Muhammad Ali’s 10 Greatest Pop Culture Moments

Ali Appears in Broadway Musical Buck White (1969)
In the late 1960s when he was forbidden to box for dodging the U.S. draft, Ali needed to make money in order to support his family and pay alimony to his first wife, Sonji Roi. One of the gigs that grabbed his interest was a role in Buck White, a musical that only ran for seven performances on Broadway in December 1969. Costarring Donald Sutherland, the musical, based on a play by Joseph Dolan Tuotti, concerned a black militant leader who addresses a black-power group. In the production, Ali sang “It’s All Over Now, Mighty Whitey,” a song about refusing to succumb to white racism. “I’m just about what they call broke,” Ali admitted at the time about signing up for the role. “I was stopped right in the middle of my profession. I’m not complaining over what they have done — I’m just saying, if I never fight again … the people will know, y’know, who the real champ is.” Thankfully, he got the chance to return to the ring, regaining his title in the infamous “Rumble in the Jungle” bout against George Foreman in 1974.

Ali Makes a Kids’ Album: The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
Of all the accolades Ali earned in his life, the one perhaps most forgotten by the public was his Grammy nomination for Best Recording for Children. The nod was for the album The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay, a wonderfully kitschy piece of mid-1970s kids’ entertainment that features the champ, Howard Cosell, Frank Sinatra and Richie Havens. Adventures opens with a theme song that extolls the boxer’s greatness in bizarre terms — “Who dumped the tea in the Boston Bay?/Ali! Ali!” — and then proceeds to chronicle the fictional epic battle between Ali and Mr. Tooth Decay and his evil henchman Sugar Cuba. Adorably playing the part of an iconic role model who’s teaching impressionable kids the importance of dental health, Ali fashioned an affectionately campy classic.