“It was in the trash can”: what the birth of Uptown Funk can teach us about our own creativity

I am a recovering perfectionist. I understand that getting something out there is often worth more than keeping it under wraps, tinkering eternally until it loses all energy and relevance. “Just do it!” the Nike ad encourages us. “Done is better than perfect!” the Instagram slogans command.

I concur, I honestly do — especially at this time of year when expectations of ourselves are often unreasonably high. Many of us could benefit from setting our bar a little lower in the name of getting stuff over the line.

However.

Some projects are just worth putting your heart, soul, and guts into until they’re just right.

Uptown Funk was a pain to write

Let’s preface this by saying: Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars have both been in the music business long enough to know when to press hard on something. If you’re going to make yourself pass out over a project, you also need to know your parameters. Understand your audience, know what they want and just how good it has to be. Does it work as it is? Does it need more? And is the pay-off worth the extra work?

In this case, it was.

Uptown Funk was written for Ronson’s fourth album Uptown Special, released in 2015. The idea grew from a riff that Bruno Mars’s horn section jammed on tour. Mars brought it to the studio to collaborate with Ronson. He wanted to turn it into something that incorporated the “don’t believe me just watch” refrain from Trinidad James’ All Gold Everything, a song they’d also been playing with during live shows.

They worked it. And then they worked it some more.

Mars, Ronson, along with producer Jeff Bhasker and an array of musicians ended up grafting on the song for seven gruelling months. It was recorded in a number of locations in a series of hardcore sessions that had to be squeezed in around the two stars’ hectic schedules.

The horns were recorded in Brooklyn. The drums were recorded in Memphis and LA. Ronson did over 100 takes in his London studio, then another 82 in Toronto just nailing his guitar part. He is said to have been so anxious about getting it right that he threw up, then passed out.

Mars hated the early versions. They ran through a host of alternatives, including one with a heavy rock breakdown featuring Mars screaming “burn this motherf**ker down!”, which were all scrapped. The project was fraught with stress. They could not agree. “That song was in the trash can” admits Mars, in an interview with Rolling Stone. They couldn’t get the chorus right. It was nearly written off completely, until they decided to just — not have a chorus.

Then, finally, somehow, it was done.

Why did it take so long?

Put simply, they knew it had to work extremely well if it was going to be a success.

In an interview with NPR, Ronson explained: “when you’re doing something that doesn’t sound like anything else on the radio at the time, you almost need to, like, ironclad it to make sure it gets through, you know? You have to put these hooks in it… you’ve got to make sure you got all that ear candy in it to get it through the gate.”

The song went onto become a mega-hit, as acclaimed by the critics as it was loved by the general public. It bagged Ronson and Mars a string of awards, including a couple of Grammys, and is the fourth biggest song to have charted on the Billboard Top 100 of all time. It’s inescapable still, five years on.

So. What can we learn?

Let’s take a look at what we can glean from two of music’s biggest hitters about getting our own creative work out there.

Play with your work
If something is worth investing time in, don’t be afraid to shuffle it around. Get used to killing your darlings and improvising new stuff. Chorus not working? Question whether your song needs a chorus at all. Need to communicate your bass-line but don’t play bass? Just go“doo-doo-doo” instead — it might sound so good it ends up being used on the finished song.

Teamwork makes the dream work
King of collaboration Mark Ronson was determined to get his part perfect for Mars (hence the puking/fainting). Wanting the best result for your writing partner means pushing yourself harder than you might have done alone. Work with talented people and you’ll make great work.

Understand what your audience needs — then deliver
Keep them entertained. Learn what works and pack it in. Uptown Funk sounded fresh but it didn’t reinvent the wheel. It borrowed heavily (some might say too heavily) from 80s and 70s funk and was carefully stuffed with hook after tasty hook. Its commitment to delighting its listeners is what made its creation so painstaking and why it’s still on constant rotation today.

Take time to get it right
It’s tempting (especially when you’re used to delivering client work at 101%) to hit publish on your own stuff quickly just for the sake of getting it out there. Hands up for being guilty of that. But if your personal brand rests on quality output then it’s worth putting in the time to make sure everything with your name on it sings. Learn how long that takes for you, then set yourself realistic content creation goals. Be strategic. And stay focused. Don’t let what other people are doing put you off.

Copying is not a good look
OK, there’s just one place this track falls down. One part of the song is so similar to Oops Upside Your Head they had to re-register it to add The Gap Band as co-creators, losing a hefty whack of royalties in the process. And that’s not the only lawsuit they had to deal with — they were lucky to get away without losing more. There’s pastiche and then there’s plain ripping off. Be smart. Don’t do it.

So there we have it. A little window into one of the biggest hits of the 21st century. Hopefully a few thoughts provoked. And definitely an earworm for you for the rest of the day.

Altogether now:

“This hit/that ice cold/Michelle Pfeiffer/that white gold…”

I wrote this post as part of the #write52 project. Check out the #Write52 website for more on that — ideal for all your new year’s writing resolution needs.

I’m Penny Brazier, a freelance writer who is liable to dance anytime Uptown Funk comes on, despite my better judgment. Find me talking nonsense on Twitter and musing thoughtfully on Instagram.