Featured In
ALBUMChronological Calloway, Vol 1 (1932-33)Cab Calloway
Albums by Cab Calloway
ALBUMWe the Cats Shall Hep YouCab Calloway
ALBUMElectronic EvolutionTerrafractyl, Free Standing Pickles & Cab Calloway
ALBUMClub Zanzibar BroadcastsCab Calloway
ALBUMMoonglowCab Calloway
ALBUMThe Chu & Dizzy YearsCab Calloway
ALBUMGershwin: Selections from Porgy and Bess & Blue MondayErich Kunzel, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Gregg Baker, Harolyn Blackwell, Angela Brown, Marquita Lister, Thomas Young & Cab Calloway
ALBUMAre You Hep to the Jive?Cab Calloway
ALBUMCab Calloway Featuring Chu BerryCab Calloway
ALBUMMinnie the Moocher (Live)Cab Calloway
ALBUMStormy Weather (Original 1943 Motion Picture Soundtrack)Lena Horne & Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway's Popular Music Videos
St. James Infirmary Blues (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, February 23, 1964)
Cab Calloway
St. Louis Blues (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, May 26, 1963)
Cab Calloway
It Ain't Necessarily So (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, August 18, 1957)
Cab Calloway
That's My Girl (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, July 29, 1951)
Cab Calloway
Old Man River (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, February 23, 1964)
Cab Calloway
It Ain't Necessarily So (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, June 20, 1965)
Cab Calloway
Blues In The Night (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, August 18, 1957)
Cab Calloway
Birth Of The Blues (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, December 26, 1954)
Cab Calloway
Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball? (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, July 17, 1949)
Cab Calloway
Go Down Moses (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, December 26, 1954)
Cab Calloway
Artist Playlists
Cab Calloway Essentials
This star of the Harlem Renaissance taught America to swing.
Artist Biography
Singing, dancing, and conducting his band in a flamboyant white tuxedo, Cab Calloway possessed a supersized Jazz Age persona that would strongly influence James Brown and Michael Jackson. Born in upstate New York in 1907, Calloway learned how to take a hip Black sound mainstream from Louis Armstrong, who also taught him how to scat sing. Released in 1931—the same year he made his Cotton Club debut in New York City—Calloway's signature tune, "Minnie the Moocher," made the "Hi-de-ho" man the first African American to sell a million copies of a single. His hep jive, drug references, and rotoscoped panache translated remarkably well to the Fleischer Brothers' Betty Boop cartoons of the early '30s, and he challenged the color line by appearing onstage with Bing Crosby and on film with Al Jolson. Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet, and Milt Hinton are just a few of the jazz legends to pass through his band, which thrived throughout the '40s. Calloway enjoyed a late-career bump when he performed “Minnie the Moocher” in the 1980 hit The Blues Brothers; he passed away in 1994, after suffering a stroke.
Hometown
Rochester, NY, United States
Genre
Jazz