"Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz-scat song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over a million copies. "Minnie the Moocher" is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed ("scat") lyrics (for example, "Hi De Hi De Hi De Ho"). In performances, Calloway would have the audience and the band members participate by repeating each scat phrase in a form of call and response, until making it too fast and complicated for the audience to replicate it.

Released by Brunswick Records, the song was the biggest chart-topper of 1931. Calloway publicized and then celebrated a "12th birthday" for the song on June 17, 1943, while performing at New York's Strand Theatre. He reported that he was then singing the song at both beginning and end of four performances daily, and then estimated his total performances to date: "she's kicked the gong around for me more than 40,000 times."

In 1978, Calloway recorded a disco version of "Minnie the Moocher" on RCA Records which reached No. 91 on the Billboard R&B chart.

"Minnie the Moocher" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2019 was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress. It has been argued that the record was the first jazz record to sell a million copies. The song was also featured in the film "The Blues Brothers" (and I believe the brothers themselves [John Belushi and Dan Akyroyd] also recorded their own version; so many have), as well as the British television drama "Jeeves and Wooster" (based on the books by P.G. Wodehouse).

During my 8th grade year, I actually sang this song for my friends just to entertain them, and even got them to echo me on the call and response part. It was a fun moment from my years of middle school (although I do confess I didn't understand what I was singing; only now do I have some regrets about it given the lyrics, but it does prove that even in the 1930s, people had to think about what the words were saying). Nevertheless, it remains one of my favorite jazz standards to this very day.

My version uses instruments, but no vocals. This also marks the first time I've ever used a muted trumpet. The lineup is:

Trumpet (open, then muted, then open again at the end)
Sax section (alto, tenor, baritone)
Trombone
Jazz guitar
Piano
Acoustic bass
Drum set
Vibraphone

This arrangement © me and me alone
Original music © Cab Calloway, Brunswick (BR6074), and everybody else who owns the rights
All other media referenced belongs to everybody who owns the rights; I own nothing of that sort.

Minnie the Moocher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2etTmdNVm0 (Cab Calloway's original version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTs1YBdcO0Q (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYoATL_ymw8 (this version by the Speakeasy Three)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0JctR7MHnA (Hugh Laurie from the Jeeves and Wooster soundtrack)