Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist behind 2000's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, wrote the majority of Uptown Special's lyrics. Ronson told The Sun that he recruited Chabon for the album after he, "wrote a really nice letter." He explained: "I first met Michael after I went to a book signing. He did for his book Telegraph Avenue." "He recognized me and told me he liked some of my music, Ronson continued. "So a year later, I wrote him a letter and luckily, I caught him at a time when it wasn't too crazy."
This song took four drafts to get right. "He's one of the great living American novelists and it's tough to be like, 'Uh, we don't really like this one, could we try it again?'" Ronson told Billboard magazine.
Uptown Special was written and produced with producer Jeff Bhasker. "I sought Jeff Bhasker out because I loved the song 'Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart' that he wrote and produced for Alicia Keys," Ronson explained to The Guardian. "Plus I also dug all his chords and synths on Kanye's 808's & Heartbreak. In his music, I could hear someone who equally loved hip-hop, Earth Wind & Fire and even a bit of weird prog. He's also a Berklee-trained jazz pianist... needless to say, a major dude."
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.