Skipper Lee Frazier produced the 1968 gold number one R&B hit Tighten Up for Archie Bell the Drells. Frazier was a star disc jockey at radio station KCOH in Houston, TX. On the side, he managed local artists and released some of them on his own Ovid label. One of the bands he managed was the TSU (Texas State University) Toronados. Their lineup was leader/horn player Leroy Lewis, bassist Jerry Jenkins, guitarists Cal and Will Thomas, drummer Dwight Burns, organist Robert Sanders, and horn players Nelson Mills and Clarence Harper. He paired the band with another act he managed, Archie Bell the Drells, which consisted of Bell, Billy Butler, Willie Parnell, and James Wise.

Tighten Up was recorded at Doyle Jones' eight track recording studio and released on Frazier's Ovid label in 1967 -- though it was the other side of the single, Dog Eat Dog, that Frazier played on his show. A fellow DJ told Frazier to play the Tighten Up" side, who eventually relented and the record took off. Producer Huey Meaux recommended the record to Atlantic Records, who began distributing it nationally. Tighten Up sold more than three million copies, holding both the number one R&B and the number one pop spot for two weeks on Billboard's charts in spring 1968. ~ Ed Hogan, Rovi