Mr. Bojangles (song)

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"Mr. Bojangles" is a popular song written and initially recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker in 1968 and covered since by many other artists. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took the song to #9 on the Billboard pop chart in 1971.

It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap dancing drifter (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, as sometimes assumed). Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the US and California, and some say he might have been one of the most gifted natural dancers ever. His actual name is not recorded. Authentic reports of him exist from the 1920s through about 1965.

In fact, in his autobiography 'Gipsy Songman' Jerry Jeff states "Bojangles wasn't so much a name as a category of itinerant street entertainer known back as far as the previous century."

According to the lyrics by Jerry Jeff Walker, he met Bojangles in a prison cell in New Orleans (the first precinct jail to be exact). The two began to converse about life. Bojangles began to dance as Walker admired his skill.

Artists as diverse as Dave Jarvis, Chet Atkins, Frank Sinatra, Rod McKuen, Whitney Houston, Harry Nilsson, Bob Dylan, Jim Croce, Harry Belafonte, Elton John, Arlo Guthrie, Nina Simone, John Denver, David Bromberg, Neil Diamond, Sammy Davis, Jr., Tom T. Hall, John Holt, Bermuda Triangle Band, Robbie Williams, David Campbell, Coulson Smith, Josh MacAulay, Jamie Cullum, Ray Quinn, Bryan Cox, Todd Snider and Edwyn Collins have all covered the song. Further, the character is mentioned in Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach.