Songs from 1962 to 1965
Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock wrote Watermelon Man to help sell his first album as a leader and recorded it in 1962. Cantaloupe Island followed in 1964, and Maiden Voyage and Dolphin Dance on one day in March 1965. He keeps remaking them, as a funk piece in 1973 and alone on stage in Tokyo in 1974, while singers, guitarists and big bands carry them on to 2026.
Through the years
- 1960s
Hancock records Watermelon Man in 1962, and Mongo Santamaría turns it into a No. 10 single in 1963. Cantaloupe Island comes in 1964, and Maiden Voyage and Dolphin Dance on March 17, 1965, with Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Bobby Hutcherson, Denny Zeitlin and Ramsey Lewis record Maiden Voyage in 1966, 1967 and 1968.
Herbie Hancock Watermelon Man · 1962Mongo Santamaría Watermelon Man · 1962Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan Watermelon Man · 1963The Howard Roberts Quartet Watermelon Man · 1963Herbie Hancock Cantaloupe Island · 1964Donald Byrd Cantaloupe Island · 1964Herbie Hancock Dolphin Dance · 1965Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage · 1965 - 1970s
Hancock rebuilds his own tunes. Watermelon Man becomes a funk piece with a clavinet on Head Hunters in 1973, and in Tokyo in 1974 he plays Cantaloupe Island, Dolphin Dance and Maiden Voyage alone. In 1976 Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams from the 1965 record rejoin him at Newport for Maiden Voyage, and Cantaloupe Island is remade for a full band on Secrets.
- 1980s
At One Night With Blue Note in 1985, Hancock plays Cantaloupe Island with Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, the same players as in 1964, and Joe Henderson adds tenor saxophone. Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra play Dolphin Dance at Montreux in 1980, Hancock's trio plays it in Tokyo in 1981, and Kenny Barron plays Maiden Voyage on solo piano in 1982.
- 1990s
The tunes cross into new styles. The British jazz-rap group Us3 builds a Blue Note single in 1992 on a sample of Hancock's 1964 Cantaloupe Island. Nnenna Freelon sings Maiden Voyage with words credited to Jean Hancock, with Hancock himself on piano. Poncho Sanchez plays Watermelon Man with Mongo Santamaría as special guest in 1995, and Jimmy Smith plays it on organ.
- 2000s
Hancock's songs get new lineups. Guitarist Bob DeVos plays Cantaloupe Island with organist Gene Ludwig in 2003, and Marc Copland's version that year has Michael Brecker and John Abercrombie. Robert Glasper's trio records Maiden Voyage in 2002 with Bilal singing, and in 2006 joins it to Radiohead's Everything in Its Right Place. David Benoit plays Watermelon Man on his 2003 Verve album.
- 2010s
Chick Corea and Hancock play Dolphin Dance as a live duo in 2011, during Corea's month-long 70th birthday run at the Blue Note. In 2019 Lionel Loueke, who has played with Hancock for more than 15 years, plays Cantaloupe Island alone on guitar and adds his own voice.
- 2020s
Poppy Ajudha writes new lyrics for her Watermelon Man, released in 2020 on Blue Note Re:imagined, and in 2025 Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper play it at the Polar Music Prize ceremony, where Hancock receives the prize. Michael Schiefel and David Friedman take on Dolphin Dance as a voice and vibraphone duo in summer 2020, and in June 2026 the WDR Big Band plays it live.