The Herbie Hancock jazz standard was originally recorded in 1962 for his Takin' Off album but gained an astounding amount of recognition when Mongo Santamaria released a Latin pop version of the song, having later been re-recorded by numerous artists among whom are the likes of Quincy Jones and The J.B.’s.
Hancock explained in the liner notes that he “recalled the cry of the watermelon man making his rounds through the back streets and alleys of Chicago’s south side. The wheels of his wagon beat out the rhythm on the cobblestones.”
In ‘73 Hancock re-recorded the tune for the funk classic Head Hunters, adding an 8-bar section to the original 16 bars. When talking with Down Beat magazine he gave some information on the composition of the song “Chameleon”, which is similar to the remake of Watermelon Man:
In the popular forms of funk, which I’ve been trying to get into, the attention is on the rhythmic interplay between different instruments. The part the Clavinet plays has to fit with the part the drums play and the line the bass plays and the line that the guitar plays. It’s almost like African drummers where seven drummers play different parts.
