Chuck Rainy, David T Walker, Lou Donaldson ...and more !!]](/img/n.gif)
1968, i was in Vietnam then, came back in 1969.. at least i came back, a lot of my bros didn't make it...god rest their souls!
Thank you for your service terry wheatley. I’m glad you made it home.
Thank you for your service. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude. God Bless you .🙏❤️
As a daughter of an enlisted Navy officer and Vietnam veteran, thank you (1M times) for your service. F*** those people who didn't welcome y'all back.
@C Hoc Oh you're very welcome - anytime! I'm all about it :-)
terry wheatley ...thank you for your service. My brothers made it back home also. So thankful for each and every one of you.
Give Dick Clark credit with all those young people around him he never as involved in any scandals or bad press his entire life. He was one of a kind for sure can't be duplicated.
Payola , & Freed was railroaded.Dick Clark threw Jerry Lee Lewis under the bus, total scumbag Clark was
@@bbb8997 No Clark was smart enough to hide his payola (all the big DJs took money to play records at the timewake up) but Freed too the money didn't he? Seems to me one guy was smart the other a dummy who got caught and ruined his career.
@@bbb8997 A little more info for you about your hero Alan Freed who stole writing credits from performers and also stole their recording royalties. Dick Clark never did that to anyone connected to him. Next time do some research before you open your big mouth.
yes
"Tighten Up!" was probably the best dance record of the late 1960's. It still gets me up and moving 52 years later!
altfactor It was used in an insurance commercial too.
absolutely impossible to dance to in its day..compare this to some of the others,,,,big difference.
altfactor ....love this song 🎶
Can't argue with you about the Archie Bell tune but the one I remember that was most popular in my neighborhood in Chicago was "Nobody But Me" by the Human Beinz. Hot tune 🔥
@@philipcollins408 I love Nobody But Me!!
Hearing this song makes me feel like an 11 year old kid again when I was grooving to this song on my 9volt Transister radio. It was such a groovy time despite the Viet Nam war and the political asisinations.
Me too
I was in the army stationed in Germany and Archie Bell was stationed in K-town at the same time. We had a band called the Profiles and he performed with us often. Along with Peaches and Herb and Lou Rawls and others.
So cool! Thanks for sharing
WOW that must have been something!
Was Archie in the Military or just there performing?
@@matrox He was in the army.
@@chicmim ✊😁
I was 17 living in Watts....missed those days. Now I am 68. Hard to believe how time goes by so quick. All these young people, If they are still alive, are around my age.
Gilbert Sanchez I lived on Imperial Hwy, below Western Ave. I was 15 when they burned Watts. Were you there then? I remember the tanks coming down the street and the curfew.
i was born in 80 at kaiser in bellflower, while parents were living in compton. unfortunately I got to see the murders from the gang wars of the 80's 😢😢😢
@@jazziehuell816 One of the reasons we left S. Cali.
Gilbert Sanchez:
I was 12 years old in the late 60s while walking with a friend through a Watts neighborhood when a couple black teens looked at us and said: "Ooo, Ooo, you in da wrong neighborhooood". But I made it out alive obviously.
@@mimilong3817 - Unlike MLK and RFK, in 1968. And so many thousands of others.
I like the lady dancing like a go go dancer. She was the one really dancing by herself. She had soul for real @5:06
Archie Bell, from Houston, Texas was wounded in Vietnam....thanks for your service mr Bell 😊🇱🇷🇱🇷
Jesse, Had no idea. He had a great sound.
Thanks for some truth on this post. Respect to Mr. Bell. And he's still with us. :)
He didn’t know he had a hit record until he heard it on the radio!
Would he be the only Vietnam vet with a hit song?
I didnt know this
"Tighten Up".....this song always makes me happy and takes me back to wonderful, innocent times💖
We dressed so cool😎
Loved this time in my life I won best dancer in High School I loved this music better then today’s Music!!
Before bell-bottom jeans. 👖
When dance was normal
I was 16 and playing guitar in a local band. We probably played this song 2 or 3 times every dance night due to requests from the people. I’m 67 now and only play those memories in my mind.
❤️🌟
Are you still playing guitar?🧐
No, I don’t play the guitar anymore and I’m now 70. Playing the guitar by myself is not the same pleasure as playing with the whole band.
@@MrRotcehzepol True...why not go to craigslist and hook up with some musicians? I play keyboard and am about to do that now.
I used to love to see American bandstand those were the good old days on 75 and I still like to dance to that kind of music
"Tighten Up" was such a garage recording - not typical for Gamble & Huff, who produced the Delfonics and so many other great Soul artists. But what a soulful groove! You couldn't help but dance to it. Archie and his boys had it goin' on!
Gamble and Huff picked them up after this was recorded in Texas. Their next hits were produced in Philly, some written by Gamble and Huff. My memory may be fuzzy on this but close.
We gone make it mellow fa you now, we gone make it mellow now-- sounds good because it’s the original sound, and the original sound is the best sound.
Thank you Archie for your service and thank you to all who served. I was born in '69 and I grew up a free American and I love and thank you all for that. Thank you for the excellent music too. Hugs G.
Awww what a nice comment yes we are thankful to our vets❤
Thank you? They were drafted, forced.
@@laverdadescatolica5well they still went . They could've went to Canada or claim objector status .
I love these old TV shows with the commercials built into them. Love the styles of the times!
Houston STAND UP !!!!!! Some of the sickest bass lines ever
"Tighten Up" was brilliant, with its Garage Soul feel! We all wanted to dance just as good as we walked - and we DID whenever it came on the radio on 77 WABC in New York City. Thanks, Archie!
You can't help but to start dancing when Tighten Up comes on.
This record was most appropriate for a late 1960's rock 'n roll dance contest.
Maybe the best dance record of the late 1960's!
Notice how tight and skinny the men's slacks are? See nothing is new kiddies. I was 19 in 1968 and I had just bought a brand new Chevy Camaro in butternut yellow with a black vinyl top, black bucket seats, and black strips down the sides - we had fun back then.
I'm with you all the way, even though I was a child back then and did remember the songs that were playing on the radio back then and barely remember seeing this episode of AB
I had a 67 Camaro - white with orange racing stripes. I miss those days. Boy, am I old!
cool cars.... and I drive a Honda. lol
I was 17 years old and my first car was a1964 Pontiac GTO..you don't know what you have until it's gone!😉
When I came back from nam I bought my sister's car 1969 came to coupe, best car I ever had. Now dive a civic hehe
Love these songs from the 60's
Archie Bell and The Drells played our Senior Prom, Forest Park H. S., Class of ‘69. We knew how to Tighten It Up. You put your left hand on your left hip, and pointed you first finger on right hand, and pretended it was a screw driver, and you were tightening it up! Rock with the Beat. Archie and Drells had at least 3 more hits, check them out!
Beaumont, TX?
Forest park Springfield Massachusetts?????
Chicago, IL area.
@@gregrichard2719 Yes, at a Hotel along Interstate 10 across the highway from Gateway Shopping Center.
I use to watch this when I was a kid those were the days.😘
Great song! I was in 6th grade in '68. Those kids had soul! ❤👍
My brother danced on that show back around 1969.
Oh boy. This is top notch.....
Archie and the Drells, you send me way back! Makes me want to dance!👍🏾
I don’t know what most of them were dancing, but this little boy soaked it in, song, dancing, and all. I remember this! Still love Archie Bell & The Drells!
I remember watching American Bandstand! I was 9yrs old in 1968…also still listen to Archie Bell & the Drells Tighten Up! 👍🏼
Thank you to all the brave people who went to Vietnam, sad some did not return home, when I look back on the music and dancing, everyone looked so nice, it was the best of times, the world is pretty sad now, just my opinion anyway.
Attention dancers on this video, if you are reading this let us know what an an amazing time you had !
USA music was amazing then!!!! Time to bring it back.
I and Archie bell were both in boot camp at Fort Polk, Louisiana...He went to Germany to be a truck driver
and I went to Vietnam to be a dog handler...Via Okinawa, where the dog school was... 1967....
..this was all before Tighten Up came out...His people came to get him in a 57 Chevy Bel Aire...
Do you remember where you were on Okinawa? I spent 13 months there later on Aug74-Sep75, Camp Foster
.
I love that crazy ‘60s dancing. So cool.
oh to go bak to those years.......
archie bell was in the army when this became a hit
Yep I'm from Houston Texas and it's always a club Hit till this day!!!
I can see why Gretchen and Buddy won this contest because both of them fully connected with the song which was reflected in their dance moves.
I remember this one. Tighten-Up was one of my favorites. I really miss Dick Clark. '68 was a long hot summer. Chicago riots and the Summer of Love
Man! They could dance back then.
I was 13 yrs old and boy could my girlfriend dance.....she did teach me how to dance.
Tighten up was a dance that I can still do!! My son, an 80’s baby, loves this song!!
Lovely to see those young folks get down to good music back in the day, I was just getting into my formative years, but it bring back good memories and lifts my spirits. Thank goodness for Dick Clark and his love for youth, dance, and music. RIP Mr. Clark.
TIME IT WAS
AND WHAT A TIME IT WAS....IT WAS
A TIME OF INNOCENCE
A TIME OF CONFIDENCES
LONG AGO IT MUST BE
I HAVE A PHOTOGRAPH
PRESERVE YOUR MEMORIES THEY'RE ALL THATS LEFT YOU!😢
They should have done the tighten up' dance with the song. It was a fun dance. My older sisters taught me how. Lol!
They're JAMMING!! Love this & American Bandstand wow the memories ♥
WOW…. I remember thinking how cool those prizes were!!! I turned 12 that year & loved watching “American Bandstand”. 💕💕💕💕💕💕
I remember that song at the only dance I went to in junior high.
These young couples all look so cute, like theyre having some fun. Do young folks even dance anymore now a days?
The best American generation !!!
I was in 4th grade when this song came out. We did the tighten up at my 9th birthday.
Vietnam War an everlasting Legacy of Sorrow for our Boys! I have lived with this Grief all of my Life. 70 years old now, PTSD consists. I Thank God every day and Night and at the foot of my bed is a Tapestry of PSALM 23, it has carried me through Life for 30+years!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤Welcome home Soldiers! Jesus is Always With Us! AMEN and AMEN!❤
Late 60s, can’t describe it but loved almost all of it.
Always fun to look into a time capsule; keep up the good work!
Hello Cynthia, How are you doing?
It's time to do the tighten up!!!
I drank many a Henninger beer listening to this song while stationed at TAB, Spain. it was playing constatnly in the NCO club. Good memories
Just had to pop on here again and say I LUV, LUV THIS SONG!!! Thanks for posting this!!!
Ricky Bell, USC running back great, was Archie's brother... he played for Tampa Bay, and died very young...
Im 73 and I can still Tighten up. Lol! Loved those days in High School.
That had to be one of the best songs of 1968. I think I was 12 and my friend used to have crowed house parties on Sunday afternoon and we would get down!
omg the couple AND their parents!! wow!!
This song always makes me happy to.
☝😪I always wanted a Lil Indian mini bike or any mini bike in 68'. I finally got one a few years later in the early 70s.✊😁
I remember this dance contest as if it were yesterday!
What i really enjoy besides seeing the dancing and styles change over the years is reading the history behind each episode you post. Who everyone is, what's going on at that moment in time across the world or in the U.S. , little tidbits that make it more real. Thank you for taking the time to do some research and then post.
Thank you Teckla Williams. I really appreciate that
I loved looking at this dancing show when it started in 1963 and I am now 74 yrs. And still love the oldies best years.
He said "This is Archie DELL once again"...LOL!! Robert at 67.
It is Aprl 23, 2020. I enjoy some of the past shows. This is one from 1968. Great to have actual instrumentals and songs with no profanity and degrading lyrics. I also would had loved to be a dancer on a television dance show. Not all desires are fulfulilled. I can see that they were enjoying the music and dancing to it.
I used to watch ABS in the late 50s from my baby crib.☝😝
I was 10 years old. I'm 65 now. Love AB n Dick Clark. ❤️
Thanks for posting this great blast from the past!
You are most welcome, glad you enjoyed it!
How many people here know that Charles Robinson (Mack from Night Court) was in Archie Bell and the Drells before they hit it off? They were even on an episode that paralled his actual story with them.
Interesting. thanks for the information
WOW! Amazing! Thanks!
I didn’t know. Thank you for the informatiom
Very cool!
I liked that, knowledge, thanks for sharing.
I was drafted in the Army in 1968
Archie Bell and The Drells straight outta Houston, Texas.
I like the couple doing all the twirling and little dipping. I love to dance like that.
I'd rather have the bike than the radio that the girls got. Lol! Those companies got their advertisements in with the product give aways. Mr. Clark was an awesome announcer.
Thank u for your service
BACK WHEN PEOPLE WERE BASICALLY GOOD!😢
What the hell happened to them ? Weve got to get humanity back.
Yeah... The "Good People" days of church bombings... The My Lai Massacre... The Manson/Tate murders... The Kent State shootings... Sorry. That "good ole days goodness" is a myth.
KindaLikeWater Thank you for the Reality Check. People are *still good:* What’s changed is the hype inherent in the 24 hr. “News” that hypes Fear and Divisiveness (as well as good ol’ sex) because they sell.
@@KindaLikeWater Depended on where you lived in this country. Those were", good ole days" to some of us.
Too many spoiled ,rude brats under the age of 30 today
I saw Archie and his guys on the NJ Turnpike!
It was a Sunday afternoon in 1976.I was driving from Philadelphia to North Jersey when I came alongside a silver Cadillac with this stenciling on the driver's side door:ARCHIE BELL AND THE DRELLS.
The windows were blacked out,so I could not see inside.
Things went along swimmingly for about 50 miles,with each of us passing each other depending on the traffic flow.Then,I lost them.
I saw them again,stopped on a safety island in the middle of the road,with all of them outside of the car looking up at the road signs atop the highway,attempting to figure what fork in the road to take to get them to the right part of NYC.I assume that the State Troopers finally got them going in the right direction.
it would be nice to see some complete shows!! sometime
love this song!!! and this show.. great times!!!
that's some dancin!!!
"Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro was #1 for several weeks, until this song "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells of Houston, Texas.
The boy & girl both win a car winning the dance contest hell yeah!!
Shortly after this hit, Archie Bell was drafted and went to Vietnam. He came back and recorded some more. Love Archie Bell and the Drells from H Town !
It would be 2 more years before I made the scene, but I have to say, these folks was GETTIN DOWN in ‘68! 💯
when I was little this was our song in my neighborhood back home in N.C., and yes, we were tightening it up bigtime outside cause we weren't, allowed into the "juke joints" , back then those places were for worldly adults only, we could hear the jukebox just fine outside where we would cluster around the door begging for spare change.
Then came "wolfman Jack" with the
" juke joints" on AM radio til he had to go "out-law" then he was on any freed up number on the dial but it the signal had to be found.
Thanks so much for these AB episodes. I also enjoy reading all the information in your description section.
Some of those couples were doing the hustle it looked like!
😥 man this song is it
I was at the boys ranch in hahira ga. I was in the eight grade and went to hahira jr. Highschool
I miss that time and all the kids i knew.
Thanks. Perfect example of the record sounding better in original mono.
Maaan, they was gettin down back in ‘68! 2 whole years before I made the scene! 💯
Are you kidding me I had that exact little indian mini bike all chrome 2 speed, LOLOL the first thing I learned was how to take the govener off for more speed
I was a junior at Wilmer-Hutchins high school just south of Dallas when this song was all over AM radio KLIF and KBOX . Memories of girlfriends Kay, Melanie and Susan. Hope they are still around and rockin to the sixties!
When this great dance song was sky rocking to the top of the music charts,Archie was in Vietnam and shot in a rice patty in Vietnam.Luckily he survived.
Dancing was really dancing when they were still in Philly. These guys can't hold a candle to the Philly group.
May 1968 : I was 7 years old. The oldest in my family, a sister, was 16 . We just moved to California from the east coast There was 8 of us
God bless you
15 in that great year
I was still 7 light years from Earth in 1968.
I probably watched this when it was first broadcast as a little kid.
Loved this tune back in spring 1968 when I was in 7th grade, Davey Junior High, Kent, Ohio.