Watermelon Man Song

He joined miles davis band and made groundbreaking music on his own including his 1964 album maiden voyage and 1965 set cantaloupe island.

Watermelon man song. Watermelon man is a jazz standard written by herbie hancock first released on his debut album takin off 1962 in a grooving hard bop version that featured improvisations by freddie hubbard and dexter gordon a single of the tune reached the top 100 of the pop charts. Naturally then the follow up lp to the single is devoted to 12 airplay length tracks loaded with bright swinging latin cha chas and mambo rhythms mixed with blues soul and jazz presumably suitable for twisting the night away. It also inaugurated the latin soul craze also known as popcorn or boogaloo resulting in dozens of similar singles by all sorts of latin units. Soon watermelon man was a jazz standard with versions by count basie erroll garner woody herman and jon hendricks.

This 1962 mongo satamaria arrangement is of herbie hancock s 1961 original composition of the same name watermelon man it adds a latin groove and occasional vocals and reached greater popularity on the charts than hancock s original song. Hancock s first version was released as a grooving hard bop record and featured improvisations by freddie hubbard and dexter gordon. Cuban percussionist mongo santamaría released the tune as a latin pop single the next year on battle records where it. Watermelon man is a jazz standard written by herbie hancock for his debut album takin off 1962.

Herbie hancock s watermelon man was a gigantic hit for mongo santamaria in 1962 doing for him in the 60s what pérez prado s big mambo hits did for him in the 50s. Hancock re recorded the tune for head hunters 1973 combining synthesizers with a sly stone and james brown funk influence adding an eight bar section.