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Diddley Daddy

"Diddley Daddy"
Diddley daddy.jpg
Single by Bo Diddley
B-side "She's Fine, She's Mine"
Released June 1955 (1955-06)
Format 7" 45 RPM, 10" 78 RPM
Recorded May 15, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois
Genre Rhythm and blues
Length 2:28
Label Checker 819
Writer(s) Ellas McDaniel, Harvey Fuqua
Producer(s) Leonard Chess, Phil Chess, Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley singles chronology
"Bo Diddley"
(April 1955)
"Diddley Daddy"
(June 1955)
"Pretty Thing"
(September 1956)

"Diddley Daddy" is a song by Bo Diddley. The song was issued as a single on Checker Records in June 1955. His second single, it followed on the heels of the success of the eponymous "Bo Diddley." The song spent four weeks on the Billboard R&B chart in the summer of 1955, peaking at #11.

The song was recorded on May 15, 1955 in Chicago. Originally called "Diddy Diddy Dum Dum," it started out as a Billy Boy Arnold composition, which Leonard Chess, owner of Chess Records (Checkers was a subsidiary label of Chess), had heard Arnold play and wanted Diddley to record. However, Arnold had just signed a contract with Vee-Jay Records, and had recorded the song the day before at Universal Studios. When Chess wanted Arnold to sing the song, the latter realized he had a contract, responding, "I can't do it...I just recorded it for Vee-Jay." Chess responded, "Goddam! Ain't this a bitch!" A solution, however, was found on the spot: Diddley and Harvey Fuqua, who happened to be around, rewrote the lyrics.

As it happened, the harmonica player Little Walter was in the studio, and he asked Billy Boy Arnold for his harp; Walter plays the long solo after the first verse (Arnold plays harmonica on the B-side, "She's Fine, She's Mine"). Also decided at "the spur of the moment" was to have Chicago doo-wop group The Moonglows sing background vocals.

One of Bo Diddley's signature songs, "Diddley Daddy" evidenced Diddley's maturation process as an artist. It was described as a "terrific nugget" and an "infectious" "upbeat rocker". The Chicago Sun-Times said it combined "outrageous braggadocio with a beat that resounds like an endless sexual shudder."


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