18 November 2016, No. 212, Fred Wesley and the JB’s, ‘Watermelon Man’
I don’t think the Head Hunters LP version of “Watermelon Man” makes it onto our list, nor does the Mongo Santamaria Latin version, nor for that matter does the original Herbie Hancock recording of the tune from 1962’s Takin’ Off, his first LP. Instead we’ve got Fred Wesley and the JBs tearing it up again with their take on “Watermelon Man” at No. 212. Honestly (and obviously, if you’ve picked up on my proclivity for synthesizers), I like the Head Hunters version best, but I think I kept it off the list because the tempo varies too much. Or maybe it’s a simple oversight. I won’t correct it in this case because I fear the Head Hunters version is too slow, and we’ve passed its place already. I’ll add it to the next list. And it was “Chameleon” I kept off the list because of the uneven tempo, but maybe I’ll add that one to the next list too. Difficult to mix, but who doesn’t love a challenge?