Ross D. Wyllie – Do The Uptight

This 45 isn't exactly unknown & actually got a fairly wide international release on a bunch of different labels, but it just so great that I believe it needs to be heard by more people.  This a great example of how a song can stand out as a jewel or anomaly from the output of an otherwise unremarkable artist.  This 45 is Australian & is from 1968, it is hands down one of my favorite Australian soul 45s (admittedly there aren't a heap to choose from). 

Ross D. Wyllie was the presenter of the 'Uptight' TV show in Australia at the time & I guess this was a sort of theme song for the show.  'Do The Uptight' was the flip of his 'The Star' single which is a saccharine, string filled pop-ballad later covered in the UK by Herman's Hermits.  Both sides of the 45 were written by Johnny Young, who was a producer of the 'Uptight' TV show & had been a huge pop star himself in mid-sixties Australia before unsuccessfully trying his luck in London & then returning to TV & focussing on songwriting back in Australia.

 The reasons I love this song are primarily for the out of control drums that come in a various stages & the fact that I am a sucker for sixties soul 45s about dance crazes of the time.  My girlfriend hipped me to this record when she blindly bought a copy at a thrift store in the countryside outside of Melbourne in 2006 for something like 50c.  When she got back to Auckland & played it we both flipped out at how great it was & also how it had never crossed our paths before.  I managed to find this copy earlier in 2007 while on a digging trip to Christchurch.  I think it may have been comped at some stage, but whatever the case, a great, cheap 45 that you shouldn't pass up.

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Filed under: 45's and 7's, Garage / Freakbeat, Pop / Rock, Soul / Funk