“Booty Butt”
Song by Ray Charles
“Booty Butt” is an instrumental from Ray’s 1970 album My Kind Of Jazz. Well, “Booty Butt” is mostly an instrumental, that is: there are those sections where Ray repeats three nonsense syllables over and over after all. Hey, voice as instrument. That can be part of jazz.
And there are some exuberant shouts from the band buried in the background, including the ribald cri de couer “booty!” And at the end of the performance Ray extemporizes a few lyrics, almost, but not enough to call it singing exactly.
With its unusual structure and tee-hee title, “Booty Butt” was an unexpected hit in 1970, and as a funky, mostly-guitar-driven number it fit in rather well on radio at the time. Ray had released jazz albums before but his hits were always vocal R&B and pop songs. Presumably, the success of “Booty Butt” – often the only jazz song on his many compilations – was as much of a surprise to him as anyone.
It’s a simple song, a tight performance, and radiates hipness and good times. Would that there were more popular hit songs like “Booty Butt” in the national consciousness.
Single releases
Listen to “Booty Butt”
Get your own “Booty Butt” on 45, LP, CD or MP3 from Amazon. Or get the out-of-print complete ABC singles 5xCD box set.
Songs on My Kind Of Jazz