Boom Bang-a-Bang

"Boom Bang-a-Bang"
Eurovision Song Contest 1969 entry
Country	United Kingdom
Artist(s)	Lulu
Language	English
Composer(s)	Alan Moorhouse
Lyricist(s)	Peter Warne
Conductor	Johnny Harris
Finals performance
Final result	1st (tie)
Final points	18
Entry chronology
◄ "Congratulations" (1968)
"Knock, Knock Who's There?" (1970) ►

"Boom Bang-a-Bang" was the United Kingdom entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1969. It was sung by Lulu, and was co-written by Alan Moorhouse and Peter Warne (the latter also known as Michael Julien).

It was the joint winner with three other entries: Salomé singing "Vivo cantando" for Spain, Lenny Kuhr singing "De troubadour" for the Netherlands, and Frida Boccara singing "Un jour, un enfant" for France.

The song was the second consecutive entry with a nonsense title to win the contest (after Massiel's triumph in 1968 with "La La La"), and became infamous in the comedy world - most notably inspiring Monty Python's Flying Circus to parody it with "Bing Tiddle-Tiddle Bong" (Python precursor I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again had previously had Bill Oddie do something similar with a song for which the title was rendered entirely in sound effects).

Lyrically, the song is a plea from the singer to her lover to "cuddle me tight". She then goes on to explain that "my heart goes boom bang-a-bang boom bang-a-bang when you are near", complete with appropriate musical accompaniment. The single made No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart and was a major hit throughout Europe.

The song was succeeded as the winner in 1970 by Dana singing "All Kinds of Everything" for Ireland.

Over two decades after its first release, the song was included on a blacklist of banned songs issued by the BBC during the 1991 Gulf War.

"Boom Bang-A-Bang" was also the name of a BBC One 1 hour programme made to celebrate 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006. Broadcast in Eurovision week, the special was hosted by Sir Terry Wogan and featured archive footage and highlights of past contests, along with a performance of that year's UK entry by Daz Sampson. The song is the theme tune for the BBC Three sitcom Him & Her (2010).

Lulu also recorded the song in German, Italian and French, all also titled Boom Bang-a-Bang, but none were as successful as the English original. A Spanish version is also thought to have been recorded, but this has never been confirmed and whereas three of the other versions were included on the double CD To Sir, With Love - The Complete Mickie Most Recordings the fabled Spanish version was omitted (as was the German version), suggesting the version widely in circulation is in fact a cover by another artist and not by Lulu herself. A 7" single, released in Spain at the time, certainly seems to indicate that Lulu sang the song in Spanish herself.

See also

• List of songs banned by the BBC