I got up this morning with Harold Melvin’s “Wake Up Everybody” in my head.

There was a PSA when I was growing up in NYC the ’80s encouraging people to become teachers and mentors to others that used the first few verses of this song. It made an impression and stuck in my head all these years.

But I never heard the whole song until I found it on youtube and iTunes this morning.

I was struck about the excellent message and honest entreatment to live a life of love and service. It was like an exhortation from a musical pulpit to live a Christ-like life. After the first few verses and choruses, the song goes into a kind of “Hey you, in X vocation, do a good job!” type of challenge.

My favorite lines are “You preachers: Stop preaching what you teach! Teach the TRUTH! Wake up preachers” and “Politicians: Stop lying! Why don’t somebody help the poor people?” and finally, “You businessman: Stop cheating, stop cheating, stop cheating, cheating!”

“It don’t matter, what race, creed, or color, everybody, we need each other.”