Hungry

About Hungry

"Hungry" is a 1966 hit single composed by the songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and performed by Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Article

"Hungry" is a 1966 hit single composed by the songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and performed by Paul Revere & the Raiders.

Contents

Recording

In contrast with the Raiders' previous top 10 hit, the guitar-driven "Kicks", the single "Hungry" has bassist Phil Volk playing the main riff. The creation of the bass line in "Hungry" was complex. It required that the bass part be recorded 3 times, then overdubbed. The components had to be synchronized: first, a normal bass line. That was followed by a line that was an octave higher and the last track was recorded as a fuzz bass, which was created by turning up an amplifier full blast, as using bass pedals wasn't available in those years. The result was what author and Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh calls, "...the center of the performance...a lethal bass line". Lead singer Mark Lindsay plays tambourine on the record.

Chart performance

"Hungry" was recorded on the Columbia label, and the song reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Cover versions

Sammy Hagar covered the song on his 1977 eponymous album.

In 1979, Todd Tamanend Clark remade the tune on his We're Not Safe album.

The Cramps covered the song during a 1977 session that was eventually released on 2026's Gravest Gravy.

Use in other media

The song was featured in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019 and its soundtrack.

Article from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), where it is maintained by volunteer editors.

Notable quotes

“The slippers of the mortal Earth, Now touched the chest of the Moon. Oh, It is shameful that the misery of hunger is still continuing as it was in the past.”
— Manmohan Acharya .
“FAO’s most recent estimates put the number of hungry people at 923 million in 2007, an increase of more than 80 million since the 1990–92 base period.”
— Food and Agriculture Organization Economic and Social Development Department. "The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2008 : High food prices and food security - threats and opportunities". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2008, p.2.
“New cottonseed processes ... can produce high protein concentrates containing little or none of the poisonous pigment . All of the processes use a variety of chemical solvents... to sidestep the need for protein-destroying heat which was used in earlier processes.”
— John F. Henahan, Men and Molecules (1966)
“Today 850 million people are hungry and malnourished. Over half of them are children. 18,000 children die every single day because of hunger and malnutrition.”
— James Morris, as reported in "18,000 children die every day of hunger, U.N. says", USA Today, (February 17, 2007).
“A fishmonger's wife may feed of a conger; but a serving-man's wife may starve for hunger.”
— Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen (1598).
“Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave.”
— James Thomson, The Seasons, Winter (1726), line 393.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.