"Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz-scat song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over a million copies and was the biggest chart-topper of that year. "Minnie the Moocher" is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed ("scat") lyrics. In performances, Calloway would have the audience and the band members participate by repeating each scat phrase in a form of call and response, eventually making it too fast and complicated for the audience to replicate. The song is based lyrically on Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon's 1927 version of the early 1900s vaudeville song "Willie the Weeper".
"Minnie the Moocher" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2019 was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.
In 1978, Calloway recorded a disco version of "Minnie the Moocher" on RCA Records which reached number 91 on the Billboard R&B chart. "Minnie the Moocher" has been covered or simply referenced by many other performers. 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.
In 1932, Calloway recorded the song for a Fleischer Studios Talkartoon short cartoon, also called Minnie the Moocher, starring Betty Boop and Bimbo, and released on March 11, 1932. Calloway and his band provide most of the short's score and themselves appear in a live-action introduction, playing "Prohibition Blues". The thirty-second live-action segment is the earliest-known film footage of Calloway. In the cartoon, Betty decides to run away from her parents, and Bimbo comes with her. While walking away from home, Betty and Bimbo wind up in a spooky area and hide in a hollow tree. A spectral walrus—whose gyrations were rotoscoped from footage of Calloway dancing—appears to them, and begins to sing "Minnie the Moocher", with many fellow ghosts following along, during which they do scary things like place ghosts on electric chairs who still survive after the shock. After singing the whole number, the ghosts chase Betty and Bimbo all the way back to Betty's home. In 1933 another Betty Boop/Cab Calloway cartoon with "Minnie the Moocher" was The Old Man of the Mountain.
Calloway performed the entire song in the movie Rhythm and Blues Revue (1955), filmed at the Apollo Theater. Much later, in 1980 at age 73, Calloway performed the song in the movie The Blues Brothers. Calloway's character Curtis, a church janitor and the Blues Brothers' mentor, magically transforms the band into a 1930s swing band and sings "Minnie the Moocher" when the crowd becomes impatient at the beginning of the movie's climactic production number.
"Minnie the Moocher" received a total of 71,1% yes votes!
Clarence Clemons (1942-2011) The E Street Band - saxophone
Songs: "Jungleland," "Badlands"
Defeated Opponents: Keith Richards, Bob Marley
Propaganda: see visual
Cab Calloway (1907-1994) solo, leader of Cab Calloway and His Orchestra
Songs: "Minnie the Moocher," "St. James Infirmary"
Defeated Opponents: Little Richard, Rory Gallagher
Propaganda: none
Cabell “Cab” Calloway, accomplished bandleader, singer, dancer, songwriter, and author, was born in Rochester, NY, on this date December 25, 1907.
He learned the art of scat singing before landing a regular gig at Harlem’s famous Cotton Club. Following the enormous success of his song “Minnie the Moocher” (1931), Calloway became one of the most popular entertainers of the 1930s and ‘40s.
With other hits that included “Moon Glow” (1934), “The Jumpin’ Jive” (1939) and “Blues in the Night” (1941), as well as appearances on radio, Calloway was one of the most successful performers of the era.
He appeared in such films as The Big Broadcast (1932), The Singing Kid (1936) and Stormy Weather (1943). In addition to music, Calloway influenced the public with books such as 1944’s The New Cab Calloway’s Hepster’s Dictionary: Language of Jive, which offered definitions for terms like “in the groove” and “zoot suit.”
Calloway and his orchestra had successful tours in Canada, Europe and across the United States, traveling in private train cars when they visited the South in order to escape some of the hardships of segregation. With his enticing voice, energetic onstage moves and dapper white tuxedos, Calloway was the star attraction.
The standout musicians Calloway performed with include saxophonist Chu Berry, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Cozy Cole.
The Blues Brothers is one of the greatest films ever made for many reasons, but the disparity in acting skill amongst the various rhythm and blues legends that make up the supporting cast is very good. Matt "Guitar" Murphy is reading his lines like they're being held up on cue cards whilst Aretha Franklin wipes the floor with him. Donald "Duck" Dunn is certainly saying things, but that's between him and the subtitles. We don't need to give Blue Lou any lines, you see, he has hair!
James Brown? Cab Calloway? Ray Charles? Zero notes.