Big Daddy often would randomly burst out in a quick song. He'd go, "Hodey-heedy-hidey-ho!" and over the years, these bursts of song would get louder. It was delightfully quirky.

Well, I only recently realized what he was singing; it never occurred to us to ask what that song was. I thought it was a totally normal way to punctuate life. But Big Daddy was actually singing his own little version of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher," which contains those lyrics as a jazz scat. Big Daddy was just 7 years old when "Minnie the Moocher" became a big hit in 1931, the first record by a Black man to sell more than a million copies. And Cab Calloway performed this song frequently, even recording a disco version during the 1970s. It's not surprising that "Minnie the Moocher" was part of the soundtrack of Big Daddy's life!