Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Oops Up Side Your Head

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Released
  
1979

Recorded
  
1979

Format
  
7" single, 12" single

Genre
  
Funk, P-Funk, disco

A-side
  
"The Boys Are Back in Town" / "Steppin' (Out)"(UK MERX2)

B-side
  
main title (UK MERX2) "The Boys Are Back in Town" (UK MER22/X22) "Party Lights" / "The Boys Are Back in Town" (Netherlands) None (France)

"I Don't Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops!)", (re-titled "Oops Up Side Your Head" on the single as well as being known by other titles such as "Oops Upside Your Head"), is a 1979 funk anthem recorded by the R&B group The Gap Band. Released off their fourth studio album, The Gap Band II, the song and its parent album both achieved commercial success.

Contents

The single was released in several countries in different formats. In the United States, it was a 12" with the B-side being "Party Lights". In the Netherlands, the 12" B-side was "The Boys Are Back in Town". In France, the single was a 7" with no B-side.

In the UK the track first surfaced in mid-late 1979 as the B-side of the 12" release of "The Boys Are Back In Town" / "Steppin' (Out)" (Mercury Records MERX2). Then in 1980, due to its popularity, was flipped and re-titled with just "The Boys Are Back In Town" as the B-Side (Mercury Records 7" MER22 / 12" MERX22). It was later released once again as the B-side to some copies of the remix version of "Party Lights" (Mercury Records 12" MERX37). In 1987, a 12" remix was released in the UK with a Dub version B-side (UK Club records JABX54).

The single became an international hit for the group upon its late 1979 release, though it failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at number-one on its Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart), the song hit the top ten on the US R&B and disco charts and became a big-seller overseas where it peaked at number six in the UK in 1980 and number six in the Netherlands.

Structure

  • The song, which runs for nearly nine minutes in the full 12" single version, features a driving bass-line with a simple repeated E-G-A-B pattern.

    • P-Funk influence

  • The humorous monologues throughout the song by Gap Band lead singer Charlie Wilson were inspired by his cousin Bootsy Collins' own humorous slant in his songs.
  • Wilson's spoken intro, "this is radio station W-GAP", was a reference to Parliament's opening line in "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)", "welcome to radio station W-E-F-U-N-K, better known as WE-FUNK."
  • The line, "the bigger the headache the bigger the pill, the bigger the doctor the bigger the bill" was said to be influenced by similar lines from Parliament-Funkadelic in the mid-'70s including the line "the bigger the headache, the bigger the pill" in "Dr. Funkenstein". The Jack & Jill line would later be continued on their next anthem, "Humpin'".
  • The horn break is a direct lift from the intro to "Disco to Go" by The Brides of Funkenstein.
  • The band made little use of the synthesizer prior to this song, and the use of the synthesizer expanded with each passing album. By 1982, most of the band's hits were synthesizer-laden electrofunk.
  • The Gap Band III featured "Humpin'" and "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" which use even more synthesizer than this song.
  • By Gap Band IV, almost all the songs which were not quiet storm ballads were heavily laden with synthesizer. The use of synthesizers led to two songs, "Early in the Morning" and "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" topping the R&B charts in 1982.

    • Nursery rhyme allusions

  • (Jack and Jill) "Jack and Jill went up the hill to have a little fun/stupid Jill forgot her pill and now they have a son".
  • Their 1980 song, "Humpin'", also references Jack & Jill.
  • (Humpty Dumpty) "Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall/Humpty Dumpty had a great fall...I say he cracked on the whack!"

    • Also Little Miss Muffet is mentioned.

    Legacy

    The song is said to be one of the first songs to use hip-hop-styled monologues in a song. The song's success broke ground for the group, who would go on to become a successful R&B outfit throughout the 1980s. Today, it remains a popular song in the Gap Band's stable to this day.

    In the UK, this song is typically "danced" to by sitting on the floor in rows and performing a rhythmic "rowing" action. The origin of this unusual dance, unique to this track, is credited to DJ Nigel Tolley, and is very widely seen. It was especially popular during the 1980s.

    Sampling

    The song was sampled several times, especially during in 1990s G-funk era:

  • "Ooops Up" by Snap! (1990)
  • "Mo' P****" by DJ Quik (1992)
  • "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" by 2nd II None (1994)
  • "Strap on the Side" by Spice 1 (1994)
  • "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" by Snoop Dogg feat. Charlie Wilson (1996)
  • "Bring U Up" by Romanthony (2000)

    • In April 2015, it was announced that the writers of "Oops Up Side Your Head" had had their names added to the writing credits of Mark Ronson's hit single "Uptown Funk".

    References

    Oops Up Side Your Head Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA