FromThe Crescendoes \r
Label: metronome - MLP 15200\r
Format: Vinyl\r
Country: Germany\r
Released: 1965\r
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Tracklist\r
A1. Uncle Willy\r
A2. Little Egypt\r
A3. True Love, True Love\r
A4. I (Who Have Nothing)\r
A5. Run Joe\r
A6. Chance Of A Lifetime\r
B1. Minnie The Moocher\r
B2. Its Over\r
B3. The Wedding\r
B4. Duke Of Earl\r
B5. You Are my Sunshine\r
B6. Not For Me\r
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Minnie the Moocher is a jazz song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over 1 million copies.\r
Minnie the Moocher is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed (scat) lyrics (for example, Hi De Hi De Hi De Hi).\r
In performances, Calloway would have the audience participate by repeating each scat phrase in a form of call and response.\r
Eventually Calloways phrases would become so long and complex that the audience would laugh at their own failed attempts to repeat them.\r
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Minnie the Moocher was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.\r
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Basis\r
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The song is based both musically and lyrically on Frankie Half-Pint Jaxons 1927 Willie the Weeper (Bette Davis sings this version in The Cabin in the Cotton). The lyrics are heavily laden with drug references. The character Smokey is described as cokey meaning a user of cocaine; the phrase kicking the gong around was a slang reference to smoking opium. It was followed two years later by Lonnie Johnsons Winnie the Wailer.\r
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Films\r
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Calloway performed the song in the 1955 movie Rhythm and Blues Revue, filmed at the Apollo Theatre.\r
Much later, in 1980 at age 73, Calloway performed the song in the movie The Blues Brothers.\r
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The band Oingo Boingo performed the song in the Richard Elfman film Forbidden Zone, with altered lyrics and titled Squeezit The Moocher, after one of the movies characters, Squeezit Henderson. Danny Elfman, playing a rather vaudevillian Satan, sings the song as his band (other members of Oingo Boingo at the time) respond to his calls. Oogie Boogies song is also similar to Minnie the Moocher\r
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The popular refrain is performed by a funeral band in the 1999 film Double Jeopardy.\r
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Notable performances\r
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Minnie the Moocher has been covered or simply referenced by many other performers.\r
Its refrain, particularly the call and response, is part of the language of American jazz. At the Cab Calloway School of the Arts, which is named for the singer, students perform Minnie The Moocher as a traditional part of talent showcases.\r
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In 1967, the song was covered again by an Australian band, The Cherokees.\r
A version by the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra made #35 in the UK charts late in 1988.\r
Tupac and Chopmaster J made a Hip Hop version of the song in 1989. The song can be found on Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988--1991 from 2007.\r
A contemporary swing band, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, recorded a cover on their 1994 album, Americana Deluxe.\r
L.A.-based new wave/rock band Oingo Boingo has covered this song, as well as other Cab Calloway songs, during live performances throughout their career, dating back to their years as Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.\r
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On January 19, 2001, Wyclef Jean opened his All Star Jam @ Carnegie Hall concert with this number, walking to the stage from the back of the audience, dressed all in white. The song The Mighty O by Outkast is heavily inspired by the song.\r
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In film and television\r
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In the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, Cab Calloway memorably reprises the song at the fundraising concert at the Palace Hotel Ballroom. It was performed in the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola movie The Cotton Club by Larry Marshall as Cab Calloway.\r
K7 sampled the Hi-De-Ho section of Minnie the Moocher in his song of the same name, which was notably used in the 1994 film The Mask.\r
Puerto Rican rapper Tego Calderón quoted the basic melody of the song—a favorite of his late father—as the beat used in his first hit, Abayarde.\r
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During a performance on the first season of American Idol, Tamyra Gray performed this song on Big Band night. Hugh Laurie, in a 2006 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, stated that his charity cover band, Band from TV, has the most popular recording of Minnie the Moocher available on the iTunes Store. Laurie also performs a part of the song in the first episode of the British comedy television series Jeeves and Wooster, playing the role of Bertie Wooster, duetting with Reginald Jeeves, played by Stephen Fry. The episode first aired in 1990. A recording was later released on the Jeeves and Wooster soundtrack.