"Cissy Strut" is a 1969

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

instrumental by The Meters. Released as a single from their eponymous debut album, it reached No. 4 on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

and No. 23 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song was inducted into the

Grammy Hall of Fame The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of ...

in 2011, which honors "recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old". ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' called the song a "classic" deeply rooted in New Orleans music tradition. The Meters also released another single, "Sophisticated Cissy", from the same album. "Cissy Strut" was featured in the films ''

Jackie Brown ''Jackie Brown'' is a 1997 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, based on Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel ''Rum Punch.'' It stars Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who is caught smuggling money. Samuel L. Ja ...

'', ''

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

'', '' King Richard'' and '' Another Round'' as well as in the BBC television series ''

The Pursuit of Love ''The Pursuit of Love'' is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class English family in the interwar period focusing on the romantic life of Linda Radlett, as narrated by her cousin, Fa ...

''. In 2021, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' ranked "Cissy Strut" at number 158 on their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list, one of the handful of instrumentals to make the list.

Covers

According to a compilation set by

WRTC-FM WRTC-FM (89.3 MHz) is a non-commercial music radio station primarily serving the Hartford, Connecticut metropolitan area. Owned and operated by Trinity College, it broadcasts weekly programs in various formats including rock, jazz, and urban co ...

Digital Archive Project the song has been covered by Los Holy's, Johnny Lewis Quartet,

Sunny & the Sunliners Sunny & the Sunglows (formed by songwriter Jimmie Lewing and Sunny Ozuna in Palacios, Texas) was an American musical group in started 1959, and later known as Sunny & the Sunliners in 1963 after moving to San Antonio, Texas. Career The group's memb ...

KVHW KVHW was an American rock band, that was active and toured nationally from January 1998 through December 1999. The band's name came from the last names of its four members: Steve Kimock (guitar), Bobby Vega (bass), Alan Hertz (drums), and Ray Whi ...

Dirty Dozen Brass Band The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a brass band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ensemble was established in 1977, by Benny Jones and members of the Tornado Brass Band. The Dirty Dozen revolutionized the New Orleans brass band style by incorpo ...

with Robert Randolph,

Dennis Chambers Dennis Milton Chambers (born May 9, 1959) is an American drummer. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2001. Early life Chambers was born on May 9, 1959. He began drumming at the age of four years, and was gigging in Bal ...

with

John Scofield John Scofield (born December 26, 1951), sometimes referred to as "Sco", is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in the ...

, U.S. Army Band with

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the ''Modern D ...

, Los Masters, The Butch Cassidy Sound System, Joe Bravo,

Earl Van Dyke Earl Van Dyke (July 8, 1930 – September 18, 1992) was an American soul musician, most notable as the main keyboardist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Career Van Dyke, who was born in Detr ...

, Willard Posey Reunion,

Derek Trucks Band The Derek Trucks Band was an American blues rock group founded by young slide guitar prodigy Derek Trucks, who began playing guitar and touring with some of blues and rock music's elite when he was just nine years old. After experimenting as an ...

, King Herbert & The Knights, Lotus,

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...

, and Steve Kimock Band. Other bands that have covered the song are

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

, Big John Patton, Hypnotic Willie,

Slightly Stoopid Slightly Stoopid is an American band based in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California, who describe their music as "a fusion of folk, rock, reggae and blues with hip-hop, funk, metal and punk." As a band, they have released thirt ...

, Free Creek and

Oz Noy oz. is a common abbreviation for ounce, referring to several units of measure. Oz or OZ may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Land of Oz, the setting for many of L. Frank Baum's novels Fictional characters and entities * Oz (''Buffy the ...

''Cissy Strut'' album

''Cissy Strut'' is a compilation album of thirteen songs released by

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

in 1974. All songs were originally released by

Josie Records Josie Records was a subsidiary of Jubilee Records in New York City that was active from 1954 to 1971. The label's best selling bands were The Cadillacs ("Speedoo"), Bobby Freeman and the Meters. Other hits for Josie Records included the Chip ...

on The Meters' first three albums from 1969 to 1970.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

had a positive review and called Ziggy Modeliste's drumming "The secret" adding "it's almost as if he's the lead."

References

{{authority control The Meters songs 1969 singles 1960s instrumentals 1969 songs Funk songs Swamp rock songs Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients