Comments on: Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Maya Angelou, “Miss Calypso”

By: Devlin Thompson

Devlin Thompson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:01:15 +0000

I believe the situation was probably just “well, if nobody else can claim a songwriter’s royalty on this, I might as well.” Plus, she probably did throw in a verse or two of her own. Wikipedia claims that Sir Lancelot’s version is the original, and I suppose that’s possible, but I suspect it might go further back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shame_&_Scandal

By: Allee

Allee — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:38:18 +0000

On the back of this LP Maya Angelou is credited with writing “Scandal In The Family”. See the credits in the photo above. Maybe there are two Scandals In The Family?

By: Devlin Thompson

Devlin Thompson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:37:55 +0000

“Scandal In The Family” is an old calypso standard, so crediting Ms. Angelou with a writer’s credit rather than an arrangement is perhaps overreaching… or did she add verses to it? Me, I like Sir Lancelot’s version as heard in I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE.