Here is the story of a great instrumental that changed three times and has been covered by over 200 artists!
According to an article by Mike Hobart:
When the American pianist Herbie Hancock was composing the soul jazz classic “Watermelon Man” for his 1962 Blue Note debut album Takin’ Off, he realised that he had presented himself with a problem.
On the one hand, the then 22-year-old wanted to mesh experiences from his own life into his work, and the rolling, rackety sound of a watermelon seller’s horse-drawn wagon doing the rounds of Hancock’s Chicago South Side 1940s childhood was a powerful memory refracted into the tune’s core.
On the other, the image of a grinning piccaninny happy with his watermelon slice was then a horribly dominant racist caricature, and in the rising civil rights temperature of the times Hancock knew the song could misfire.
“So . . . I asked myself two questions,” Hancock later recalled in his autobiography, Possibilities. “Is there anything wrong with watermelons? No. Is there anything inherently wrong with the watermelon man? No . . . By naming my song ‘Watermelon Man’, I wanted to reclaim the image.”
Herbie was asked to fill in for Chick Corea who was leaving Mongo Santamaria's band. and according to Hancock: "Donald Byrd came to one of the gigs and Donald had a conversation with Mongo about the link between African American music and Afro-Cuban music since the roots from Africa were pretty much the same. And Donald asked me to play the song Watermelon Man. So I started playing it and Mongo said, keep playing it. So then he got up on the conga drums. Soon as he started playing, that Afro-Cuban sound fit like a hand in a glove. And one by one, the people in the supper club who had been sitting at the tables talking, one by one, they got up. Pretty soon they were all dancing and screaming."
Mongo Santamaria
Watermelon Man was released as a single from Herbie's first album Takin' Off. The album did not chart, but the single reached #121. His 1973 remake contained on the now famous Chameleon album never charted.
Mongo's Album charted at #63 in 1963. This version of Watermelon went to #10 in the Hot 100, #8 in R & B Singles, and peaked at #3 on the Adult Contemporary charts.
In the opinion of Monahan's Song's staff, we love Herbies original but, nobody remembers hearing it growing up. "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck, yes. "The In Crowd" by Ramsey Lewis? Sure! But mostly we all remember the Mongo Santamaria version which got constant play on mega radio stations like WABC in New York.
As for the 1973 remake of the song on Herbie's celebrated album Chameleon, the synth does not hold up and as stated before, we prefer the original. Another problem is that it takes 1:40 into the song before the slightest hint of a melody shows up.
But decide for yourself. Here are all three versions for your consideration and enjoyment:
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