Up, Up and Away (song)

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"Up, Up and Away" redirects here. For other uses, see Up, up, and away.

"Up, Up and Away" is a 1967 song written by Jimmy Webb and recorded by The Fifth Dimension, that became a major pop hit, reaching #7 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart and made face in Canada as well.

A canonical example of sunshine pop, themed around images of hot air ballooning, it cleaned up at the Grammy Awards of 1968, winning for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, Other Pop/Rock&Roll/ Contemporary Awards or Instrumental, and the big prizes of Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year.

In the United Kingdom, the Johnny Mann Singers' cover version became the Top 10 hit version, with The Fifth Dimension not charting.

The Impressions released their version on their 1968 album We're a Winner.

[edit] Cultural references

Fred Norris of The Howard Stern Show uses a sitar-only cover of this song when discussing or introducing a guest of South Asian heritage.

In varied forms, this song was used as an advertising jingle by two now-defunct airlines: Trans World Airlines in the U.S., and Trans Australia Airlines.

Brian W. Aldiss refers to the song in his short science-fiction story "Near Earth Object".