Mercy, Mercy, Mercy


"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" is a jazz song written by Joe Zawinul in 1966 for Julian "Cannonball" Adderley and his album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club'. The song is the title track of the album and became a surprise hit. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" went to #2 on the Soul chart and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Original version

The original version was performed by: Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Joe Zawinul, Victor Gaskin and Roy McCurdy. The theme of the song is performed by Zawinul on a Wurlitzer electric piano previously used by Ray Charles.

Buckinghams cover

"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" has been re-recorded numerous times, most notably by The Buckinghams, who reached # 5 in August 1967, adding lyrics to the tune. Musicians on the Buckingham's version included James Henderson, Lew McCreary and Richard Leith on trombone, Bill Peterson, Bud Childers on trumpet, John Johnson on sax, Lincoln Mayorga on Wurlitzer electric piano, Dennis Budimir on guitar, Carol Kaye on bass, and John Guerin on drums.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Theme

The first part of the theme is played twice and is completely made of notes from the major pentatonic scale of the first degree.

Structure and chord progression

The tune is in the key of B-flat major and has a 20-bar structure with four distinct sections. The chord progression is mainly made of dominant-seventh chords on the first, fourth and fifth degrees, giving the song a bluesy feeling although it does not follow a typical blues progression. The subdominant chord in the beginning section emphasizes this bluesy feeling. In the second section, the tonic chord alternates with a second-inversion subdominant chord, creating a parallel to the I-IV-V progression.