GOT MY MOJO WORKING (BUT IT JUST WON'T WORK ON YOU)

Created on 21/01/2003
Latest update on 17/12/2023

Artist: Ann Cole
Author: Preston Foster
Label: Baton
Year: 1957

Rhythm & blues singer from New Jersey with vocal group The Suburbans. They were once support act for Muddy Waters. That's when Muddy heard it first. Both cut it somewhat simultaneously. Cole had the bigger hit initially but Muddy's version was better distributed. His lyrics are slightly different; he probably didn't remember the original ones while recording his. Most later covers follow his. Conclusion: cut your songs before singing them in public. Later Ann cut answer song I've Got Nothing Working Now (But My Real Old Fashioned Love), again co-written by Preston Foster and its Buzz Buzz A-Diddle It chorus probably inspired others (see there). Besides, Ann's mojo sure didn't double for a Saint Christopher; she got paralyzed in a car crash. Preston Foster's demo was for Dare Records.

Covers:

1957:

Muddy Waters [charted the same week as the original; crediting himself]

1957:

Louis Jordan

1960:

Larry Bright [as Mojo Workout; author/producer Ruth Stratchborneo sued unsuccessfully; she claimed singing Got My Mojo Working as early as '55]

1962:

Alexis Korner

1963:

Paul Butterfield

1964:

Mojos

1964:

Sheffields

1964:

Long John Baldry

1964:

Kingsmen [as Mojo Workout]

1964:

Paul Revere & The Raiders [idem]

1964:

Manfred Mann

1964:

Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers

1965:

Zombies

1965:

Graham Bond Organisation

1965:

Claude Righi [as Laissez-moi seul]

1966:

Johnny Rivers

1966:

Chico Hamilton

1966:

Jimmy Smith

1967:

Bill Cosby [as Mojo Workout]

1970:

Elvis Presley [see also: Hands Off]

1972:

J.J. Cale [as Mo Jo]

1975:

Melanie

1977:

B.B. King

1980:

Nine Below Zero

1982:

Zora Young

1984:

Dr. Feelgood

1986:

Paul Lamb

1986:

Wild Ones

1989:

Clarence Gatemouth Brown

1990:

Jimmy Rogers

2005:

Elliott Murphy

2008:

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

2011:

Johnny Winter

A mojo is a voodoo devise helping a man finding a good woman or vice versa. Not a mannish thing to rave about, for if he needs a mojo means his natural charms ain't working! Reason to believe a woman should sing it in the first place. See also: Keep Your Hands Off My Mojo.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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