Cantaloupe Island is an instrumental jazz standard written by the pianist Herbie Hancock, who is its only credited composer. It is a modal jazz piece of about five and a half minutes. Hancock recorded it on June 17, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for his album Empyrean Isles, released in November 1964 on Blue Note. The original line-up comprised Hancock on piano, Freddie Hubbard on cornet, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. Hancock wrote the tune in the early years of his membership of Miles Davis's 1960s quintet.
Hancock later recorded a reggae and jazz-fusion version, titled "Cantelope Island", on his 1976 album Secrets. Donald Byrd, Nat Adderley, Hugh Masekela, Kai Winding, El Chicano, Poncho Sanchez and Mario Biondi are among the artists who recorded it. The jazz rap group Us3 sampled it for "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" on Hand On the Torch (1993), a single that reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the RIAA in 1994. The track also appears in Woody Allen's film Coup de chance (2023) and in the 1994 computer game Transport Tycoon. In 2000, Jazz24.org placed it at No. 19 in its "Jazz 100".
