Head Hunters the twelfth studio album by jazz icon Herbie Hancock, often regarded as his best. Released in 1973 through Columbia Records, it's best known for the popular tracks "Chameleon" and "Watermelon Man", which showed a fusion between Jazz and Funk. The record is one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. In 2007 Head Hunters was added to the National Recording Registry for being culturally, historically and aesthetically important.
Tracklist
Side 1
- "Chameleon" (15:41)
- "Watermelon Man (6:29)
Side 2
- "Sly" (10:15)
- "Vein Melter" (9:09)
Personnel
- Herbie Hancock: electric piano, clavinet, synthsizer
- Bennie Maupin: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, saxello, bass clarinet, alto flute
- Paul Jackson: electric bass guitar, marimbula
- Bill Summers: congas, shekere, balafon, agogo, cabasa, hindewhu, tambourine, log drum, surdo, gankogui, beer bottle
- Harvey Mason: drums
Vein melting tropes:
- Alliterative Title: "Head Hunters".
- Cephalothorax: The pianist's head on the album cover is pretty large compared to the rest of his body.
- Design Student's Orgasm: The album cover was designed by Underground Comics artist Victor Moscoso and shows the golden pianist wearing a mask that is part traditional African, part tape-head demagnetizer.
- Epic Rocking: Every song on the album goes well over six minutes, to the point where there are only four songs across the entire record. In particular, the full version of "Chameleon" is over 15 minutes long.
- Everything Is an Instrument: Bill Summers plays the riff from "Watermelon Man" by blowing across the necks of beer bottles tuned to pitch by filling them with different amounts of water.
- Fruit Cart: "Watermelon Man' was inspired by Hancock's recollection of a local street vendor selling watermelons during his youth.
- Hot as Hell: "Vein Melter", so hot it melts your veins.
- Instrumentals: It's an instrumental album.
- Longest Song Goes First: The album kicks off with the almost 16-minute "Chameleon".
- Meaningful Name: The album is named after Hancock's band The Headhunters.
- Non-Appearing Title: The album title does not appear.
- One Head Taller: The pianist on the album cover. And what a head! In a case of
Fridge Brilliance it may be the head worth hunting for! - One-Man Song: "Watermelon Man".
- Record Producer: Herbie Hancock and David Rubinson.
- Repurposed Pop Song: "Watermelon Man" originally appeared on Hancock's Takin' Off in a different version.
- Shout-Out:
- "Sly" is a homage to Sly and the Family Stone.
- "Chameleon" has been covered by numerous jazz artists, from Maceo Parker, Buddy Richs, even to reggae musicians Sly & Robbie, sampled by countless rap artists, most famously by Tupac Shakur on 2Pacalypse Now during the tracks "If My Homie Calls" and "Words of Wisdom".
- Frank Zappa quoted the intro from "Chameleon" in The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary on Studio Tan (1978) and Läther (1993).
- "Watermelon Man" has been sampled a lot too, most famously by Madonna on the track "Sanctuary" on Bedtime Stories.
- "Vein Melter" was sampled by PJ Harvey and John Parish on their album Dance Hall At Louse Point.
