The Singer & The Song

This week’s case study -- the final episode of our first season -- began life as a soulful ballad entitled “One Step Ahead” by the one and only Aretha Franklin.  Released on the Columbia label in 1965, the record scarcely made a splash.  In 1999, more than 30 years after its initial release, the rapper known as Mos Def wrote a sexy and thoughtful little composition he called “Ms. Fat Booty” to some funky music that sampled a significant taste of Aretha’s “One Step Ahead.”  The dozens of new versions since then include one that links Mos Def’s rhymes to the music of Marvin Gaye (not Ms. Franklin) to cover versions of Aretha’s original recording by Lauryn Hill and Ledisi, to rocksteady, dub, and drum’n’bass remakes, and finally to a very recent hardcore rap version by Atlanta’s J.I.D. that’s inspired tens of thousands of TikTokers to make 20-second dance videos pegged to a single bootylicious line spit by J.I.D. 

Episode five is devoted to “Watermelon Man,” the first song on the first album by the pianist Herbie Hancock, released when he was just 22 years old.  In 1963, less than a year later, the adventurous Cuban bandleader and conga player Mongo Santamaria cut an irresistible Latin-esque version of it, which became a gigantic pop hit in 1963 and has spawned over 200 cover versions in the decades since.  Ten years later, Herb recorded a jazz-rock remake of “Watermelon Man,” and, ten years after that, nearly a hundred rappers began to sample the jazz-rock version.    Its musical appeal aside, this upbeat little song by a Black composer in tribute to a watermelon man casually overturned 150 years of the racist lampooning of Black folks for their love of watermelon…which may help to explain why a number of singers -- including Jon Hendricks, Gloria Lynne, and Big Mama Thornton – were inspired to write lyrics to a composition that was born as an instrumental.  It’s a rich story.

Episode four of “The Singer and the Song” is devoted to “Tequila.”  Released into the world as catchy little rock instrumental in 1958, that song’s astonishing elasticity over the last six decades has generated flavorful jazz, r&b, rap, ska, cumbia, movie soundtrack, and marching band versions by notable performers including Pee Wee Herman, Joeski Love, and Wes Montgomery and by lesser known devotees including Perez Prado, Los Bitchos, Ska Cubano, the Reverend Horton Heat, and the University of Washington’s Husky Marching Band.  Drink up!

Episode three of “The Singer and the Song” is a two-fer, devoted not only to “I’m in the Mood for Love,” which debuted in 1935, but to “Moody’s Mood for Love,” King Pleasure’s 1952 vocalese version of James Moody’s ground-changing 1949 instrumental interpretation of the original song.  “I’m in the Mood for Love” was quickly embraced by Alfalfa and Darla in an early “Our Gang” comedy, then by Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, and the reggae artist Lord Tanamo during the succeeding decades.  “Moody’s Mood” was covered by Esther Phillips and Amy Winehouse even as it rolled into the hip-hop era with Slick Rick, MC Lyte, and Digital Underground all building tastes of it into their recordings.  And there's more!  It’s a rich history.

The second episode of "The Singer and the Song" is devoted to the curious history of "Red Red Wine," a song written and first recorded by Neil Diamond in 1968.  It was not a hit.  A year later, the Jamaican singer Tony Tribe cut a groovy reggae version of the song...which inspired the English band UB40 to cut their own reggae version of it in a tribute to Tribe, which became a global hit in 1988.  Eventually, even Diamond himself got the message and started performing it in a reggae style.  And there's much more, including a 21st Century update of "Red Red Wine" entitled "Green Green Weed."  Check it out.