Songfacts®:

• The Gap Band's breakout hit was "Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" from their 1980 album The Gap Band III. It was their first #1 on the R&B chart. In that song, the girl peels away when the singer steps out, leaving him confused and brokenhearted. "Early In The Morning" picks up that story, with the singer now determined to find another lover, even if he has to get up early to do it.
  
  The girls in the two songs have different names though: in "Burn Rubber" she's Charlene, and in "Early In The Morning" she's Annette.
• Gap Band lead singer Charles Wilson wrote his song with their producer, Lonnie Simmons, and with Rudy Taylor, who did sound mixing for the group and often contributed to the songwriting. Released as the first single from their Gap Band IV album, it gave them their second #1 R&B hit and cemented the group as one of the top funk outfits of the early '80s.
• The title was chosen because the band knew it would appeal to DJs on morning drive radio, the biggest listening time. Sure enough, many jocks played it near the start of their shifts because it made a great wake-up song. Many of these DJs had a say in what songs were added to the station playlists, so that helped get it more airplay in other time slots as well.
• The Gap Band were a band of brothers: Ronnie, Charles and Robert Wilson. They're from Tulsa, and even though they never did any farming or ranching, they appropriated a cowboy look, tricked out for the clubs. It proved very distinctive and is on display for the music video they made for this song.
• The British singer Robert Palmer covered this song in 1988 on his Heavy Nova album. His version was released as a single in America and went to #19.
  
  It wasn't the first song by an American R&B act that Palmer covered. In 1982, he put his own spin on "Some Guys Have All The Luck," first recorded by The Persuaders in 1973 and later a hit for Rod Stewart.