Tell Me Something Good

"Tell Me Something Good" is a song by Rufus and Chaka Khan, written by Stevie Wonder and released in 1974. The single was a hit in the United States, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent one week at number one on the Cash Box Top 100.[1] It was among the earliest hits to use the guitar talk box, by Tony Maiden.[2]

"Tell Me Something Good"
A-side label of one of US vinyl releases
Single by Rufus
from the album Rags to Rufus
B-side	"Smokin' Room"
Released	June 1974
Recorded	1974
Genre	Funk
Length	4:36 (album) 3:30 (single)
Label	ABC Records
Songwriter(s)	Stevie Wonder
Producer(s)	Bob Monaco and Rufus
Rufus singles chronology
"Feel Good" (1973) "Tell Me Something Good" (1974) "You Got the Love" (1974)

Production

The record was produced by the band with Bob Monaco.[3]

The song has been described as having ".. rude metallic guitar" (by Al Ciner) and ".. a beautiful bass, clav and heavy breathing groove." The song can be difficult to count as there is an off-count into the verse. The first note is on the "and of four." [4]

Critical reception

Jason Elias of AllMusic described the song as "a rare instance of an artist like Stevie Wonder giving away a tune that he could have had a big hit with himself."[5]

The band played the song on the television show Soul Train, when producer and host Don Cornelius, who knew the band from Chicago and who was a good friend of their drummer Andre Fischer, allowed them to perform three songs, rather than the customary two. The band brought the Tower of Power horn section with them.[6][7]

Awards

Rufus won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus for the song at the 17th Annual Grammy Awards in 1975.

Samples

• The Ronnie Laws version was sampled by the Beastie Boys on their 1989 album Paul's Boutique.
• The UGK song "Something Good", from their 1992 debut album Too Hard to Swallow, samples the song - later chopped and screwed by DJ Screw on his 1995 release Volume II: All Screwed Up.
• Bay Area rapper Mac Dre sampled a sped-up version of the chorus in "2 Hard 4 The Fuckin' Radio" off his 1993 debut album Young Black Brotha.[8]
• The Case song "Tell Me", on his 1999 album Personal Conversation, was based on this song.

Chart performance

Weekly charts Chart (1974) Peak position Australia KMR 64 Canada RPM 21 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [9] 3 U.S. Billboard R&B 3 U.S. Cash Box Top 100 [1] 1

Year-end charts Chart (1974) Rank Australia [10] 186 Canada [11] 89 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [12] 56 U.S. Cash Box [13] 49

Cover versions

• Yvonne Fair recorded an acclaimed cover of the song on her 1975 album The Bitch is Black.
• Saxophonist Ronnie Laws recorded a version on his 1975 debut album Pressure Sensitive.
• Lee "Scratch" Perry recorded a cover of the song for The Upsetters' 1978 album Return of the Super Ape.
• Maceo Parker recorded a cover of the song for his 1991 album Funk Overload.
• Robbie Nevil recorded a cover on his album Day 1 in 1991.
• Lee Aaron recorded a cover on her album Some Girls Do in 1991.
• Eric Marienthal included it on his 2003 album Sweet Talk.
• Guitarist Steve Fister recorded a cover on his 2006 album Dodgin Bullets.
• Pink recorded a cover of the song for the 2006 film Happy Feet which was included on the soundtrack album.
• Guitarist Greg Howe recorded an instrumental version of the song for his 2008 album, Sound Proof.
• Matthew Morrison performed the song in 2010 as his Glee character Will Schuester in the first-season episode "Funk". The single was released on iTunes.

Live covers

• Stevie Wonder has performed this song live on several occasions.
• The Power Station (a Duran Duran side project) performed this song live for "The Living Fear Tour" in 1996/1997
• In 2002, En Vogue performed the song on their concert DVD, "Live in the USA".
• Dave Matthews & Friends covered the song live from 2003 to 2005.
• Singer Kim Yarbrough successfully auditioned in 2012 for Season 2 of The Voice with the song, landing a spot on Team Adam.
• Gov't Mule with Susan Tedeschi and Eric Krasno on guitar on 6/7/2014 at Mt. Jam, Hunter Mountain, NY.
• Ali Caldwell performed in 2018 this song in The Four: Battle for Stardom

Pop culture references

• On the title track of Funkadelic's 1975 album Let's Take It to the Stage, the band calls out, "Hey 'Sloofus,' tell me something good," and antagonizes the singer to "take it to the stage, sucker." The song pokes fun at the sudden surge in prevalence of funk songs.

• BET cable network aired and produced a phone-in game show named after the song (which was also the theme song). Julie Rogers hosted this show which was a short-lived, live call-in game show where home viewers have to answer one question of the day that was followed by panel of three celebrity judges ranking the best responses for a prize. It aired from 1988-89.

• On Will & Grace, Karen tells Jack that this is the song to which she and Stan make love. She then walks in on her husband cheating on her with the same song playing. Closed captioning for that episode incorrectly credits the song to Sly and the Family Stone.

• In That '70s Show, in the episode "Water Tower" (June 14, 1999), Eric walks in on his parents having sex, and the song plays every time he has recurring nightmares and thoughts of his parents.

• Ray Romano's character sings in a variation of the song while eating his wife's braciole in the Everybody Loves Raymond season 4 episode 18, "Debra Makes Something Good" (February 28, 2000).

• Many venues in the NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL play this song when a play is under review by referees or umpires.

• New York radio station WCBS-FM had a show in the morning named after the song (which was also the theme song). The host told the listeners about a positive true event that happened that day. The Bobby Bones Show also has a segment named after the song.[14]

Personnel

source:[15]

• Chaka Khan – lead vocals, background vocals
• Ron Stockert – vocals, keyboards
• Kevin Murphy – organ, Hohner clavinet
• Nate Morgan (uncredited) – keyboards
• Al Ciner – guitar
• Tony Maiden (uncredited) – guitar, talk box
• Dennis Belfield – bass, background vocals
• André Fischer – drums, percussion

References

1. "Top 100 1974-08-31". Cashbox Magazine. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
2. "Classic Soul Album Spotlight: Rufus' "Rags to Rufus@". soultrain.com. May 5, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
3. "Remembering Bob Monaco". 2 August 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
4. Miller, S., (2010) "Music: What Happened?" 125 Records, ISBN 0615381960, ISBN 978-0615381961
5. Elias, Jason. "Rags to Rufus Review". AllMusic. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
6. Danois, Ericka Blount (1 August 2013). "Love, Peace and Soul: Behind the Scenes of America's Favorite Dance Show Soul Train: Classic Moments". Rowman & Littlefield. Retrieved 26 May 2019 – via Google Books.
7. MyRhythmNSoulTV (23 April 2014). "Rufus ft Chaka Khan - Tell Me Something Good (Soul Train 1974)". Retrieved 26 May 2019 – via YouTube.
8. Ciccariello-Maher, George; St. Andrews, Jeff (2010). "Between Macks and Panthers: Hip Hop in Oakland and San Francisco". In Hess, Mickey (ed.). Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press. p. 280. ISBN 9780313343230.
9. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
10. "Australian Chart Book". Austchartbook.com.au. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
11. "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
12. "Top 100 Hits of 1974/Top 100 Songs of 1974". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
13. "Top 100 Hits of 1974/Top 100 Songs of 1974". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
14. "K103's Tell Me Something Good". 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
15. "Rufus – "Tell Me Something Good" b/w "Smokin' Room"". internetfm.com. March 18, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2016.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• "Tell Me Something Good" audio on YouTube
• List of cover versions of "Tell Me Something Good" at SecondHandSongs.com