"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:
“My ole man died—hunh—
Cussin’ me;
Ole lady rocks, bebby,
Huh misery.”
—Sterling Allen Brown (b. 1901)
“These facts have always suggested to man the sublime creed that the world is not the product of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind; and that one mind is everywhere active, in each ray of the star, in each wavelet of the pool; and whatever opposes that will is everywhere balked and baffled, because things are made so, and not otherwise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)