"Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)" is a 1967 single recorded and released by comedian Bill Cosby, released as a single from the entertainer's first musical comedy album, Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings.
A comedic parody which Cosby narrated about "a little ole man" who he discovers twice, first getting hit by a train, and later being run over by elephants. The musical instrumental and accompanying background vocals were based on the Stevie Wonder classic, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)".
The single became an unexpected hit for Cosby charting as high as number four on the Billboard Hot 100 making Cosby one of the first comedians to have a charted hit single on the Billboard music charts. Fellow comics like Steve Martin and parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic later followed him on the Billboard charts with their comedy records.
On the album 200 M.P.H., Cosby states that the song was dedicated to his grandfather.
Famous quotes containing the words ole and/or man:
“Go down, Moses
‘Way down in Egypt land,
Tell ole Pharaoh,
To let my people go.”
—Unknown. Go Down, Moses (l. 1–4)
“In the operative opinion of the world, he who is already fully provided with what is necessary for him, that man shall have more; while he who is deplorably destitute of the same, he shall have taken away from him even that which he hath. Yet the world vows it is a very plain, downright matter-of-fact, plodding, humane sort of world.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)