"Whodunit", written by Keni St. Lewis and Freddie Perren, was a hit song for American R&B/disco group

Tavares Tavares may refer to: Places Brazil *Tavares, Paraíba *Tavares, Rio Grande do Sul *Rodovia Raposo Tavares, the longest highway in São Paulo *Tavares Bastos (favela), a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil *Tavares River Jamaica *Tavares Garden ...

in 1977. Released from their album ''

Love Storm ''Love Storm'' is the fifth studio album by United States, American soul music, soul/R&B group Tavares (group), Tavares, released in 1977 on the Capitol Records, Capitol label. Commercial performance The album peaked at No. 15 on the R&B albums c ...

''.

Background

The lyrical hook to the song was the repeated query "Whodunit? / Who stole my baby?" The singer then appealed to a series of famous fictional

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

s to help "solve" the case, including

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve ...

, McCloud,

Kojak ''Kojak'' is an American action crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Taking the time slot of the popular ''Cannon'' series, it ...

Baretta ''Baretta'' is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a revised and milder version of a 1973–1974 ABC series, '' Toma'', starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police ...

and

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates ...

. The gimmick was reminiscent of "

Searchin' "Searchin'" is a song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller specifically for the Coasters. Atco Records released it as a single in March 1957, which topped the R&B Chart for twelve weeks. It also reached number three on the ''Billboard'' sing ...

", a 1957 single by

The Coasters The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and " Young Blood" in 1957, their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing ...

which also invoked a series of lawmen to track down a missing love interest.

Chart performance

The song spent one week at number one on the R&B singles chart in May 1977 and peaked at number twenty-two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart and in the UK peaked at number 5 the week ending 7 May 1977, where it stayed for 2 weeks.UK release Capitol CL 15914 Whodunit (St. Lewis / Perren) / Fool Of The Year (F Tavares / St. Lewis) "Whodunit" was re-released in February 1986.

Weekly singles charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* 1977 songs 1977 singles Capitol Records singles Tavares (group) songs European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Songs written by Freddie Perren Soul songs Songs written by Keni St. Lewis {{1970s-R&B-song-stub