Uptown Funk
"Uptown Funk" is a song by British-American DJ and record producer Mark Ronson featuring American singer Bruno Mars. It was released on 10 November 2014, as the lead single from Ronson's fourth studio album, Uptown Special. "Uptown Funk" was written by Ronson, Mars, Jeff Bhasker, and Philip Lawrence; it was produced by the aforementioned first three. The song began during a freestyle studio session while they worked on a jam Mars and his band had been playing on tour. Copyright controversies arose after the song's release resulting in multiple lawsuits and amendments to its songwriting credits.
The song is a funk-pop, soul, boogie, disco-pop, and Minneapolis sound track. It has a spirit akin to the 1980s-era funk music. Its lyrics address fashion, self-love and "traditional masculine bravado", performed in a sing-rapping style filled with metaphors, arrogance, charisma, and fun. Upon its release, the single received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the instrumental, style and influences of the track. Others criticized it for not being innovative as it tried to emulate 1980s funk music.
The song topped the charts of 19 countries and reached the top 10 of 15 others, making it the most successful single of Ronson and Mars to date. In the United States, "Uptown Funk" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 consecutive weeks and spent seven weeks on the top of the UK Singles Chart. It was certified 11 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and six times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. "Uptown Funk" peaked at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, and topped the Irish Singles Chart, taking the Christmas number one spot. The song also reached the top spot in France, spending 11 weeks in the number one position. number one in both Australia for a total of six weeks and in New Zealand for nine consecutive weeks. It also broke its own streaming record three times in the United Kingdom, while breaking the streaming record in the United States and Worldwide at that time.
Director Cameron Duddy and Mars shot the song's music video depicting Ronson, Mars and The Hooligans singing, walking and dancing in a city street. As of March 2025, the official music video for "Uptown Funk" is the tenth most viewed YouTube video of all-time, having received over 5.6 billion views. "Uptown Funk" was performed on television shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. It received several awards and nominations, winning British Single of the Year at the 2015 Brit Awards, International Work of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2016 and Record of the Year at the 2016 Grammy Awards. The television show soundtrack of Glee, and commercials for L'Oréal's Garnier line and Skippy peanut butter, have used the song. It has been parodied several times and became a worldwide phenomenon with a major impact on pop culture.
Background
After producing three songs for Bruno Mars's second studio album Unorthodox Jukebox, Mark Ronson said in June 2014, that he and Mars planned on working together again. Ronson ended up working on "Uptown Funk" for seven months, recording it in various locations, in a number of grueling, stressful sessions. Its earliest version was a jam that Mars and his band played on tour. When Ronson joined Jeff Bhasker and Mars for a jam session at the latter's studio, he wanted to finish leftover demos from Unorthodox Jukebox, however, Mars wanted to do something different. He started playing on a drum kit in the studio, while Bhasker and Ronson played keyboard and guitar, respectively. They decided to work on the tour jam and thought it would be "cool" to fit in the Trinidad James song, "All Gold Everything", played during the tour's soundcheck. At this point, they found the opening line: "This hit, that ice cold/Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold", which led them to believe they had an "exciting idea". However, both Ronson and Mars had busy schedules and could not complete the single. They spent the next several months working on it, fighting over which sections would fit better. Mars was not a fan of early versions of the song.The trio recorded the song in Los Angeles, London, Memphis, New York, Toronto, and Vancouver. The horn parts were recorded at Daptone Records in Brooklyn with the horn sections of The Dap-Kings, Antibalas and The Hooligans playing the final version of the track. The drum section was first recorded at a studio owned by Mars in Los Angeles, and later rearranged in Memphis. The track took over 100 takes before it was finished at Ronson's studio in London. There were a number of drastic changes made to the track. One iteration featured a hard rock breakdown in the middle and a chorus in which Mars shouted, "Burn this motherfucker down!" At one point, the song was nearly scrapped entirely. They spent months working on a chorus, only to decide not to use it. Ronson affirmed the compositions of American band Kool & the Gang influenced them to only use a "horn line" as the chorus. After a show on the Moonshine Jungle Tour, American songwriter Philip Lawrence suggested using an opening bassline; however, as he did not play bass himself, Canadian recording engineer Charles Moniz asked him to sing it. The "doh" vocal bassline ended up on the album. Some of the most progressive parts of the track were done in improvised studios set up by Moniz.
The stress over "Uptown Funk" was so high that Ronson passed out during one session trying to perfect the guitar part. Two days later in Toronto they figured out the guitar part when Ronson was playing it in front of The Hooligans after 82 takes. Ronson explained on NPR's Fresh Air why he was so determined to make the song perfect: "When you're doing something that doesn't sound like anything else on the radio at the time, you almost need to like, iron-clad it, to make sure it gets through. You have to put these hooks in it. You've got to make sure you've got all that ear candy in it to get it through the gate." The record label was hesitant to release the song under the title "Uptown Funk" suggesting the alternative "Just Watch". In October 2014, Mike Mullaney, an assistant program director at CBS Radio/WBMX, listened to the song after it was sent for testing and called it "the greatest song of all time" in a tweet. He added, "The Ronson/Bruno tune is like JamesBrown/RickJames/TheTime jamming w/ badass brass band", describing it as "Filthy, funky" and added, "Bruno simply wails". Ronson feels that the song belongs more to Mars than himself.
Production and release
"Uptown Funk" was initially written by Ronson, Mars, Lawrence, and Bhasker. Since the song embodies some of "All Gold Everything", Trinidad James and Devon Gallaspy were credited as a songwriters. In May 2015, the track was re-registered as it also contains portions of The Gap Band's "Oops Up Side Your Head". Additional writing credit was given to Charlie Wilson, Robert Wilson, Ronnie Wilson, Rudy Taylor, and Lonnie Simmons. The single was produced by Ronson, Bhasker, and Mars. Ronson was in charge of the guitars, LinnDrum and programming, while the keyboards and talk box were handled by Bhasker. Mars sang the vocals and played drums. Ronson and several others engineered the song. The track was recorded at six studios. Serban Ghenea and John Hanes, who served as the mix engineer, mixed "Uptown Funk" at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach. It was mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound, NYC.On 30 October 2014, Ronson announced, via Twitter, the release of "Uptown Funk". The date 10 November 2014 appeared on the poster image Ronson included in the tweet. Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment released the single on 10 November 2014 for digital download in various countries. RCA Records sent the track to be added to US contemporary hit radio the following day, while Sony issued the track for radio airplay in Italy on 14 November 2014. In the United Kingdom, "Uptown Funk" was released before its scheduled date, 11 January 2015, because it had been performed earlier on The X Factor as a cover by Fleur East. On 8 December 2014 the song released on the UK via digital download and radio stations began adding the track to their playlists. On 9 January 2015, a CD Single was released in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It included the album version of "Uptown Funk" and Ronson's "Feel Right" featuring Mystikal. On 16 and 24 February 2015, the recording and one of its remixes, the BB Disco Dub Mix by Benji B, were released on vinyl in the UK and the US. An EP of four different remixes of the original version of the song was released via digital download on 13 April 2015. On 29 June 2015, a remix featuring Trinidad James was made available for purchase on iTunes. On 18 July 2018, the radio edition of the track was available for sale.
Composition and influences
"Uptown Funk" has been described as a funk-pop, soul, boogie, disco-pop,Minneapolis sound track, with a light EDM influence. Written in the key of D Dorian, it has a tempo of 115 beats per minute, with vocals ranging from B2 to D6. It has been described as a "joyous, energetic and feel-good" song. The Guardians music critic noted influences of Cameo, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, New Edition, Prince, Sugarhill Gang and The Gap Band. Billboard music critic compared the song to George Kranz's "Trommeltanz ", Earth, Wind & Fire's "Getaway", One Way's "Cutie Pie", Sugarhill Gang's "Apache", The Gap Band's "Oops Up Side Your Head" and "Early in the Morning", The Sequence's "Funk You Up", Morris Day & The Time's "Cool" and "Jungle Love", as well as, Zapp's "More Bounce to the Ounce". Matt James of PopMatters felt Morris Day & The Time's "The Bird", Kool & the Gang's "Get Down on It" and Was ' "Walk the Dinosaur" to have influenced "Uptown Funk". Various critics noticed the pastiche on "Uptown Funk", from the "electric purple texture of the synths and the loose slap of the rhythms" to the "Prince-backed 80's...Morris Day & The Time".Jamieson Cox of Time, Chris Molanphy of Slate and Stuart Berman of Pitchfork found the song heavily influenced by 1980s funk. Neil McCormick writing for The Telegraph called it an "evocation of the kind of Eighties funk that was already ripe with nostalgia". Robbie Daw of Idolator found the single closer to the "70's groove", filling "the hearts of Stax- and James Brown music fans". Likewise, Rap-Up dubbed it a "70's jam", a mash-up of "the best of Morris Day & The Time, James Brown, and The Jackson 5". AXS's Lucas Villa compared the funk sound of the recording to George Clinton's "Atomic Dog". Andy Kellman's AllMusic said the recording "aimed for early Time", but it sounded more like One Way's "Let's Talk". Annie Galvin of Slant Magazine found Mars "channeling Little Richard's raspier inflections." Critics noticed the influence of Cameo on the horns, Morris Day & The Time on the keyboards, and "Party Train" by The Gap Band on the drums. The song is performed in a more arrogant and charismatic way than previous tracks by Mars. The lyrics have "well-placed references to Michelle Pfeiffer and Trinidad James", as the hook samples portions of James's "All Gold Everything". Mars shows not only "soul and swagger" in the sing-rapping verses, "I'm too hot / Call the police and the fireman", but he also jokes around, "Got Chucks on / With Saint Laurent / Gotta kiss myself / I'm so pretty". The lyrics make fun of "traditional masculine bravado" using "silly metaphors", "I'm too hot, hot damn / Make a dragon wanna retire man".