Today’s classic song of the day is “Wake Up Everybody” by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, with Teddy Pendergrass on lead vocals. Released as a single in November of 1975, this tune peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, #15 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart.
“Wake Up Everybody” was written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden, and Victor Carstarphen. The track was produced by Philly Soul legends Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, recorded at Philly’s Sigma Sound Studios (with the house band, MFSB, providing instrumental backing), and released on the Philadelphia International Records label. The song was the centerpiece of the Wake Up Everybody album and so long it had to be divided into two parts on sides A and B of the single.
Here’s what producer Kenny Gamble remembers about “Wake Up Everybody”:
“Well, that song is self-explanatory, because it is the way the world is right now. People living in darkness. They’re living in darkness right now, because they’re not treating each another with love and affection. People are killing babies. They are killing and shooting. The bottom line of all this stuff here is that if you don’t take care of your young then, who will take care of you? We must take care of our young and train them and teach them. Education is the number one thing. It always has been and always will be. We’ve got to teach our young. We’ve got to teach them how to survive and how to deal with one another so that they can survive, because otherwise, they won’t survive. People had to and still have to wake up. I remember the day that we set foot in that studio, and when I heard them chords, I said, ‘Man, that’s it. This is going to be a monster.‘”
“Wake Up Everybody” is a message song, in the same vein as Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” The lyrics describe the issues of the time—hatred, war, poverty—and call for people to “wake up,” engage, and make a difference:
Wake up, everybody
No more sleepin’ in bed
No more backward thinkin’
Time for thinkin’ ahead
The world has changed so very much
From what it used to be
There is so much hatred
War and poverty
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 comin’ up
And the world is in their hands
When you teach the children
Teach ’em the very best you can
The world won’t get no better
If we just let it be
The world won’t get no better
We gotta change it, yeah
Just you and me
It’s just as relevant today as it was fifty years ago.
To cap things off, here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day. It’s Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, with Teddy Pendergrass on lead vocals, singing the single version of “Wake Up Everybody” on Soul Train back in 1975. As the lyrics say, “The world won’t get no better, we gotta change it, yeah, just you and me.”
