| "Melting Pot" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover of the single released in Germany | ||||
| Single by Blue Mink | ||||
| from the album Melting Pot | ||||
| B-side | "Blue Mink" | |||
| Released | 31 October 1969 | |||
| Genre | Pop-soul [1] | |||
| Length | 3:50 | |||
| Label | Philips | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Blue Mink | |||
| Blue Mink singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| "Melting Pot" on YouTube | ||||
"Melting Pot" is the 1969 debut single from UK pop group Blue Mink. The song was written by Blue Mink's lead singer Roger Cook and long-time songwriter partner Roger Greenaway. [2]
The song peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart in the first week of 1970, number 10 in Australia, and also reached number 11 in Ireland. [3] "Melting Pot" did best in New Zealand, where it spent three weeks at number 2. [4]
While the song has assimilationist undertones, it also uses racist language, including such phrases as "curly Latin kinkies", "mixed with yellow Chinkies" and "little bitty bit of Red Indian boy".[ citation needed ]
In particular, the use of the word chink has led to complaints: "take a pinch of white man/Wrap him up in black skin. [...] Mixed with yellow Chinkees. You know you lump it all together/And you got a recipe for a get-along scene/Oh what a beautiful dream/If it could only come true". [5] In August 2019, British broadcaster Global permanently deleted the song from its Gold playlist after a complaint about offensive language was lodged with British broadcasting regulator Ofcom. Under the direction of the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom ruled that "the phrase 'yellow Chinkies' had the potential to be highly offensive" [6] : 16 and "that the use of derogatory language to describe ethnic groups carries a widespread potential for offence". [6] : 17 Ofcom considered that the passage of time since the song's release and the song's positive message of racial harmony did not "mitigate the potential for offence." [6] : 17–18 Ofcom determined that the "potentially offensive material was not justified by the context" [6] : 18 and ruled the case resolved as the licensee Global had removed the song from Gold's playlist. [6]
In September 2019, Scottish community radio station Black Diamond FM removed "Melting Pot" from its playlist and "planned to carry out refresher training with its staff" after two complaints about the song's broadcast were lodged with Ofcom. Ofcom ruled in December 2019 that Black Diamond was in breach of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code because "the potentially offensive language in this broadcast was not justified by the context". [7] [8]
The track was chosen by the singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher as one of his favourite tracks on the BBC Radio 1 show All Back To Mine broadcast on 25 December 1997.[ citation needed ]
7" (1969)
7" (1969)
7" (1975)
| "Melting Pot" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by When the Cat's Away | ||||
| from the album When the Cat's Away | ||||
| B-side | "Fire" | |||
| Released | 1988 | |||
| Recorded | 1988 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 3:56 | |||
| Label | CBS | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway | |||
| When the Cat's Away singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
In 1988 "Melting Pot" was covered by New Zealand female vocal group and covers band When the Cat's Away.
Their version peaked at number one in the New Zealand charts, and charted for 15 weeks. [9] The single was certified gold. [10] It was one of three songs by New Zealand artists to reach number one in 1988.
The group released a low-budget, self-produced music video, directed by photographer Kerry Brown. The video features the group performing with a band in a white room, footage of people of different ethnic groups around Auckland, and cats. [11]
Chink is an English-language ethnic slur usually referring to a person of Chinese descent, but also used to insult people of East Asian, North Asian, Southeast Asian appearance. The use of the term describing eyes with epicanthic fold is considered extremely offensive and is regarded as racist by many.
The Flower Pot Men were an English pop group created in 1967 as a result of the single "Let's Go to San Francisco", recorded by session musicians, which became a major UK Top 20 and Continental Europe hit in the autumn of 1967. The group's sound was characterised by rich, three-part vocal harmonies.
Madeline Bell is an American soul singer, who became famous as a performer in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s with pop group Blue Mink, having arrived from the United States in the gospel show Black Nativity in 1962, with the vocal group Bradford Singers.
Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six Top 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: "they have been immortalised on a string of compilation albums, each recounting the string of effervescent hits that established them among Britain's best-loved pop groups of the early 1970s."
Roger Frederick Cook is an English singer, songwriter and record producer, who has written many hit records for other recording artists. He has also had a successful recording career in his own right.
Roger John Reginald Greenaway is an English singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for his collaborations with Roger Cook and Tony Burrows. His compositions have included "You've Got Your Troubles" and the transatlantic million selling songs "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing " and "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress". They were the first UK songwriting partnership to be granted an Ivor Novello Award as 'Songwriters of the Year' in two successive years.
White Plains were a British pop music group that existed from 1969 to 1976. They had an ever-changing line-up of musicians and five UK hit singles, all on the Deram Records label, in the early 1970s.
Anne Crummer is a New Zealand pop singer and songwriter of Cook Islands descent who has seen success in both a solo career and as part of various musical groups.
John Nicholas Shakespeare, known as John Carter, is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer.
"You've Got Your Troubles" was the inaugural composition by the prolific songwriting team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway in 1964. "You've Got Your Troubles" became a number 2 UK hit for the Fortunes in the United Kingdom in August 1965, affording the group international success including a Top Ten ranking in the US. The track was included on the Fortunes' self-titled 1965 debut album release, the group's only album release of the 1960s.
The melting pot is an analogy for the way in which heterogeneous societies become more homogeneous.
"It's a Miracle" is the fifth and final single from new wave band Culture Club's 1983 Colour by Numbers album. The song became the group's sixth hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 4. It reached number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 5 in Canada.
"My Baby Loves Lovin'" was first released by the British pop group White Plains. The song was written and produced by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, recorded on 26 October 1969, and released on 2 January 1970 on the Decca Records imprint, Deram Records. It is a world-wide chart success and the top selling single for White Plains.
"Gimme Dat Ding" is a 1970 popular UK song, of the novelty type, sung by "one-hit wonder" The Pipkins, and written and composed by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood. Released as a single, it is the title selection of an album which The Pipkins recorded and released on the EMI Columbia Records label. It also appeared on a compilation album of the same name, which The Pipkins shared with another up-and-coming UK group, The Sweet. It has also been included on many other compilation albums. "Gimme Dat Ding" was arranged by Big Jim Sullivan.
"Doctor's Orders" is a song written by Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway and Geoff Stephens which, in 1974, was a hit in the UK for Sunny of Sue and Sunny; in the US the song was a hit for Carol Douglas.
When the Cat's Away is a New Zealand female vocal group and covers band formed in 1985. They are best known for their cover of the Blue Mink assimilationist song "Melting Pot", which became a New Zealand number one hit for them in 1988. In 2021, the band members were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.
Together is a 1974 album by British group The New Seekers. It features the No. 1 single "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me" and the top five follow-up "I Get a Little Sentimental Over You". It was the last album the group released before a much-publicised split.
Only When I Laugh is the fourth album by the British pop group Blue Mink, released in 1973. It was released under the title "Blue Mink" in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand. Two singles from the album charted in the UK, “By the Devil ” at #26 and “Randy” at #9. Most of the tracks were written by Flowers, Cook and Roger Greenaway.
"Good Morning Freedom" is a song by British pop group Blue Mink, released as a single in March 1970. It was released as a non-album single, but was included on the US album Real Mink. It peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
"The Banner Man" is a 1971 song by the British pop band Blue Mink. The song managed to reach the top ten on the UK charts peaking at #3 in May 1971. It was released as a single with the B-side "Mind Your Business". The single was written by Blue Mink founders Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway.