"Tighten Up/I Can't Stop Dancing" by ARCHIE BELL & THE DRELLS – Two US Albums Originally Released April and December 1968 on Atlantic Records in Stereo, Plus Bonuses (November 2004 UK Rhino/Warner Strategic Marketing Reissue – 2LPs Remastered onto 1 CD with Five Bonus Tracks in the 'WSM Soul Masters' Series - Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...You're Mine..."

A very cool reissue indeed from 2004 (if not a tad forgotten in 2021) - loads of primo 60ts Atlantic Records Soul (two whole albums worth), Five Bonuses that include Three Unreleased and all of it in raucous remastered Stereo. And it's cheaper than a Steak and Chips at a Houston hoedown (their hometown). Let's do the monkey time and tighten up to the details...

UK released 15 November 2004 - "Tighten Up/I Can't Stop Dancing" by ARCHIE BELL & THE DRELLS on Rhino/Warner Strategic Marketing 5046-76155-2 (Barcode 5050467615526) offers 2LPs from 1968 Remastered onto 1CD with Five Bonus Tracks (WSM Soul Masters Series) and plays out as follows (68:10 minutes):

1. Tighten Up (Pt. 1) [Side 1]

2. Tighten Up (Pt. 2)

3. I Don't Wanna Be A Playboy

4. You're Mine

5. Knock On Wood 

6. Give Me Time [Side 2]

7. In The Midnight Hour 

8. When You Left, Heartache Began 

9. A Thousand Wonders

10. A Soldier's Prayer, 1967

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album "Tighten Up" – released April 1968 in the USA on Atlantic SC-8181 (CSG Stereo)

NON-ALBUM SINGLES:

11. Dog Eat Dog (April 1968 US 45-single non-album B-side to "Tighten Up" on Atlantic 45-2478)

12. Tighten Up (Pt. 1) Original Single Version (April 1968 US 45-single non-album B-side to "Tighten Up" on Atlantic 45-2478)

13. I Can't Stop Dancing [Side 1]

14. (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay

15. Do The Choo Choo

16. You're Such A Beautiful Child 

17. Monkey Time 

18. Do You Feel It ? [Side 2]

19. I've Been Trying 

20. Jammin' In Houston 

21. Love Will Rain On You

22. Sometimes I Wonder

Tracks 13 to 22 are their second studio album "I Can't Stop Dancing" – released December 1968 in the USA on Atlantic SD-8204 (Stereo)

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED SELECTIONS:

23. Low Down

24. Going Out Of My Head (Demo)

25. Who's Loving who (Demo)

Most folks will settle for the four-pound costing budget CD "The Platinum Collection" that came out in March 2007 as part of Atlantic's 60th Anniversary celebrations. But although its 20-track selection from all three of their Atlantic Records albums (that also includes four non-LP single sides) represents great value for money - the gatefold slip of paper that came with all of those budget compilations tells you bugger all. 

Here in this 2004 dedicated release you get a 16-page booklet with typically in-depth and informative liner notes from CHARLES WARING - a name you see across large amounts of Beat Goes On (BGO) Soul and Jazz CD reissues and a contributor to many key magazines like Blues & Soul, Mojo and Record Collector. His booklet gives you background, photos and publicity shots of the finger-clicking four boys looking dapper in their matching suits, label repros of those fab 45s and a track-by-track credits section. 

The cool extends also to new DAN HERSCH and BILL INGLOT Remasters from original tapes - Audio Engineer names generic to every Rhino CD reissue for decades. And the STEREO (some re-processed) is fab throughout. Spending the few more quid on this specific reissue is way better than a budget presentation - more thorough with those bonuses too. To the dancing daddies of Houston, Texas...

Forgotten gems include the smooch of "Love Will Rain On You" – a leaving me plea to deaf ears. "Dog Eat Dog" - the rare non-LP B-side of their first British 45 "Tighten Up" on Atlantic 584 185 (May 1968) is a welcome addition to CD - great 60ts Soul (a bit rough around the two-minute edges in the Mono audio department it must be said). The string-drenched/high-vocals of "When You Left, Heartache Began" has adorned Northern Soul compilations for years – its joyous oh girl chorus feeling like a celebration rather than relationship misery. That debut also sported the classy shuffler "You're Mine" and even if his vocal-delivery feels ever so slightly off – it so works – all feel as he promises to never let his girl go. 

And they dance too – the "Tighten Up" 45 was huge – catching the dance-crazes of 1967 and 1968. The identikit Tighten Up opener to their second LP "I Can't Stop Dancing" is a masterstroke – similar to the previous Funky Beat tune but just different enough (and check that flicking guitar). They cover the Major Lance hit "Monkey Time” with a shouting come-on-and-do-it version while their Otis Redding nod to his anthem "Dock Of The Bay" is perhaps too reverential to the original. "Do The Choo Choo" is awful - a poor attempt at a dance craze after the number one success of "Tighten Up" on both sides of the pond.

For sure it isn't all genius and some say that this kind of late 60ts Soul has a dated feel now more than five decades on (2021). But for me, there is a dance and make a fool of yourself in the living room infectiousness to Archie Bell & The Drells that I love - and I keep coming back to those soft-centre slowies too that I admire more and more as the years pass. A sweetheart of a release really, and recommended like a Bass Jam in Houston...

PS: 

Their third album "There's Gonna Be A Showdown" would appear in August 1969 on Atlantic SD-8226 and is also subject to a November 2004 CD Reissue and Remaster (use Barcode 5050467615625 to locate it). It features the 12-track LP in Stereo with a huge 15 Bonus Tracks, 10 non-album single-sides and Four Previously Unreleased.