The story behind puzzle No. 7
Herbie Hancock · Takin' Off · Blue Note · 1962
Herbie Hancock was 22 when he recorded his first album, and its opening track has been a hit three separate times. It started with a sound he remembered from childhood: a watermelon seller's wagon rolling down the street.
Hancock recorded Watermelon Man for Blue Note on May 28, 1962, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey, as the first track on his debut album, Takin' Off. He had a strong band behind him, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Dexter Gordon on tenor saxophone.
Hancock grew up in Chicago. He later recalled the cry of the watermelon man making his rounds through the back streets and alleys, and the wheels of his wagon beating out a rhythm on the cobblestones. That rhythm became the tune.
In 1963 percussionist Mongo Santamaría recorded a Latin version that reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Ten years later, Hancock remade the tune on his funk album Head Hunters, opening with Bill Summers blowing across a beer bottle to imitate the hindewhu, a whistled vocal style from central Africa. Same tune, three completely different grooves.
The form is a 16-bar blues, a little longer than the usual 12. Listen to how the piano and bass lock into a funky, stop-and-start pattern before the horns come in. It is jazz with a backbeat, a sound Blue Note would lean into over the next few years.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Play Mongo Santamaría's 1963 version right after the original. Then try the Head Hunters remake from 1973.
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