History Music / CabCalloway

* ButNotTooBlack: His lighter skin made it easier for white audiences to accept him in an era when blackface was still acceptable. Cab Calloway may have been one of the first people this trope was applied to.

* LargeHam

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* AudienceParticipationSong: Many of Cab Calloway's songs invoked this. His songs were often written so that his orchestra and/or the audience could repeat his scat talk. Every once in a while he'd surprise and confuse everyone by breaking out in very rapid, hard-to-repeat gibberish in place of his typical "hi-de-hi-de-hi-di-ho", just for laughs.

[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cab_8899.png]]
[[caption-width-right:252: The Hi-De-Ho Man himself.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The undisputed world champion of his time. "Minnie the Moocher" is a prostitute high on opium; "Smokey Joe" is a pimp; "The Hi-de-Ho Miracle Man" is a lying con artist; "The Reefer Man" was a street pot dealer. Few of the white patrons of the Cotton Club caught on.

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III ([[AwayInAManger December 25]], 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American {{Jazz}} singer and bandleader. His band, originally called The Missourians, was one of the most popular African-American big bands of the [[TheGreatDepression 1930s]] and [[TheForties 1940s]]. Calloway's band featured trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.

* ButNotTooBlack: [[FairForItsDay His lighter skin made it easier for white audiences to accept him in an era when blackface was still acceptable.]] Cab Calloway may have been one of the first people this trope was applied to.

* SequelSong: After "Minnie the Moocher" became his SignatureSong, Cab Calloway wrote a series of songs about Minnie and her boyfriend Smokey Joe.

* CallAndResponseSong

* ManInWhite: A lot of the time, at least in his film appearances.

* OpiumDen: Many of his songs take place here. Smokey Joe often takes Minnie the Moocher to an opium den in Chinatown to [[UnusualEuphemism kick the gong around]].

* ShoutOut: Most of the swing bands out during the swing revival of the 1990's did at least one. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy did a cover of ''Minnie the Moocher'', and the Squirrel Nut Zippers did a music video much like the old Fleisher cartoons Cab appeared in, complete with the lead singer doing Cab's dance moves at the beginning.
** One of the rooster caricatures in the ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' cartoon "WesternAnimation/SwoonerCrooner" is a black rooster resembling Calloway, who sings "Minnie the Moocher" with a "HI-DE-HIIIIIIIII!"
** The Oogie Boogie Man from ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' was inspired by Cab Calloway -- complete with his villain song having near-direct recreations of parts of the Cab Calloway/Fleischer toon ''The Old Man of the Mountain''.
** King Dice from ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' also took strong inspiration from Calloway, down to the "hi-de-ho" catchphrase and [[spoiler:his hands in his bossfight mimicking Calloway's dance moves]]. [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/8fc656635b81144635d9e15382e3d6dd/tumblr_oy9du6ugoH1w3xoouo1_500.png Confirmed by the creators.]]
** {{Music/Voltaire}} is a big Cab Calloway fan, and many of the songs from his album ''Ooky Spooky'' are an homage to Cab's style.
** Music/DannyElfman, of all people, performed a Calloway-inspired number in the ultra-weird ''Film/ForbiddenZone''
** And ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'' memorably included a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ_R8QBeYvs cover]] of "Minnie the Moocher." "Hoo-de hoo-de hoo, sir..."
** A fairly early ShoutOut is in the Gershwin opera ''Porgy and Bess''; the character of Sportin' Life is based on Calloway, so much so that Calloway was asked to play it in the 1952 revival.
** Calloway did a few shout-outs himself. Even Minnie the Moocher was originally a shout-out to his own sister, a bandleader in her own right, who had created the character.

** One of the rooster caricatures in the ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' cartoon "Swooner Crooner" is a black rooster resembling Calloway, who sings "Minnie the Moocher" with a "HI-DE-HIIIIIIIII!"

** Except for [[Film/{{Airplane}} Barbara Billingsly, of course.]]

* OpiumDen: Many of his songs take place here. Smokey Joe often takes Minnie the Moocher to an opium den in Chinatown to [[UnusualEuphemism kick the gong around.]]

* ScatSinging: Cab Calloway was famous for this. He later admitted that when he first began singing 'scat' it was because he'd forgotten the words to a song, but after it went over well with his audience he began to purposely write it into his songs.

** King Dice from ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' also took strong inspiration from Calloway, down to the "hi-de-ho" catchphrase and [[spoiler:his hands in his bossfight mimicking Calloway's dance moves.]] [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/8fc656635b81144635d9e15382e3d6dd/tumblr_oy9du6ugoH1w3xoouo1_500.png Confirmed by the creators.]]

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III ([[AwayInAManger December 25]], 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American {{Jazz}} singer and bandleader. His band, originally called The Missourians, was one of the most popular African-American big bands of the [[TheThirties 1930s]] and [[TheForties 1940s]]. Calloway's band featured trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.

Modern audiences probably know him best for his performance of ''Minnie the Moocher'', his most popular song, in the 1980 movie ''Film/TheBluesBrothers''. In his prime he was best known for performing at The Cotton Club in Harlem during [[TheThirties the 1930's.]] He was among the first African-American celebrities in an age when performers in blackface were still the norm, breaking new barriers and paving the way for nearly every black performer to come.

** King Dice from ''VideoGame/Cuphead'' also took strong inspiration from Calloway, down to the "hi-de-ho" catchphrase and [[spoiler:his hands in his bossfight mimicking Calloway's dance moves.]] [[https://78.media.tumblr.com/8fc656635b81144635d9e15382e3d6dd/tumblr_oy9du6ugoH1w3xoouo1_500.png Confirmed by the creators.]]

Born Cabell Calloway III on [[AwayInAManger 25 December]] 1907 in Rochester, New York, Cab was an American {{Jazz}} singer and bandleader. His band, originally called The Missourians, was one of the most popular African-American big bands of the [[TheThirties 1930s]] and [[TheForties 1940s]]. Calloway's band featured trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.

* {{Rotoscoping}}: His dance moves were used in a few of Max Fleischer's BettyBoop cartoons...including on a [[DerangedAnimation dancing walrus]] in ''WesternAnimation/MinnieTheMoocher''.

* RearrangeTheSong: He recorded a {{disco}} version of [[https://soundcloud.com/macjam/cab-calloway-minnie-the his signature song]] in the mid-70s, which he wanted to perform (but was told just to sing the original version of the song instead) in ''TheBluesBrothers'' in order to promote it.

* MotorMouth: He enjoyed occasionally pranking the audience by doing a CallAndResponseSong, then breaking out into rapid fire gibberish. His appearance in ''TheBluesBrothers'' includes this.

* StillGotIt: He continued to perform right up until the last years of his life. His appearance in ''TheBluesBrothers'' proved he still had it.

* CreepyJazzMusic: Some of his songs are somewhat haunting, such as "Minnie the Moocher". Especially notable when paired with the DerangedAnimation of the ''Betty Boop'' cartoons he appeared in.

* RevivalByCommercialization: His performance in ''TheBluesBrothers'' may just have been what saved him from becoming just another forgotten Jazz singer from the 1930's in the eyes of modern audiences, and especially in the 1980's.

His impact on today's popular music reaches deep. In his own words; "You see this rapping they're doing today, I did that 25, 35, 45, 55 years ago!" Indeed, even the rotoscoped animations of his dance moves done for BettyBoop cartoons in the 1930's show him doing the moonwalk some 50 years before Music/MichaelJackson would make it popular.

Modern audiences probably know him best for his performance of ''Minnie the Moocher'', his most popular song, in the 1980 movie ''TheBluesBrothers''. In his prime he was best known for performing at The Cotton Club in Harlem during [[TheThirties the 1930's.]] He was among the first African-American celebrities in an age when performers in blackface were still the norm, breaking new barriers and paving the way for nearly every black performer to come.