A-side "Tighten Up" Released 2010 Genre Blues rock
garage rock | B-side "Howlin' for You" Format CD
music download | |
Recorded Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Muscle Shoals, Alabama | ||
"Tighten Up" is a song by American rock band The Black Keys. It is the third track on their 2010 album Brothers and was released as the record's first single on April 23, 2010. Dan Auerbach told The Sun how the song originated: "That was the last song we did for the record. We had a couple of days off and so did Brian (Danger Mouse) and since we are friends and like hanging out with each other we thought it would be fun to go into the studio and see if we could come up with a tune. We always have a blast when the three of us get together."
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The song has become one of the most successful Black Keys singles in the United States, being their first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching number one on the Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts. Rolling Stone put the song on its list of the 15 Best Whistling Songs of All Time. At the 53rd Grammy Awards in 2011, the song won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, while also receiving a nomination for Best Rock Song. Musically, the song is in the key of F sharp minor.
Music video
The original music video for the song was a low budget clip starring a puppet dinosaur named Frank who is standing beside a plant. The video shows him dancing and miming the words a little, whilst subtitles go on explaining different facts about the video, the band, and Frank; e.g. "Frank has a profile on eHarmony..." "He is a puppet, not a real dinosaur." This goes along the same direction of using sort of "obvious" or "simple" ways to say things like the album cover does; e.g. "This is a song by the Black Keys", "It's from an album called Brothers", etc. The video was made by director Chris Marrs Piliero as the label asked them to do a placeholder video for "Tighten Up" as a teaser for Brothers. Piliero was inspired by both "stupid kid shit that could still be for adults, like Yo Gabba Gabba! and "all these weird and sometimes creepy old-school puppet stuff from the 50, 60s, 70s.", considering at first an ALF doll before settling on the dinosaur. He later made a similar teaser video for "Next Girl", where Frank interacts with bikini-clad models.
The official music video, also directed by Piliero, was released on May 18, 2010. It shows Auerbach and his fictional son walking to the park. Auerbach sits next to Carney on a bench while their fictional sons play with toy trucks. Auerbach's son looks up on the playground to see a little girl, after which he starts to lip sync to the song. He climbs up on the playground and goes in to kiss her but then he opens his eyes to realize Carney's son has lured her away. After he attempts to kiss her, the two boys begin to fight. After Auerbach and Carney attempt in vain to break up the fight, they see the mother of the girl, played by Spanish actress Carlotta Elektra Bosch, and begin to fight like their sons. They hit each other using mostly Carney's drum kit and after the woman sees them fighting, she walks away in disgust. Their boys come to them and shake their heads at them with disappointment.
The official music video won the 2010 MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video, and it appears on Pitchfork's top music videos of 2010.
Charting
On the week ending November 6, 2010, "Tighten Up" debuted at #93 on the Billboard Hot 100. It re-entered at #87 on the week ending January 22, 2011. The single also achieved early success on rock radio, hitting #1 on both the Alternative Songs chart (for ten weeks) and the Rock Songs chart (for twelve weeks).
Track listing
All songs written by The Black Keys.
- "Tighten Up" – 3:30
- "Howlin' for You" – 3:11
Personnel
Usage in media
"Tighten Up" has been licensed to appear in EA Sports game FIFA 11, the music video games Rocksmith and Rock Band 3 (as downloadable content for both), the television program Gossip Girl, a Subaru commercial, a Molson commercial, and the films I Am Number Four, Bad Teacher, and Spring Breakers.