THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

303-Cab Calloway-Minnie the Moocher.

1931-Has never charted in the UK. There was no UK chart until 1952.

Best Bit-At 0.49. A Hoochie Coochie dancer would even make a twerking Beyonce blush.

Cab Calloway was born Cabell Calloway on December 25th, 1907, in Rochester, New York, United States, he died from pneumonia, and other complications on November 18th, 1994, at the age of 86. His energetic live performances were an influence on future artists such as James Brown, and Michael Jackson. The film director John Landis who produced ‘The Blues Brothers’ film, which was Calloway’s last movie performance in 1980, said of Calloway, when asked about his influence on Rap artists,’Cab Calloway is Hip-Hop.’

Cab Calloway became the first ever African/American to sell a million records from one single, with this song, which was one of his 48 chart entries in America between 1930-1978, as a result of the success of ‘Minnie the Moocher’, Calloway gained the nickname,’The Hi De Ho Man.’He also appeared in 15 films between 1932-1980, including the 1943 movie ‘Stormy Weather,’ where he played himself (see also best songs 634.)’Minnie the Moocher’ was co-written by Calloway, Clarence Gaskill, (1892-1948) and the Jazz music publisher Irving Mills (1894-1985.) The song is based lyrically on the Vaudeville performer Frankie ‘Half Pint’ Jackson’s (1896 or 1897-1953) version of the early 1900’s song ‘Willie the Weeper.’

‘Minnie the Moocher’ tells the story of a woman called Minnie who was a ‘Hoochie Coocher,’ which is a kind of provocative dancer, that was heavily frowned upon in some quarters in those times. The guy she was in love with was addicted to Cocaine, and he took her to Chinatown where he introduced her to Opium. Her dreams of living the good life with this man are shattered when they get arrested for driving while under the influence. Minnie ends up in jail, and further down the line ends up in a mental asylum, where she died. Basically the song is saying that Minnie got in with the wrong crowd, and made some bad decisions, but deep down she was kind, and we should feel sorry for her.

The thing which made the song so popular with the public was it’s call-and-response ‘Scat’ battle that Calloway would engage in with the audience. He would start off with ‘Hi De Hi De Hi De Ho,’ which a crowd could easily repeat, but then his scats would steadily get faster, and more difficult, until finally he would give them a ‘Skeedle-a-booka-diki diki skeedy beeka gookity woop,’ to which the people couldn’t repeat, but would find very humorous.

‘Folks here’s a story about Minnie the Moocher, she was a real live hoochie coocher. She was the roughest toughest frail, but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale. Hi De Hi De Hi De Ho.’