Songfacts®:

• "Rise Up Singing" opens with a wash of swooning strings, setting the stage for an uplifting, hopeful anthem with Paul Weller's signature blend of soulful vocals and a stirring orchestral arrangement. Backed by brass and strings that seem to lift the track off the ground, Weller calls on listeners to rise up - singing, of course - as the title suggests.
• Weller released "Rise Up Singing" as the second single from his 66 album, where he shared songwriting duties with a mix of old friends and fresh collaborators. In this case, he teamed up with Miles Copeland and Dr. Robert, the frontman of the Blow Monkeys.
• Dr. Robert is Weller's longest-running collaborator on the album. Weller reminisced to Uncut magazine: "We've been working together since the early '90s - maybe even the late '80s, with the Blow Monkeys. He played and sang on my first few solo albums.
  
  For this song, he sent me a backing track and some lyrics. I redid the top-line melody and tweaked a few words, and 'Rise Up Singing' was born. It sort of snuck out under the radar at first, but for this album, we reworked it, added an orchestra, and now I think we've really done it justice."
• The accompanying video, directed by Calum Macdiarmid, follows the simple but charming story of a teenage boy nervously preparing for his first date. Joe Freeman (son of actor Martin Freeman) plays the boy, and a notable supporting cast member is Flo, an iguana who steals a few scenes.
  
  "The video was particularly fun because it felt like a short film with a focus on narrative which made getting the necessary coverage much easier," Macdiarmid told Promo News.
  
  "The hardest challenge was trying to tell a super minimalist concept - boy gets ready for date - in a way that gave it a little arc, and went with the flow of the music. My ambition was to make it feel almost like the music was a score written for the story, using the rise and fall of the energy to punctuate certain moments."
• Weller plays piano, electric guitar, and bass. The other musicians are:
  
  Steve Cradock: electric guitar. acoustic guitar
  Marco Rees: electric guitar
  Ben Gordelier: drums
  Anthony Gaylard: tenor saxophone
  Paul Speare; baritone saxophone
  Steve Trigg: horns arranger, trumpet
  Dave Boraston: trumpet
  Britten Sinfonia: orchestra
  Hannah Peel: strings arranger
• Backing vocals come from Weller, Dr. Robert, and Weller's daughter, Leah Weller. Leah, whose mother is Dee C. Lee (former Style Council singer), has become an accomplished artist in her own right, contributing to several of her father's songs, including "Find The Torch, Burn The Plans," "Be Happy Children" and "Shades Of Blue."