# Herbie Hancock — Chameleon

Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon (1973) appears on 4 of our lists — Funk, The Waxonia Desk — One Subject, The Waxonia Desk — Where the Accent Moved, and Twice Over, highest at No. 5 in Funk. Every verdict, in full.

- **Released:** 1973
- **Label:** Columbia
- **On:** Funk, The Waxonia Desk — One Subject, The Waxonia Desk — Where the Accent Moved, and Twice Over
- **Updated:** 2026-08-29
- **Artist:** [Herbie Hancock](https://waxonia.com/artist/herbie-hancock/)
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/track/herbie-hancock--chameleon/

## What 4 lists say

### No. 5 in [Funk](https://waxonia.com/genre/funk/)

Fifteen minutes built on two chords and an ARP bassline. A jazz pianist of the first rank decides the groove is the interesting problem, and takes a generation of musicians with him.

### Picked by [The Waxonia Desk — One Subject](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-one-subject/)

The record where a jazz musician of the first rank decides the groove is the interesting problem. If acid jazz began as a joke, this is the thing the joke was about.

### Picked by [The Waxonia Desk — Where the Accent Moved](https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-accent-moved/)

A jazz musician of the first rank deciding that the groove was the interesting problem. The traffic between jazz training and dance records ran both ways, and this is the busiest lane on it.

### Picked by [Twice Over](https://waxonia.com/theme/twice-over/)

Eight years later the same man writes a bassline that funk never gave back. Jazz musicians called it a betrayal at the time, which is usually the sound of a genre boundary being crossed by somebody who could see it was arbitrary.

## Listen

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Herbie%20Hancock%20Chameleon) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=iqomTAiRnVM)

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