"Sly Mongoose" is a Trinidadian

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

and calypso which is widely recognized in the Caribbean.

Recordings

The song was recorded by Jamaican musician Sam Manning in the mid-1920s and

Lord Invader Lord Invader (Rupert Westmore Grant; 13 December 1914 – 15 October 1961) was a prominent calypsonian with a very distinctive, gravelly voice. He was born in San Fernando, Trinidad. He became active in calypso in the mid-1930s, and was consid ...

(of "

Rum and Coca-Cola "Rum and Coca-Cola" is a popular calypso song composed by Lionel Belasco with lyrics by Lord Invader. The song was copyrighted in the United States by entertainer Morey Amsterdam and was a hit in 1945 for the Andrews Sisters. History The song ...

" fame) in 1946. A different version with a similar name, "Slide Mongoose Slide" was recorded in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...

in 1935, performed by the Nassau String Band. The songs are clearly related but the version recorded in the Bahamas has notable differences, not only are the lyrics different but also the singing style and melody, it is in the style of other Bahamian folk songs recorded in 1935, like Bimini Gal, Bellamina, and Abaco is a Pretty place. Other Caribbean artists to record the song include

The Gaylads The Gaylads are a Jamaican vocal group. They were one of the top rocksteady vocal groups active in Jamaica between 1963 and 1973. History The group, formed in Kingston, originally consisted of singers Harris "B.B." Seaton, Winston Delano St ...

, Aston "Family Man" Barrett, Ahadu & Light of Saba, Beverley's Allstars,

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an internat ...

Max Woiski Sr. Max Woiski Sr. (February 11, 1911 – January 31, 1981) was a Surinamese musician. Career Woiski started to make popular music in the 1930s in Amsterdam. In his own club ''La Cubana'' in Amsterdam, he performed under the name "José Baretto" and ...

(under the alternative song title " Ba-Anansie"),

Ernest Ranglin Ernest Ranglin (born 19 June 1932) is a Jamaican guitarist and composer who established his career while working as a session guitarist and music director for various Jamaican record labels including Studio One and Island Records. Ranglin pla ...

and

Monty Alexander Montgomery Bernard "Monty" Alexander (born 6 June 1944) is a Jamaican jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop jazz and blues rooted melodies. He was influenced by Lou ...

. Versions with varying lyrics have also been sung as calypsos. It has been performed and recorded by the German musician

James Last James Last (, ; born Hans Last; 17 April 1929 – 9 June 2015), also known as Hansi, was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist (Last won the award for "best bassist" in Germany in each of ...

and his orchestra and by American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

musicians including

Charlie "Bird" Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

, Louis Armstrong and

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His conce ...

. The Jamaican

National Dance Theatre Company The National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) is Jamaica's leading dance theatre company. History The company was founded in 1962 by Rex Nettleford and Eddy Thomas with fifteen dancers, with Nettleford acting as its artistic director and pri ...

have performed it in a dance choreographed by

Rex Nettleford Ralston Milton "Rex" Nettleford, OM, FIJ, OCC (3 February 1933 – 2 February 2010), was a Jamaican scholar, social critic, choreographer, and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the leading research university ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em 1920s musical comedy films Calypso songs

Recordings

See also

References