Editing Head Hunters (section)

==Structure and release==
''Head Hunters'' followed a series of experimental albums by Hancock's "Mwandishi" sextet: ''[[Mwandishi]]'', ''[[Crossings (Herbie Hancock album)|Crossings]]'', and ''[[Sextant (album)|Sextant]]'', released between 1971 and 1973, a time when Hancock was looking for a new direction in which to take his music. He later reflected on moving away from this style:

{{quote|I began to feel that I had been spending so much time exploring the upper atmosphere of music and the more ethereal kind of far-out spacey stuff. Now there was this need to take some more of the earth and to feel a little more tethered; a connection to the earth. ... I was beginning to feel that we (the sextet) were playing this heavy kind of music, and I was tired of everything being heavy. I wanted to play something lighter.|Hancock's sleeve notes: 1997 CD reissue}}

For the new album, Hancock assembled a new band, [[the Headhunters]], of whom only woodwind player [[Bennie Maupin]] had been a member of the "Mwandishi" sextet. Hancock handled all synthesizer parts himself (having shared these duties with [[Patrick Gleeson]] on ''Crossings'' and ''Sextant'') and he decided against the use of guitar altogether, favoring instead the [[clavinet]], one of the defining sounds on the album. The new band featured a tight [[rhythm section]] composed of [[Paul Jackson (bassist)|Paul Jackson]] (bass) and [[Harvey Mason]] (drums), and the album has a relaxed, [[funk]]y sensibility that gave it an appeal to a far wider audience. Among the defining moments of the emerging [[jazz fusion]] and [[jazz-funk]] movements, the album made jazz listeners out of R&B fans and vice versa.

Of the four tracks on the album, "[[Watermelon Man (composition)|Watermelon Man]]" was the only one not written for the album. A hit from Hancock's [[hard bop]] days, originally appearing on his first album ''[[Takin' Off]]'' (1962) and later covered by [[Mongo Santamaría]], it was reworked by Hancock and Mason for this album, featuring Bill Summers blowing into a beer bottle in imitation of the [[Pygmy music|hindewho]] flute used by the Mbuti [[Pygmy peoples|Pygmies]] of [[Zaire]]. The track features heavy use of African percussion. "Sly" was dedicated to [[Sly Stone]], leader of the funk band [[Sly and the Family Stone]]. "Chameleon" features a famous bassline played by Hancock on an [[ARP Odyssey]] synthesizer. Closing track "Vein Melter" is a slow-burner, predominantly featuring Hancock on [[Rhodes piano]] and Maupin on [[bass clarinet]]. Heavily edited versions of "Chameleon" and "Vein Melter" were released on two sides of a 45 RPM single.

The album was remixed for [[quadraphonic sound]] in 1974. Columbia released this mix on [[LP record]] in the [[Stereo Quadraphonic]] matrix format and [[8-track cartridge|8-track tape]]. The quadraphonic mixes feature elements not heard in the stereo version, including an additional keyboard melody at the beginning of "Sly". Surround sound versions of the album have been released a number of times on the [[Super Audio CD]] format. All of these SACD editions use a digital transfer of the original four-channel quad mix re-purposed into [[5.1 surround sound]].

''Head Hunters'' became the biggest-selling jazz album of all time until surpassed by [[George Benson]]'s ''[[Breezin']]'' in 1976.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The Headhunters band (with [[Mike Clark (jazz musician)|Mike Clark]] replacing Harvey Mason) worked with Hancock on a number of other albums, including ''[[Thrust (album)|Thrust]]'' (1974), ''[[Man-Child]]'' (1975), and ''[[Flood (Herbie Hancock album)|Flood]]'' (1975), the latter of which was recorded live in Japan. The subsequent albums ''[[Secrets (Herbie Hancock album)|''Secrets'']]'' (1976) and ''[[Sunlight (jazz album)|Sunlight]]'' (1977), had widely diverging personnel. The Headhunters, with Hancock featured as a guest soloist, produced the albums [[Survival of the Fittest (The Headhunters album)|''Survival of the Fittest'']] (1975) and ''Straight from the Gate'' (1978), the first of which was produced by Hancock and included the hit "God Make Me Funky".

The image on the album cover, designed by [[Victor Moscoso]], features Hancock wearing a mask based on the African ''[[Goli (dance)|kple kple]]'' mask of the [[Baoulé people|Baoulé]] tribe of [[Ivory Coast]].  Positioned clockwise around Hancock from lower left are Mason, Jackson, Maupin, and Summers.