Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um

"Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um"
Single by Major Lance
from the album Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um
B-side	"Sweet Music"
Released	December 1963
Format	7"
Recorded	1963
Genre	Soul
Label	Okeh
Writer(s)	Curtis Mayfield
Producer(s)	Carl Davis
Major Lance singles chronology
"Hey Little Girl" (1963) "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" (December, 1963) "The Matador" (1964)

"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.^[1] 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).^[2] 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.

References