Sammy Davis Jr. grew up around showpeople. His father was a vaudeville performer, and Davis Jr. loved to be in front of an audience. After his military service, he pursued show business full-time.
Davis Jr. appeared on Broadway and later played a lead role in the Rat Pack film Ocean's 11 of 1960. This film appearance cemented Davis Jr.'s status as a big name in entertainment along with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
"Mr. Bojangles" is a song written by country singer Jerry Jeff Walker. Walker wrote the song after meeting a street performer in county jail. He said the performer called himself Bojangles to conceal his identity from the police.
In this video, Sammy Davis, Jr. tells Bojangles' story with such gentle grace. In fact, musical studies courses in the UK often list Davis Jr.'s rendition of the narrative song in their syllabus.
Here, Davis Jr. is in Germany, performing live in 1985. Davis Jr. was sixty-years-old at the time, just five years before his death in 1990. With all the charm of a youthful man, he tells the crowd that he's got to do a song that's very important to him.
Davis Jr. reaches for a bowler hat, and the crowd already knows he is going to sing "Mr. Bojangles." Davis Jr proceeds to tell the story of the vagrant Walker met in that jail. Bojangles was a sweet, caring soul who told a story of his dog "that up and died."
To lighten the mood after the heaviness of the dog tale, the prisoners asked Bojangles to dance. He complied and tapped a lick or two in the cell. Silhouetted by a spotlight, Davis Jr. ends the song with such a melancholy note as the men in the jail beg Bojangles to dance again.
