Uptown Special

• "Uptown Funk" was the first single released from the album on 10 November 2014, and it featured guest vocals from Bruno Mars.[8] The single peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart, marking Ronson's first number one song as an artist and producer; as well as peaking at number one on the Irish Singles Chart.[9][10] It topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Ronson's first number-one single in the country and Mars' sixth.[11]
• "Daffodils", with Kevin Parker's vocals, was initially released as the album's second promotional single. It was officially released to adult album alternative radio in the United States on 4 February 2015.[12]
• "Feel Right", featuring Mystikal, was initially released as the album's first promotional single. It was later released as the album's second single in the United Kingdom, and third official single overall, on 29 March 2015.[13]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	73/100[14]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[15]
The A.V. Club	A−[2]
Consequence of Sound	C+[16]
The Daily Telegraph	[17]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[18]
The Guardian	[19]
Pitchfork	6/10[20]
Rolling Stone	[21]
Slant Magazine	[22]
Spin	6/10[23]

Upon release, Uptown Special received positive reviews from music critics. Lily Moayeri from The A.V. Club gave the album an A−, commenting that the album is "pop-friendly, and undeniably sexy collection of funk and R&B", and praised the tracks "Summer Breaking", "Daffodils", "Feel Right", "I Can’t Lose", "Crack in the Pearl", and "Heavy and Rolling".[2] Kyle Anderson from Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+ and stated that "the cumulative effect of Special's contagious cool will keep hands up and bad vibes down – and if all else fails, just put 'Feel Right' on repeat".[18]

Alexis Petridis from The Guardian gave the album four out of five stars, noting the "absence of anything that resembles the music that made Mark Ronson famous".[19] James Reed from The Boston Globe felt Ronson came back with a "hard funk album that pays tribute to the music he grew up with" and felt the album worked "under the guise of what Ronson considers funky".[24] Q felt that "It's quite a feat to produce music that works for the mind and the hips, but Ronson has pulled it off magnificently, with virtually every track sounding like a single".[25] Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph gave the album four out of five stars, stating that the album "veers wildly from high to low brow, stupid to sophisticated" and that "occasionally the mix jars but mostly it’s a compelling collision, falling somewhere between a chin-stroking jazz poetry recital and a riotous teenage disco".[17] Randall Roberts of Los Angeles Times gave the album a 3/4 rating, calling it "the kind that strive[s] for an everyman universality while acknowledging a rich past of soul-inspired pop music.".[26]

Andy Kellman from AllMusic, Will Hermes from Rolling Stone, and Annie Galvin from Slant Magazine all also gave the album three and a half out of five stars. Kellman dubbed Uptown Special as a "nostalgic fantasy that provides light entertainment and provokes backtracking".[15] Hermes found that the album "could even teach Prince a trick or two".[21] While, Galvin believes if it was not for "Chabon's peculiar imagery and Ronson's use of the occasional drum machine and synthesizer", the album would sound "like an earnestly literary concept album or a kitschy imitation of Ronson's favorite records from the not so distant past".[22] Ryan B. Patrick of Exclaim! felt that the record favoured style over substance, writing that "Uptown Special is unapologetic in revelling in its musical influences and ultimately represents a light and mainstream-friendly primer to funk and soul."[27]

In a mixed review, Andrew Unterberger of Spin gave the album a 6/10 rating, and felt the material was "fun, and unexpectedly thrilling at times, but jarring and never totally satisfying."[23] Kevin Harley of The Independent believes the album offers "fresh pleasures is the pay-off, but don’t come looking to it for substance".[28] Jim Farber from Daily News gave an overall 3/5 rating and claimed that Ronson "just got lucky". He particularly criticized “Uptown Funk” for being a "lazy track", unlike the rest of the songs, which "obsess on the past, but most enliven it".[29]

The album debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard 200, selling a total of 76,727 copies, with 46,680 of those copies calculated from individual song sales and streaming data.[30] This is a tracking change was implemented by Nielsen SoundScan and Billboard in December 2014.[31] In its second week, the album fell to number 10, selling 42,582 copies, with 38,942 of those copies calculated from individual song sales and streaming data.[32] In its third week, the album fell to number 11, selling 42,780 copies, with 36,522 of those copies calculated from individual song sales and streaming data.[33] In its fourth week, the album fell to number 13, selling 42,269 copies, 7,389 of which were whole album sales.[34] In its fifth week, the album rose to number 12, selling 35,041 copies, 4,944 of which were whole album sales.[35] In its sixth week, the album fell to number 16, selling 32,475 copies, 4,317 of which were whole album sales.[36] In its seventh week, the album remained at number 16, selling 29,278 copies, 4,248 were whole album sales.[37]

Notes

• ^{^a} signifies an additional producer.

Sample credits

• "Uptown Funk" embodies portions of "All Gold Everything", written by Devon Gallaspy and Nicholaus Williams, "Oops Up Side Your Head", written by Lonnie Simmons, Ronnie Wilson, Charles Wilson, Rudolph Taylor and Robert Wilson, and "Early in the Morning", written by Wilson, Simmons and Taylor. The latter was initially uncredited.
• "I Can't Lose" contains elements of "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)", written by Nathaniel Hale, Ricardo Brown, Warren Griffin, Andre Young and Calvin Broadus and an interpolation of "Hot Music", written by Joseph Longo.

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[38]