Moody's Mood for Love
Encyclopedia
"Moody's Mood for Love" is jazz
saxophonist
James Moody
's 1949 instrumental solo based on Jimmy McHugh's 1935 song "I'm in the Mood for Love
" with lyrics later added by Eddie Jefferson
.
. Later in 1952 , jazz
singer Eddie Jefferson
wrote lyrics to this improvisation by Moody, a practice known as vocalese
. This particular arrangement of the song did not come to be known by its now common title of "Moody's Mood for Love" until King Pleasure
released a very popular vocal version in 1954
. Following King Pleasure's successful hit version of "Moody's Mood for Love" Jimmy McHugh
the original author of "I'm in the Mood for Love" sued for copyright infringement and won a partial victory in court. He and Moody eventually agreed to share the proceeds on sales of any versions of the tune. King Pleasure's version included vocals by Blossom Dearie
as well as instrumental contributions from Teacho and Band. Other artists who later released renditions of the song include Van Morrison
, George Benson
, Aretha Franklin
from "Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)
", Queen Latifah
, Tito Puente
, Kermit Ruffins
, The Ray Gelato Giants, Amy Winehouse
, Mina
and Georgie Fame
. In 1995 Quincy Jones
released a multi-harmony version of the track with his album Q's Jook Joint featuring the artists Take 6
in collaboration with Brian McKnight
. The Tony Award
-winning musical
Jersey Boys
featured the song. The song also has been featured on an episode of The Cosby Show
, as well as in an early 1990s Gap television commercial .
The lyrics are often incorrectly attributed to King Pleasure because he was the first to record it. However, some sources report that when Pleasure was asked to write more lyrics to solos he confessed that he had not written this one. He had heard Jefferson perform it in a jazz club some years before and asked permission to reproduce it. James Moody later hired Jefferson to come on the road with him. Jefferson also appears on several recordings with Moody.
Another repercussion of Jefferson’s lyrical marriage to Moody’s solo was the impact it had on jazz singer Jon Hendricks
. The story goes that Hendricks was sitting in a café when the King Pleasure recording of "Moody’s Mood" came on the jukebox
. According to Hendricks, he had been writing “unpopular” songs for some time, but when he heard the recording and realized that it was a saxophone solo with words he decided to change his approach to songwriting. “I didn’t have to stop at 32 bars. Now I could write lyrics for all the parts in the orchestra.” He went on to collaborate with the singer and arranger Dave Lambert and the singer Annie Ross to form the group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
. The group multi-tracked their voices and recorded the album Sing a Song of Basie in which they sang lyrics by Hendricks to the full arrangements of the Count Basie Orchestra
(Ross singing all the trumpet parts, Hendricks singing the saxophone parts and Lambert singing the trombone parts). With the exception of a small rhythm section, all 13 horn parts were reproduced by the three voices dubbed over.
artist Prince Paul sampled
the song as the basis for the track "Mood for Love" on his album A Prince Among Thieves
(1999). In 2006, American Idol
contestant Elliott Yamin
performed the song. His version appears on the album American Idol Season 5: Encores. This version just missed the Billboard Hot 100
, peaking at number one on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
chart. The following year, urban jazz
saxophonist Najee
released album "Rising Sun" which contained a cover of the song.
Has also been covered by Queen Latifah on the Dana Owens Album; and Amy Winehouse on her first album Frank.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
saxophonist
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
James Moody
James Moody (saxophonist)
James Moody was an American jazz saxophone and flute player. He was best known for his hit "Moody's Mood for Love," an improvisation based on "I'm in the Mood for Love"; in performance, he often improvised vocals for the tune.-Biography:James Moody was born in Savannah, Georgia...
's 1949 instrumental solo based on Jimmy McHugh's 1935 song "I'm in the Mood for Love
I'm in the Mood for Love
"I'm in the Mood for Love" is a popular song. The music was written by Jimmy McHugh, the lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The song was published in 1935. It was introduced by Frances Langford in the movie Every Night at Eight released that year...
" with lyrics later added by Eddie Jefferson
Eddie Jefferson
Eddie Jefferson was a celebrated jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, a musical style in which lyrics are set to an instrumental composition or solo. Perhaps his best-known song is "Moody's Mood for Love", though it was first recorded by King Pleasure, who cited...
.
History
James Moody created his improvised solo in 1949 on a visit to Sweden. Moody’s version clearly shows the influence of Charlie ParkerCharlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
. Later in 1952 , jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer Eddie Jefferson
Eddie Jefferson
Eddie Jefferson was a celebrated jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, a musical style in which lyrics are set to an instrumental composition or solo. Perhaps his best-known song is "Moody's Mood for Love", though it was first recorded by King Pleasure, who cited...
wrote lyrics to this improvisation by Moody, a practice known as vocalese
Vocalese
Vocalese is a style or genre of jazz singing wherein lyrics are written for melodies that were originally part of an all-instrumental composition or improvisation. Whereas scat singing uses improvised nonsense syllables, such as "bap ba dee dot bwee dee" in solos, vocalese uses lyrics, either...
. This particular arrangement of the song did not come to be known by its now common title of "Moody's Mood for Love" until King Pleasure
King Pleasure
King Pleasure was a jazz vocalist and an early master of vocalese, where a singer sings words to a famous instrumental solo....
released a very popular vocal version in 1954
1954 in music
-Events:*January 14 - First documented use of the abbreviated term "Rock 'n' Roll" to promote Alan Freed's Rock 'n' Roll Jubillee, held at St. Nicholas Arena in New York, New York...
. Following King Pleasure's successful hit version of "Moody's Mood for Love" Jimmy McHugh
Jimmy McHugh
James Francis McHugh was a U.S. composer. One of the most prolific songwriters from the 1920s to the 1950s, he composed over 270 songs...
the original author of "I'm in the Mood for Love" sued for copyright infringement and won a partial victory in court. He and Moody eventually agreed to share the proceeds on sales of any versions of the tune. King Pleasure's version included vocals by Blossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie
Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her girlish voice.-Early career:...
as well as instrumental contributions from Teacho and Band. Other artists who later released renditions of the song include Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
from "Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)
Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)
Hey Now Hey is a 1973 album by Aretha Franklin. It was a commercial failure, being the first Atlantic album by Franklin to miss the Top 25 of the album chart peaking at #30....
", Queen Latifah
The Dana Owens Album
The Dana Owens Album is the fifth studio album by American recording artist Queen Latifah, released in the United States on September 28, 2004 by Interscope Records. Unlike Latifah's previous hip hop/R&B-oriented efforts, this album showcases a jazz vocal performance...
, Tito Puente
Tito Puente
Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
, Kermit Ruffins
Kermit Ruffins
Kermit Ruffins is a jazz trumpeter, singer and composer from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He has been heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan and Eddy Jefferson. Ruffins accompanies a large portion of his songs with his own vocals, and he says that the highest note he can hit...
, The Ray Gelato Giants, Amy Winehouse
Frank (Amy Winehouse album)
Frank is the debut studio album by English recording artist Amy Winehouse, released 20 October 2003 on Island Records. Production for the album took place during 2002 to 2003 and was handled by Winehouse, Salaam Remi, Commissioner Gordon, Jimmy Hogarth and Matt Rowe...
, Mina
Mina
Mina may refer to:* Mina , a given name * Mina , an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight and currency.* Mina, a folk word related with the extraction of mineral resources...
and Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame
Georgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
. In 1995 Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
released a multi-harmony version of the track with his album Q's Jook Joint featuring the artists Take 6
Take 6
Take 6 is an American a cappella gospel music sextet formed in 1980 on the campus of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. The group sings in a contemporary style, integrating R&B and jazz influences into their devotional songs and has 10 Grammy wins, 10 Dove Awards, one Soul Train Award and two...
in collaboration with Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and R&B/Pop musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays nine instruments: piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet....
. The Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winning musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons...
featured the song. The song also has been featured on an episode of The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
, as well as in an early 1990s Gap television commercial .
The lyrics are often incorrectly attributed to King Pleasure because he was the first to record it. However, some sources report that when Pleasure was asked to write more lyrics to solos he confessed that he had not written this one. He had heard Jefferson perform it in a jazz club some years before and asked permission to reproduce it. James Moody later hired Jefferson to come on the road with him. Jefferson also appears on several recordings with Moody.
Another repercussion of Jefferson’s lyrical marriage to Moody’s solo was the impact it had on jazz singer Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks
Jon Hendricks is an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is considered one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists...
. The story goes that Hendricks was sitting in a café when the King Pleasure recording of "Moody’s Mood" came on the jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...
. According to Hendricks, he had been writing “unpopular” songs for some time, but when he heard the recording and realized that it was a saxophone solo with words he decided to change his approach to songwriting. “I didn’t have to stop at 32 bars. Now I could write lyrics for all the parts in the orchestra.” He went on to collaborate with the singer and arranger Dave Lambert and the singer Annie Ross to form the group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were a vocalese trio formed by jazz vocalists Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross.-History:The group formed in 1957 and recorded their first album Sing a Song of Basie for Paramount Records...
. The group multi-tracked their voices and recorded the album Sing a Song of Basie in which they sang lyrics by Hendricks to the full arrangements of the Count Basie Orchestra
Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie. The band survived the late '40s decline in big band popularity and went on to produce notable collaborations with singers such as Frank Sinatra and Ella...
(Ross singing all the trumpet parts, Hendricks singing the saxophone parts and Lambert singing the trombone parts). With the exception of a small rhythm section, all 13 horn parts were reproduced by the three voices dubbed over.
Cover versions
Hip hopHip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
artist Prince Paul sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
the song as the basis for the track "Mood for Love" on his album A Prince Among Thieves
A Prince Among Thieves
A Prince Among Thieves is the second studio album by hip hop artist Prince Paul. It is considered an apex in the hip hop world, and was one of the most acclaimed concept albums of its time. The concept follows the story of an aspiring young emcee named Tariq, played by emcee Breezly Brewin, who...
(1999). In 2006, American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
contestant Elliott Yamin
Elliott Yamin
Elliott Yamin , born Efraym Elliott Yamin, is an American singer known for his hit single "Wait for You" and placing third on the fifth season of American Idol....
performed the song. His version appears on the album American Idol Season 5: Encores. This version just missed the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, peaking at number one on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100...
chart. The following year, urban jazz
Urban jazz
Urban jazz is the fusion of smooth jazz and R&B/hip-hop music. Urban jazz usually contains strong R&B percussion and bass lines. A few of the better known urban jazz artists are Boney James, Ronny Jordan, Nick Colionne, Wayman Tisdale, Najee, and Paul Jackson, Jr.Some of the more successful...
saxophonist Najee
Najee
Jerome Najee Rasheed , known professionally as Najee, is an urban jazz saxophonist and flautist.He attended New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with George Russell and Jaki Byard....
released album "Rising Sun" which contained a cover of the song.
Has also been covered by Queen Latifah on the Dana Owens Album; and Amy Winehouse on her first album Frank.
External links
- James Moody's website Accessed 2009-04-03