It Came From the British Invasion: “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” the Brilliantly Nonsensical Smash by Manfred Mann

Sometimes all it takes is a big old hook and a lot of energy to push a song over the top. Manfred Mann, like most British Invasion bands in the 1960s, had energy to spare. And “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” possessed a hook for the ages, even if it was comprised of gibberish.

But did you know the band actually did the song as a cover, as it was first recorded by an American girl group? Here’s the story of how Manfred Mann put their stamp on “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” at the start of a long, unpredictable career.

“It Was The Manfred’s”

That quote above is taken from the 1964 song “5-4-3-2-1,” the breakthrough single by Manfred Mann, the British pop band named after their keyboardist that would also score with “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” later that year. But determining who the Manfreds were depended on what era you heard them.

After all, the group that scored a hit with Bob Dylan’s “Mighty Quinn” in 1968 sounded like psychedelic sprites. Or what about the version that became Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, and scored an unlikely U.S. No. 1 in 1976 with a fantastical take on Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light”?

In the early days, they were first known as the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers, until the quasi-novelty “5-4-3-2-1” sent them off on a pop trajectory when it became their first big British hit. To break through in America, they would turn to a song that had already been road-tested in the U.S., without much success.

Another Syllabic Smash

Songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, stalwart members of the famed New York songwriting collective known informally as the Brill Building, had found massive success with the song “Da Doo Ron Ron,” recorded by The Crystals in ’63. Why not try to recapture that magic with another song featuring a refrain made up of random nonsense?

So it was they created the song that was originally called “Do Wah Diddy.” The first artist to get a crack at it was a girl group known as The Exciters. They’d scored a big hit of their own in ’62 with “Tell Him,” and they did a version of “Do Wah Diddy” that certainly sounds like it should have been another high-charter. But it only made it to No. 78 in 1964.

Disappointed by that result, Barry and Greenwich intended to put out the song themselves, but they heard a British band had beaten them to the punch. That was Manfred Mann, who followed The Beatles’ example of switching the gender of songs originally done by girl groups. Buoyed by Mann’s colorful keyboards and lead singer Paul Jones’ ebullient vocals, they achieved their first U.S. No. 1 with the song.

Behind the Meaning of “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”

Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do. That’s the everlastingly catchy refrain to this classic. It means nothing and everything all at once, the sound you make when you’re overcome with joy and want to exclaim about it before you have the exact words to express your precise feelings.

With that unforgettable foundation in place, the rest of “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” is a simple paean to a whirlwind romance, not unlike The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.” The narrator spies this special girl, as she’s Snappin’ her fingers and shufflin’ her feet. They meet and sparks fly: Holdin’ my hand just as natural as can be.

Finally, the relationship becomes permanent: Now we’re together nearly every single day. The end result: Wedding bells are gonna chime. But it’s really all about that repeated refrain at the end of every line. “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” as delivered by Manfred Mann, uses a bunch of gobbledygook to tell us everything we need to know.

Photo by Ivan Keeman/Redferns