Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, from the opening credits of Max Fleischer's Minnie the Moocher, which included a recording of the titular Calloway song.

"Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz song first recorded in 1930 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra. "Minnie the Moocher" is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed ("scat") lyrics (for example, "Hi De Hi De Hi De Hi"). In performances, Calloway would have the audience participate by repeating each scat phrase in a form of call and response, eventually Calloway's phrases would become so long and complex that the audience would laugh at their own failed attempts to repeat them. Image File history File links Cab Calloway in Minnie the Moocher File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Cab Calloway in Minnie the Moocher File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Max Fleischer (July 19, 1883–September 11, 1972) was an important pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cab Calloway, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Cab Calloway (December 25, 1907–November 18, 1994) was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. ...

Basis

The song is based both musically and lyrically on Willie the Weeper [1] [2] The lyrics are heavily laden with drug references. "Smoky" is described as "cokey" meaning a user of cocaine; the phrase "kicking the gong around" was a slang reference to smoking opium, and other verses describe Minnie's opium dream, involving living with the King of Sweden and having a "million dollars worth of nickels and dimes." This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. ... This article does not adequately cite its references. ... Pipe Mania Pipe Dream is also the name of Binghamton Universitys student newspaper. ... Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf) (June 16, 1858 – October 29, 1950) was King of Sweden from 1907 until his death. ... The United States five-cent coin, commonly called a nickel, is a unit of currency equaling one-twentieth, or five hundredths, of a United States dollar. ... The dime is a coin worth ten cents, or one tenth of a United States dollar. ...

Extended version

Calloway also wrote an extended version, adding verses which describe Minnie and Smokey going to jail; Minnie pays Smokey's bail, but he abandons her there. Another verse describes her tempting "Deacon Lowdown" when she "wiggled her jelly roll" at him.

Finally, they took Minnie to "where they put the crazies", where she dies. This explains why both the short version and the long version end with the words "Poor Minnie, poor Min." [3].

Other references to Minnie

Minnie herself is mentioned in a number of other Cab Calloway songs, including Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day, Ghost of Smoky Joe, Kickin' the Gong Around, Minnie's a Hepcat Now, Mister Paganini - Swing for Minnie, We Go Well Together, and Zah Zuh Zaz. Some of these songs indicate that Minnie's boyfriend Smoky was named Smoky Joe as well.

Cartoons

In 1932, Calloway recorded the song for a Fleischer Studios Talkartoon short cartoon, also called Minnie the Moocher, starring Betty Boop and Bimbo. Calloway and his band provides most of the short's score, and appear in the short themselves in a live-action introduction. The thirty-second live-action segment is the earliest-known film footage of Calloway. Fleischer Studios, Inc. ... Talkartoon was a series of animated cartoons by Fleischer Studios, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. ... Betty Boop from the opening title sequence of the earliest entries in the Betty Boop Cartoons Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character appearing in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop series of films produced by Max Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures. ... Bimbo is a cartoon dog created by Fleischer Studios. ...

In the cartoon, Betty decides to run away from her harsh parents, and Bimbo comes with her. While walking away from home, Betty and Bimbo wind up in a spooky area, and hide in a cave. While in the cave, a ghost walrus appears—(whose dance movements were rotoscoped from footage of Calloway dancing)—and begins to sing "Minnie the Moocher", with many fellow ghosts following along. After singing the whole number, the ghosts chase Betty and Bimbo all the way back to Betty's home. While Betty is hiding under the covers of her bedsheets, her runaway note is torn up and the remaining letters read "Home Sweet Home." Binomial name (Linnaeus, 1758) Distribution of Walrus Subspecies Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) are large semi-aquatic mammals that live in the cold Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. ... Rotoscoping is a technique where animators trace live action movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. ...

Films

In the movie Hi De Ho (1947), Jeni Le Gon played Minnie the Moocher, Cab Calloway's girlfriend, while Calloway played himself. Calloway performed the Minnie the Moocher song several times in the movie. Hi De Ho (also known as Hi-De-Ho) is a 1947 American musical film which was released by All American and has an African-American cast. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Calloway performed the song in the 1955 movie Rhythm and Blues Revue, filmed at the Apollo Theatre. Much later, in 1980 at age 73, Calloway performed the song in the movie The Blues Brothers. Entrance February 2005 This article is about the London theatre. ... The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a Saturday Night Live musical sketch. ...

Cover versions and references in popular culture

• The song was covered successfully in 1967 by Australian band "The Cherokees". It was sung in a style briefly popular at the time similar to "Winchester Cathedral" by "The New Vaudeville Band"
• "Minnie the Moocher" was also performed in another film from 1980 besides The Blues Brothers, Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone, with singer Danny Elfman modifying the lyrics to go with the film's plot.
• In A Night at the Opera (1935), Groucho Marx as Otis Driftwood says, "You're willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of "Minnie the Moocher" for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie."
• Chris Berman of ESPN also referenced the song many times in the late 1990s and early 2000s by singing "Hi De Hi De Hi" whenever wide receiver Chris Calloway (no relation to Cab Calloway) of the NFL's New York Giants caught a pass for a touchdown.
• It came up again in 20th century pop culture by being sampled by rappers Tupac Shakur and Ol' Dirty Bastard. Puerto Rican hip hop artist Tego Calderon used a slower version of the song's melody as the backbeat of his first single, Abayarde.
• The song appeared in an episode of Jeeves and Wooster, performed by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, in which Fry's character Jeeves 'plays merry hell with the rhythm' by appending 'Sir' to the end of each line - it was later released on the soundtrack album. It has been covered by many artists.
• Mighty O by Outkast from the film Idlewild and the eponymous album contains an interpolation of the Hi De Hi De Hi De Ho refrain.
• The big band/swing group "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy" recorded a cover on their self-titled album "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy"
• Several strip-acts (cootch) were performed on "Minnie the Moocher" by members of the Dreifuss family in the series Carnivàle.
• Hip-hop act K7 covered the song as Hi De Ho for the official The Mask soundtrack.

Richard Rick Elfman (born March 6, 1949, in Los Angeles, California) is a Jewish-American film director, writer and actor, best known amongst cult film fans for his 1980 film Forbidden Zone. ... Forbidden Zone is the title of a 1980 science-fiction/comedy/musical cult film directed by Richard Elfman with music composed by Danny Elfman. ... Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, California) is an American singer-songwriter who led the rock band Oingo Boingo from 1976 until its breakup in 1995, and has since 1985s Pee-Wees Big Adventure worked as a film score composer. ... For other uses, see A Night at the Opera. ... See also: 1934 in film 1935 1936 in film 1930s in film years in film film Events Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). ... Julius Henry Marx, AKA Groucho Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977), was an American comedian, working both with his siblings, the Marx Brothers, and on his own. ... ESPN/ESPN-DT, formerly an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an [[United States|Amer<nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here--68. ... Christopher Fitzpatrick Calloway (born March 29, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois), was a former American professional football player who was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 4th round of the 1990 NFL Draft. ... NFL redirects here. ... City East Rutherford, New Jersey Other nicknames Big Blue Wrecking Crew, Big Blue, G-Men, The Jints, The New York Football Giants Team colors Royal Blue, Red, Gray, and White Head Coach Tom Coughlin Owner John Mara (50%) and Steve Tisch (50%) General manager Jerry Reese League/Conference affiliations National... Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli, or simply as Pac, was an American artist renowned for his rap music, movie roles, poetry, and his social activism. ... Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004) was an American MC known by the stage name Ol Dirty Bastard (often shortened to ODB). ... Hip hop music is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. ... Tegui Calderón Rosario &#8212;better known as Tego Calderón&#8212; is a rapper from Loíza Aldea, Loíza, Puerto Rico. ... Jeeves and Wooster is a humourous television series adapted by Clive Exton from P.G. Wodehouses Jeeves stories, and produced by Carnival Films for Granada Television, and screened on the United Kingdoms ITV network from 1990 to 1993. ... James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE (born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian and writer known as Hugh Laurie. ... Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English comedian, writer, actor, novelist, filmmaker and television personality. ... In film formats, the soundtrack is the physical area of the film which records the synchronized sound. ... An album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. ... Mighty O is the first as well uofficial single from OutKasts album Idlewild (2006). ... OutKast are an American hip hop duo based out of East Point, Georgia, a nearby city to Atlanta, Georgia. ... Idlewild may refer to: In films and music: Idlewild (band), a Scottish rock band Idlewild (Everything but the Girl album), a 1988 album by English band Everything But The Girl Idlewild (film), a 2006 film starring the members of hip-hop group OutKast Idlewild (OutKast album), a 2006 soundtrack album... A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. ... Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of jazz music that developed during the 1920s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. ... Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing band from southern California. ... Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is a contemporary swing band from southern California. ... Carnivàle, pronounced // (“car-nih-VAL”), was an American dramatic television series produced by HBO. Created by Daniel Knauf, it starred Nick Stahl and Clancy Brown. ... K7 is a hip-hop group from the USA signed to Tommy Boy records. ... Hi De Ho (also known as Hi-De-Ho) is a 1947 American musical film which was released by All American and has an African-American cast. ... The Mask is an Oscar-nominated comedy film, based on a series of comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. ...

External links

• The Max Fleischer Minnie the Moocher cartoon, at the Internet Archive.
• Minnie the Moocher (1932) at the Internet Movie Database
• 1955 performance in Rhythm and Blues Revue