 |  |
"Do Wah Diddy Diddy" is a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and originally recorded in 1963, as "Do-Wah-Diddy", by the American vocal group the Exciters.
It was soon covered by British R&B, Beat and pop band Manfred Mann. Manfred Mann's version, which was more commercially successful, was recorded on 11 June 1964, released on 10 July, and spent two weeks No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in August, and two weeks at the No. 1 spot in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October.
Manfred Mann had begun life as an R&B and jazz-inflected group. To that point, they’d notched UK hits with original tunes, including “5-4-3-2-1,” but nothing on this scale. “It hadn’t started off as a “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”-type band at all,” Mann told US magazine in 1973. Their update of a minor hit by the Exciters from earlier in 1964, however, would hurtle Manfred Mann to No. 1 on both the U.S. and U.K. charts — and change the group’s musical profile forever.
ReplyDeleteSome of the best music from the 60's came from the British Invasion.
ReplyDelete