"Doodlin'" is a composition by

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sc ...

. The original version, by Silver's quintet, was recorded on November 13, 1954. It was soon covered by other musicians, including with lyrics added by

Jon Hendricks John Carl Hendricks (September 16, 1921 – November 22, 2017), known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and re ...

. It has become a

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive li ...

Composition

"Doodlin'" is a

12-bar blues The 12-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based ...

.Cook, Richard (2004), ''Blue Note Records – The Biography''. Justin, Charles & Co., p. 73. Reviewer Bill Kirchner suggests: "Take a simple riff, rhythmically displace it several times over D-flat blues harmonies, resolve it with a staccato, quasi-humorous phrase, and you have 'Doodlin' '."

Original recording

The original version featured Silver on piano, with

Hank Mobley Henry "Hank" Mobley (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986) was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to de ...

(tenor saxophone),

Kenny Dorham McKinley Howard "Kenny" Dorham (August 30, 1924 – December 5, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention or public ...

(trumpet),

Doug Watkins Douglas Watkins (March 2, 1934 – February 5, 1962) was an American jazz double bassist. He was best known for being an accompanist to various hard bop artists in the Detroit area, including Donald Byrd and Jackie McLean. Biography Watkins ...

(bass), and

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the ...

(drums). It is played as a "medium-tempo blues with a two-beat feel".Rosenthal, David H. (1993), ''Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955–1965''. Oxford University Press, p. 38. Silver's solo is largely blues-based, with little influence from

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

, and is formed around motifs. "Doodlin'" was released as a single along with " The Preacher"; the pairing "might be the first example of a jazz hit single going on to boost sales of its source album – or, as here, albums". They helped popularize hardbop.

Later versions

The song was soon covered by other musicians, including

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

(on his album ''

The Great Ray Charles ''The Great Ray Charles'' is the second studio album by American musician Ray Charles, released in 1957 by Atlantic Records. An instrumental jazz album, it features cover art designed by Marvin Israel. Later CD re-issues of ''The Great Ray Charl ...

'', 1956).

added lyrics, performed with

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were an American vocalese trio formed by jazz vocalists Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. From 1962 to 1964, Ross was replaced by vocalist Yolande Bavan. History The group formed in 1957 and recorded their f ...

;

Hajdu, David David Hajdu (; born March 1955) is an American columnist, author and professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was the music critic for '' The New Republic'' for 12 years and is music editor at '' The Nation''. Biograph ...

(July 1, 2011)
"Hendricks and Ross: Doodlin' Again"
''New Republic''. after Annie Ross left the group in 1962, the song was also included on the 1963

Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were an American vocalese trio formed by jazz vocalists Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. From 1962 to 1964, Ross was replaced by vocalist Yolande Bavan. History The group formed in 1957 and recorded their f ...

album ''

Recorded "Live" at Basin Street East ''Recorded "Live" at Basin Street East'' is an album by the jazz vocalese group Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan recorded at the New York City nightclub Basin Street East. The album features the group who had re-formed in 1963 featuring Dave Lambert ...

''.Yanow, Scot
"Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan – Live at Basin Street East"
AllMusic. Retrieved September 13, 2015. Some other versions were recorded by

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. Nicknamed "Sassy" and " The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine Grammy Award ...

(on her album ''

No Count Sarah ''No Count Sarah'' is a 1958 studio album by the American jazz singer Sarah Vaughan. The title refers to the fact that Vaughan was accompanied by the Count Basie Orchestra, but without Count Basie. Reviewing the album for Allmusic, Scott Yanow ...

'', 1958), Mark Murphy (on '' Rah'', 1961),

Baby Washington Justine Washington (born October 13, 1940), usually credited as Baby Washington, but credited on some early records as Jeanette (Baby) Washington, is an American soul music vocalist, who had 16 ''Billboard'' R&B chart entries in 15 years, most ...

(on ''That's How Heartaches Are Made'', 1963),

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

(on his ''Twenty-fifth Anniversary Album'', MGM SE4214, 1964), and

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dram ...

(on ''

Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty ''Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty'' is the second studio album by singer Dusty Springfield, released on Philips Records in the UK in 1965. Springfield's 1964 debut album, '' A Girl Called Dusty'', sold well enough to make her Philips Records' top- ...

'', 1965).

References

{{Authority control 1950s jazz standards 1954 songs Compositions by Horace Silver Jazz compositions in D-flat major