Do Wah Diddy Diddy

"Do Wah Diddy Diddy"
Song
B-side	"What You Gonna Do?"

"Do Wah Diddy Diddy" is a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and originally recorded in 1963 by the American vocal group The Exciters. In 1964, it was covered by British R&B, Beat and pop band Manfred Mann. Manfred Mann's version, which was more commercially successful, was recorded on June 11, 1964, released on July 10 and spent two weeks in August at number one in the UK Singles Chart and in October of that year it spent two weeks at the number one spot in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In the Manfred Mann version, Paul Jones (then lead singer) ungrammatically sings: "I knew we was falling in love". This was probably considered more of a faux pas in 1964 than in today's era of more lax lyrical standards. Besides, the line's repeated exposure has made the usage seem almost as natural as the correct "we were".

Other covers and parodies

• "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" was covered by French singer Sheila in 1964. The song's name is "Vous les copains" ("You my friends")
• The song was remade by a Czech singer Pavel Novak and group Synkopa in 1964.
• The British pop band, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich covered the song, and it appears on their greatest hits album.
• The song was remade by a Korean idol group Shinhwa in 1998.
• The song was covered by Dutch girl group the Dolly Dots in 1982.
• The song was covered by Ukrainian-American disco singer Sergey Kremenchenko in 1973.
• Andrew Gold covered the song on his 1976 album What's Wrong with This Picture.
• In 1980 it was covered by pop music group A La Carte.
• The song was parodied by the controversial hip hop group 2 Live Crew on their 1988 album Move Somethin', and by the Macc Lads in their song Manfred Macc.
• DJ Ötzi released his cover version in 2001.
• Riders in the Sky released a Monsters, Inc. version on the album Monsters, Inc. Scream Factory Favorites in 2002.

Cultural references

• As a result of the song's prominent use by Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in the 1981 film Stripes, it has become a popular military cadence.

• The song is a repeated motif in LA Story, a 1991 movie by Steve Martin.

• In 2008 an advertisement for Cinnamon Streusel Mini Wheats featured a parody of the song.[1]

• In the 1991 film, My Girl, Vada Sultenfuss sang the song when she got upset, closing her ears.

• In the 5th season episode of Home Improvement, 'Advise and Repent', Randy comments on Jill being weird for singing Doo Wah Diddy to a girl he was watching TV with, then Jill comes down the stairs singing the song.

• This is the theme song for the 90's Philippine TV show Ang TV

• A town named Doo-Wah-Diddy is referenced in the song "That's What I Like About the South" by Phil Harris, recorded by Phil Harris and Orchestra on ARA 104A (1947)

See also

• UK No.1 Hits of 1964
• Hot 100 number-one hits of 1964 (USA)