"My Ding-a-Ling" | ||||
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Single by Chuck Berry | ||||
from the album The London Chuck Berry Sessions | ||||
B-side | "Let's Boogie" | |||
Released | July 1972 | |||
Format | 7" 45 rpm | |||
Recorded | February 3, 1972 at the Lanchester Arts Festival in Coventry, England | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:18 | |||
Label | Chess 2131 | |||
Writer(s) | Dave Bartholomew | |||
Producer(s) | Esmond Edwards | |||
Chuck Berry singles chronology | ||||
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"My Ding-a-Ling" is a novelty song written and recorded by Dave Bartholomew. It was covered by Chuck Berry in 1972 and became his only number-one single in the United States. Later that year, in a longer unedited form, it was included on the album The London Chuck Berry Sessions. Guitarist Onnie McIntyre and drummer Robbie McIntosh who later that year went on to form the Average White Band, played on the single along with Nic Potter of Van der Graaf Generator on bass.
"My Ding-a-Ling" was originally recorded by Dave Bartholomew in 1952 for King Records. When Bartholomew moved to Imperial Records, he re-recorded the song under the new title, "Little Girl Sing Ting-a-Ling". In 1954, the Bees on Imperial released a version entitled "Toy Bell". Berry recorded a version called "My Tambourine" in 1968, but the version which topped the charts was recorded live during the Lanchester Arts Festival at the Locarno ballroom in Coventry, England, on 3 February 1972, where Berry – backed by the Roy Young Band – topped a bill that also included Slade, George Carlin and Billy Preston. Boston radio station WMEX disc jockey Jim Connors was credited with a gold record for discovering the song and pushing it to #1 over the airwaves and amongst his peers in the United States. Billboard ranked it as the No. 15 song for 1972.
The song is based on the melody of the 19th century folk song "Little Brown Jug".
The song tells of how the singer received a toy consisting of "silver bells hanging on a string" from his grandmother, who calls them his "ding-a-ling". According to the song, he plays with it in school, and holds on to it in dangerous situations like falling after climbing the garden wall, and swimming across a creek infested with snapping turtles. From the second verse onward, the lyrics consistently exercise the double entendre in that the toy bells could just as easily be substituted with a penis and the song would still make sense.