Cab Calloway (1907-1994) was among the greatest musical performers of the 1930's and 1940's. Decked out in his trademark zoot suit,hipster scat-singing Cab led an outstanding jazz band who played and often sang as part of his rousing show. Cab's signature song was his 1931hit parade smash MINNIE THE MOOCHER (you may remember him re-introducing it in 1980's "The Blues Brothers" movie!) and its lyric was typicallyfull of words and phrases from Cab's hep-cat dictionary such as "She was a red hot hoochie coocher"!
Cab also successfully recorded a number of songs he didn't write including CABIN IN THE COTTON (Parish/Perkins) on Brunswick in 1932, MOONGLOW(Hudson/De Lange/Mills) on Victor in 1934, NOBODY'S SWEETHEART (Kahn/Erdman/Schoebel/Meyers) on Brunswick in 1931, SHE'S TALL, SHE'S TAN, SHE'S TERRIFIC(Coots/Davis) on Variety in 1937, SIX OR SEVEN TIMES (Waller/Mills) on Brunswick in 1931, ST. JAMES INFIRMARY (Primrose) also on Brunswick in '31, WAKE UP AND LIVE (Gordon/Revel) on Variety in 1937 and (I'LL BE GLAD WHEN YOU'RE DEAD) YOU RASCAL YOU (Theard) on Brunswick in 1931.He also left his mark on the terrific pun-laden EVERYBODY EATS WHEN THEY COME TO MY HOUSE (Burns) which he recorded for Columbia in 1947.In 2006, hip-hop duo OutKast sampled Cab's MINNIE THE MOOCHER in their song MIGHTY 'O' which was featured in the guys' debut movie "Idlewild" and on its soundtrack album.
In addition to MINNIE THE MOOCHER, check out these other outstanding Cab Calloway compositions:
ARE YOU ALL REET? (Calloway/Palmer)
CHINESE RHYTHM (Calloway/White/Mills)
CHOP CHOP CHARLIE CHAN (Calloway/Palmer/Ram)
COME ON WITH THE COME ON (Calloway/Gibson)
GET THAT HO DE HO IN YOUR SOUL (Calloway/Mills)
HEP CAT'S LOVE SONG (Calloway/Gibson/Boyd)
HI-DE-HO (Calloway/Gaskill/Mills)
JITTERBUG (Calloway/Swayze/Mills)
THE LADY WITH THE FAN (Calloway/Burns/Brackman)
PITCHIN' UP A BOOGIE (Calloway/Cole)
THE RHAPSODY IN RHUMBA (Calloway)
RHYTHM COCKTAIL (Calloway/Harding/Jacquet)
SCAT SONG (Calloway/Parish/Perkins)
THREE SWINGS AND OUT (Calloway)
VIRGINIA, GEORGIA AND CAROLINE (Calloway/Little/Shay)
ZAZ ZUH ZAZ (Calloway/White)
Biography courtesy of Alan Warner |
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