There’s not much to Tighten Up beyond a funk groove, some handclaps, and Archie introducing himself before urging the listener to dance. But it’s a classic.

It’s credited to Archie Bell & The Drells but it’s a collaboration between Archie’s vocal group and a band called the T.S.U. Tornadoes (me neither) who had been developing this funky jam in their live shows in Texas.

A Texas DJ suggested they bring it to Archie Bell & The Drells and they recorded it together at the Jones Town Studio in Houston one night in October 1967. Quite what the other Drells did while Archie worked on his ad libs, I have no idea – I’m guessing they were the ones doing the handclaps.

Archie’s own contribution consists of bigging up the Lone Star state – a response to a disparaging comment he had heard after the JFK assassination in Dallas that “nothing good ever came out of Texas” – and encouraging us to dance along to the Tornadoes’ funky jam. Later in the song he goes further, confiding that “We don’t only sing but we dance just as good as we want.”

That dance was created by Archie’s bandmate Billy Butler, who supposedly tried to cheer him up after he got his US Army draft notice by showing him some nifty moves that he called the “Tighten Up dance.”

By the time the song became a hit – Atlantic Records picking it up after it took off in the Houston area – Archie had been drafted and was serving in Vietnam when it hit no.1, selling a million copies by May 1968.

Tighten Up proved so popular that at the 1968 Olympics an American sprinter, Wyomia Tyus, danced to the song as it was being sung and played on bongos by American fans near the start line of her 100 meter final. It did the trick – she went on to win the gold medal.

Despite their leader’s absence, the Drells rush-released an album containing more songs recorded at the same session with the Tornadoes, going on to make another with Philly Soul producers Gamble and Huff once Bell had been invalided out of the army after injuring his leg – wounded not in action in Vietnam but in a truck accident while stationed in Germany.