Watermelon Man is a jazz standard written by Herbie Hancock for his debut album Takin' Off (1962). The original recording is a sixteen-bar blues in a hard bop and soul jazz style, featuring Hancock on piano with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Dexter Gordon on tenor sax, plus Butch Warren on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Hancock based the piece on the street cry of a watermelon man in Chicago, blending R&B, soul jazz, and bebop influences. A 1963 single release reached number 12 on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart.
Key facts:
- Original: 1962, on the album Takin' Off, genre hard bop/soul jazz, length 7:09.
- 1963: Mongo Santamaría released a vocal version (Watermelon Man!) that hit number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped popularize the boogaloo style; his recording was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
- 1973: Hancock re-recorded the tune for Head Hunters, turning it into a funk track with clavinet and synthesizers, and featuring a hindewhu-inspired intro/outro by Bill Summers.
- Watermelon Man has become a jazz standard with hundreds of covers and has been sampled in various hip-hop tracks.
