Movie Music Monday – The Blues Brothers

We go back to one of my favorite movie soundtracks today for Movie Music Monday.

There were many pop and soul singers who made cameos in The Blues Brothers! They include Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, and Ray Charles. It also includes a man who had been making music since the 1930’s! I’m talking, of course, about the legendary Cab Calloway.

Cab was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem. He was an amazing scat singer and led his own band. His career spanned over 65 years!

In the film, Cab plays Curtis, a friend of Jake and Elwood Blues. He lives in the basement of the orphanage that the Blues Brothers were raised in. When they need to raise money for the orphanage, they hold huge concert. It is here that Cab gets to shine on stage.

It was on this day in 1931 that Cab and his band recorded the song that would forever be connected with him – Minnie The Moocher. He performed this song in the Blues Brothers.

From wiki:

The lyrics describe the story of a woman known as “Minnie the Moocher”, a “moocher” being American slang for a person who constantly asks others for money or who takes unfair advantage of generosity. She is described as a performer of the sexually-suggestive Hoochie Coochie dance. The lyrics are heavily laden with drug references, and describe Minnie’s vivid dreams after drug use. The character “Smokey” is described as “cokey”, meaning a user of cocaine; the phrase “kick the gong around” was a slang reference to smoking opium. The song ends with Calloway wailing “Poor Min!” insinuating an untimely end for the protagonist. The “hi-de-ho” scat lyrics came about when Calloway forgot the lyrics to the song one night during a live radio concert.

First, here is the original:

And from the Blues Brothers, featuring Mr. Fabulous, Alan Rubin on Trumpet:

Take a bow, Hi-De-Ho Man ….