Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
7:32
Wake Up Everybody, 1975
Written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

This is the longest song ever posted to the blog.  Its album is the last to include Teddy Pendergrass before he left the group for a solo career.  This soul anthem is uplifting and positive. Rather than preaching politics, it asks teachers, doctors, and leaders to do better, trusting that the next generation will respond in kind: "Wake up, all the teachers, time to teach a new way / Maybe then they'll listen to whatcha have to say / Cause they're the ones who's coming up, and the world is in their hands / When you teach the children, teach 'em the very best you can."  The arrangement is as uplifting as the message. Shimmering keyboards, lush strings, bright horns, and a gently insistent rhythm build into something both grand and graceful. As the song gathers momentum, Teddy Pendergrass' husky vocal takes command, starting quietly before building into a near-sermon.  It's one of the great soul vocals of the 1970s.