Get Up Offa That Thing
Brown put the writing credit in his wife's and daughters' names over IRS debts, then cut it live in two takes.
Brown put the writing credit in his wife's and daughters' names over IRS debts, then cut it live in two takes.

Syd Nathan hated it and fired Ralph Bass for cutting it, then rehired him when it reached R&B's top five.

Brown cut it in Los Angeles with thirty-odd young people from Watts and Compton shouting the answer back.

Betty Jean Newsome shares the credit and later claimed all of it; Sammy Lowe's strings carry Brown's most exposed vocal.
One of Brown's first dates with the new J.B.s, Bootsy Collins on bass at eighteen, Bobby Byrd answering every line.

Brown recycled a flop he'd cut on Yvonne Fair, added Maceo Parker's alto, and landed his highest-charting single.

The record where the beat moved to the one and funk quietly began. James Brown never looked back.