“Do Wah Diddy” by Manfred Mann

Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" didn't start with them. Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich wrote it, and the Exciters, an American vocal group, cut it first in 1963 as "Do-Wah-Diddy". Manfred Mann, a British band straddling R&B, beat and pop, covered it soon afterwards, and theirs is the version that stuck: two weeks at number one in Britain in August, then another two atop the Billboard Hot 100 that October.

The trade papers heard a hit coming. Billboard praised its powerful beat and the way the lead was echoed by a male chorus, while Cash Box filed it as a "thumpin' novelty rocker" made for the teenage crowd. Daft? Absolutely. It's pure beat-boom fizz.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.