Sidewinder is a hard bop jazz tune written by Lee Morgan and the title track of his 1964 Blue Note album The Sidewinder. It was recorded on December 21, 1963 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey and released in July 1964 on Blue Note. The groove is a catchy boogaloo-inspired 24-bar theme that helped Morgan’s profile rise and would become a jazz standard, with a notable late minor-chord twist that keeps the listener guessing. The personnel on the session includes Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Barry Harris on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. The Sidewinder also appeared as a single and reached number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1965, and the track was used in a Chrysler advertisement and as a TV theme, contributing to the album becoming Blue Note’s best selling record ever. In 2024 the album was added to the National Recording Registry for its cultural and historical significance.
