(Irving Mills - Cab Calloway)
Australia
#41 Sydney #3 Melbourne #3 Brisbane #3 Adelaide #1 Perth
Single on Go!! by adaptable Melbourne
band whose career ranged from Shadows-style instrumentals to comic jugband revivals. See Moon In The Afternoon (1964), I’ve Been Trying (1965) and Oh, Monah (1967).
Also recorded, for example, by The Gaylords (1955), Barry Martin (1959), Gary ‘U.S.’ Bonds (1961) and Bobby Darin (1965). See also the list of versions at The Originals.
Cherokees guitarist Pete ‘Rattlebone’ Tindal later ran Bluesola Music in the UK. See Bluesola.com’s Cherokees page.
Thanks to Pete Tindal.
(Irving Mills - Cab Calloway)
USA
Original version with these lyrics
Minnie
The Moocher was the theme song of Cab Calloway (1907-1994), ‘The
Hi-De-Ho Man’, whose Orchestra was one of the most popular of the swing era, enlivened by
Cab’s physical and verbal humour and the type of big band R&B that was one of the many roads
leading to rock’n’roll.
In 1980, Cab Calloway played the part of Curtis in the film The Blues Brothers and performed Minnie
The Moocher.
♫ Listen at YouTube
The Online Discographical Project (78discography.com) lists numerous releases of Minnie The Moocher between 1931 and 1942, including those by The Blue Rhythm Boys (1931), The Boswell Sisters (1932), Jimmy Lunceford & his Orchestra (1941) and Danny Kaye (1942).
References: 1. Cab Calloway at Donald’s
Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 2. JohnnyFerreira.com on Louis Jordan and contemporaries including Cab Callowayand their
influence on rock’n’roll [archived page].
Thanks to Terry Stacey for bringing this up to the 1980s.
A traditional American folk song collected, for example, by Carl Sandburg in The American Songbag (1927).
The song about Willie, the chimney sweeper who ‘had the drug habit and he had it bad’, is clearly a source for Minnie The Moocher. Lyrics at The Mud Cat Café.
Bill Casey suggests that Minnie is the preserve of the more populist jazz bands… while Willie gets the nod from the purists. (Email to PopArchives.)
Willie The Weeper has been recorded by Ernest Rogers (1925), Louis Armstrong (1927), Half-Pint Jaxon (1927) and several others, particularly around 1927-28. In Australia, there have been recordings by the Graeme Bell All-Stars (late 40s) and Paul Marks & the Melbourne New Orleans Jazz Band (1960).
References: 1. Research contributed by Bill Casey 2. Versions at the Originals 3. The Online Discographical Project (78discography.com).
Pop Archives
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2024. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…