Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um

"Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" is a song, written by Curtis Mayfield. The first recording to be released was by Major Lance, as a single in December 1963, produced by Okeh label president Carl Davis. The song was Major Lance's third release to make the Billboard Hot 100 and his most successful hit with a #5 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 on 8 February 1964 with a #1 peak on the Cash Box R&B chart (Billboard did not run an R&B chart November 1963-January 1965). In the UK it reached #40, Lance's only UK chart appearance. The song would become a major UK hit in the autumn of 1964 via a rendition by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders which reached #5. A French rendering entitled "Hum, hum, hum" had been recorded by Frank Alamo and charted in France in early 1965 with a chart peak of #6.

In the mid-1970s Major Lance remade "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" as a disco track: recorded in the UK, this version reached #59 R&B in 1974.

Johnny Rivers remade the song for his 1977 album Outside Help from which it was issued as the follow-up single to the Top Ten hit "Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancing)": Rivers' version renamed the song "Curious Mind" after a lyric in the second verse, the full title of the Rivers' version being "Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um)". "Curious Mind..." was heavily supported by easy-listening radio with a February 1978 peak of #4 on the Easy Listening chart in "Billboard" and almost afforded Rivers' a Top 40 hit with a #41 peak on the "Billboard" Hot 100 where it would be Rivers' final charting. In Canada, Rivers reached number 33 with the song.