Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

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Released
  
1966

Length
  
5:10

Writer(s)
  
Joe Zawinul

Genre
  
Soul jazz

Label
  
EMI

Recorded
  
Capitol Records (Los Angeles), October 20, 1966

"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" is a song written by Joe Zawinul in 1966 for Julian "Cannonball" Adderley and his album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club'. The song is the title track of the album and became a surprise hit. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" went to #2 on the Soul chart and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Contents

Buckinghams cover

"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy has been re-recorded numerous times, most notably by The Buckinghams, who reached # 5 in August 1967, adding lyrics to the tune. Musicians on the Buckingham's version included James Henderson, Lew McCreary and Richard Leith on trombone, Bill Peterson, Bud Childers on trumpet, John Johnson on sax, Lincoln Mayorga on Wurlitzer electric piano, Dennis Budimir on guitar, Carol Kaye on bass, and John Guerin on drums.

Other cover versions

  • It was recorded by The Mauds in 1967, with lyrics by Curtis Mayfield. It has now become a jazz standard performed by both beginner and advanced jazz musicians.
  • It was also recorded by Willie Mitchell in 1968 as the B-side of his single "Soul Serenade." This version was sampled by rapper GZA on the title track of his 1995 album Liquid Swords.
  • It was also recorded by Buddy Rich in 1968 on the album "Mercy, Mercy."
  • The theme of the song on the original recording is performed by Joe Zawinul himself playing it on a Wurlitzer electric piano previously used by Ray Charles.

    • Theme

    The first part of the theme is played two times and is completely made of notes from the major pentatonic scale of the first degree.

    Structure and chord progression

    The tune is in the key of B-flat major and has a 20-bar structure with four distinct sections. The chord progression is mainly made of dominant-seventh chords on the first, fourth and fifth degrees, giving the song a bluesy feeling although it does not follow a typical blues progression. The subdominant (IV) chord in the beginning section emphasizes this bluesy feeling. In the second section, the tonic chord alternates with a second-inversion subdominant chord, creating a parallel to the I-IV-V progression (in which the tonic moves to the subdominant).

    References

    Mercy, Mercy, Mercy Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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