Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Wake Up Everybody 

The title song from their 1975 album. I remember this song mostly from a teachers PSA back in the 70s and 80s. The song reached number 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart on February 28, 1976.

From Wikipedia

“Wake Up Everybody” is an R&B song written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen.

Originally recorded by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, with Teddy Pendergrass singing lead vocals, the song had a somewhat unconventional structure, starting subdued and building slowly to a climax. The title track from their 1975 album, the song spent two weeks at number one on the Hot Soul Singles chart in early 1976. It also enjoyed success on the pop charts, peaking at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,  number 34 Easy Listening, number 33 in Canada, and number 23 in the UK Singles Chart. They performed the song on Soul Train on November 22, 1975.

From Songfacts

This was their last Top 40 hit with drummer/lead singer Teddy Pendergrass. He left for a solo career that was cut short by an automobile accident. David Ebo became lead singer in 1976, after Pendergrass’s departure. 

Wake Up Everybody

Wake up everybody no more sleepin’ in bed
No more backward thinkin’ time for thinkin’ ahead
The world has changed so very much
From what it used to be
There is so much hatred war an’ poverty
Wake up all the teachers time to teach a new way
Maybe then they’ll listen to whatcha have to say
‘Cause they’re the ones who’s coming up and the world is in their hands
When you teach the children teach em the very best you can

The world won’t get no better if we just let it be
The world won’t get no better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me

Wake up all the doctors make the ol’ people well
They’re the ones who suffer an’ who catch all the hell
But they don’t have so very long before the Judgment Day
So won’tcha make them happy before they pass away
Wake up all the builders time to build a new land
I know we can do it if we all lend a hand
The only thing we have to do is put it in our mind
Surely things will work out they do it every time

The world won’t get no better if we just let it be
The world won’t get no better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me

Change it yeah, change it yeah, just you and me
Change it yeah, change it yeah
Can’t do it alone, need some help y’all
Can’t do it alone
Can’t do it alone yeah, yeah
Wake up everybody, wake up everybody
Need a little help y’all
Need a little help
Need some help y’all

Change the world
What it used to be
Can’t do it alone, need some help
Wake up everybody
Get up , get up, get up, get up
Wake up, come on, come on
Wake up everybody

Writer/s: GENE MCFADDEN, JOHN WHITEHEAD, VICTOR CARSTARPHEN