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If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors, please let us know by contacting us:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)
Artist: Cab Calloway
Author: Irving Mills/Cab Calloway/Clarence Gaskill
Label: Brunswick
Year: 1931
Based on folksong Willy The Weeper. A moocher is slang for a crook. The Mooche was also a draggy dance in Harlem. Gong in the lyrics was slang for opium pipe. Minnie The Moocher was the first well known opium song, followed up by Kicking The Gong Around. Banned by the BBC.
Covers:
Blues Brothers [featuring Cab Calloway]
Larry Marshall [in film The Cotton Club]
Conjure [produced by Kip Hanrahan]
Tego Calderon [horn sample in Abayarde]
Buscemi feat. Lady Cath [horn sample in Dipso Calypso]
Cab Calloway was Duke Ellington's supersub on the bandstand of the Cotton Club in Harlem, famous for his extravaganza, lingo, body language, dress code and showmanship. Known as "the Hi-De-Ho Man", a catch phrase from Minnie The Moocher (his themesong). Cab used it to keep his audience alert. Hi-de-ho, Hi-de-hi must have been introduced as a catch phrase by the Spasm Band, a pre jazz band in New Orleans' Storyville circa 1895.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors, please let us know by contacting us:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)