The album features "Time Is Tight", the single version of which became a US Top 10 hit (the second biggest of their career) and a signature song for the band.

The version of "Time Is Tight" included on the UpTight soundtrack album is an alternate recording, which differs from the single version in several respects: it is in stereo, it is played at a faster tempo, it runs almost two minutes longer (4'55"), and it includes both an extended introduction and an instrumental "breakdown" (beginning around 3'30"), neither of which are in the single version.

"Johnny, I Love You" (the B-side of "Time Is Tight") features a rare vocal by keyboardist Booker T. Jones.

The album was recorded at Stax Records' studios by Ron Capone, produced by Jones, and was overdubbed and mixed at Ardent Studios by Steve Cropper and Terry Manning.

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau called it a "superb score"[1] and later said that until the band's 1971 Melting Pot album, UpTight was the exception to the "somewhat mechanical, boxy rhythms that always made their albums boring even though the individual cuts were unexceptionable".