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Word Up! (song)

"Word Up!"
WordUpCameo.jpg
Single by Cameo
from the album Word Up!
B-side "Urban Warrior"
Released May 27, 1986
Format
Genre
Length 4:21
Label
Writer(s)
Producer(s) Larry Blackmon
Cameo singles chronology
"Single Life"
(1985)
"Word Up!"
(1986)
"Candy"
(1986)
Music video
"Cameo" on YouTube
"Word Up!"
GunWordUp.jpg
Single by Gun
from the album Swagger
Released July 1, 1994
Format
Length 4:13
Label A&M
Writer(s) Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins
Gun singles chronology
"Welcome to the Real World"
(1992)
"Word Up!"
(1994)
"Don't Say It's Over"
(1994)
"Word Up!"
Wordupcover.jpg
Single by Melanie G
from the album Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me: Music from the Motion Picture
B-side "Sophisticated Lady"
Released June 28, 1999
Format
Recorded November 1998
Genre R&B
Length 3:25 (radio edit)
5:23 (single version)
Label
Writer(s)
  • Blackmon
  • Jenkins
Producer(s) Timbaland
Melanie G singles chronology
"I Want You Back"
(1998)
"Word Up!"
(1999)
"Tell Me"
(2000)
Music video
"Word Up" on YouTube
"Word Up!"
Word Up!.jpg
Single by Korn
from the album Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
Released November 16, 2004
Format
Length 2:53
Label Epic
Writer(s) Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins
Producer(s)
Korn singles chronology
"Everything I've Known"
(2003)
"Word Up"
(2004)
"Another Brick in the Wall, Pts. 1–3"
(2004)
"Word Up!"
Little Mix Word Up.png
Single by Little Mix
Released March 16, 2014 (2014-03-16)
Format
Length 3:29
Label
Writer(s) Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins
Little Mix singles chronology
"Little Me"
(2013)
"Word Up!"
(2014)
"Salute"
(2014)
Music video
"Little Mix - Word Up!" on YouTube

"Word Up!" is a funk and R&B song recorded by Cameo in 1986. Its frequent airing, on American dance and R&B radio, as well as its MTV music video (in which LeVar Burton appears as a police detective trying to arrest the band), helped the single become the band's best known hit.

From the album Word Up!, "Word Up!" was Cameo's first US Top 40 hit, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending three weeks at number 1 on the US R&B chart and one week at number 1 on the US Hot Dance Singles chart. In the UK, it spent 10 weeks in the top 40, peaking at number 3 on September 21, 1986. The song was written by band members Larry Blackmon and Tomi Jenkins.

Besides being a commercial success, the track also earned critical acclaim from several publications. "Word Up!" won Cameo the Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Single as well as the NME Award for Best Dance Record. Like the band's previous single "Single Life", "Word Up!" features a reference to the opening notes of Ennio Morricone's theme to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

"Word Up" was a colloquialism, popular in New York City and other US urban areas, that acted as an affirmation of what was said - a kind of a hipper "You Bet."

Blackmon said of the song: "It just sounded good, and it was before its time. You can play “Word Up” anyplace anywhere, and someone is going to be grooving and bobbing their head. Our sound was unique, as well. I haven’t heard another one like it, and we probably won’t hear another one like it in the future. It was that significant for us."


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Wikipedia

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