The Exciters – Do Wah Diddy
The Exciters
Listen/Download – The Exciters – Do Wah Diddy
Greetings all.
Is every one all up in the Simon and Garfunkel, i.e. feeling groovy?
The heat continues unabated, which wouldn’t bear mentioning, except for the fact that I went outside on Sunday to do yard work and ended up like one of those sweat-soaked, sun stroked chain gang fools in a Cool hand Luke stylee and ended up with just enough strength to crawl into bed, slap on my iPod and pass out about halfway into the first song.
Honest to jeebus it’s been a brutal summer hereabouts, and with me all pale and as sun-phobic as the next Morlock, I’m not digging it too much.
Don’t get me wrong…I like it when it’s hot, but like 85-ish. Once you break the 90 degree line, every time you set foot out of doors you can almost hear the cliched snippet of Delta blues slide guitar they always play when some poor slob is about to get run out of some dusty backwoods burgh (or vanish forever, depending on the movie).
That said, I’m lucky enough to be able to step back inside to the refrigerated (as they used to say in the olden days) air of the house, where my records sit safely, unwarped by the heat, and the beer chills in the fridge-o-manator so that I may do the same on the davenport.
That said, I was wondering what to post this fine day, and thought that something, summery, yet upbeat, with just a soupcon of history might fit the bill.
Wanna hear it? Here it is…
I’ve made mention – and demonstrated via example – that I am an absolute fiend when it comes to hunting down original versions of famous tunes in the soul, funk, blues and rock oeuvres. In fact, some day I’m gonna have to get my shnizzle together and whip them on y’all in podcast form, or maybe over at the old Funky16Corners Radio thing.
Hunting these things down, mainly via the heavy blues explosion of the late 60s led me down into the sounds of the Delta, the Piedmont and into Texas where many of these tunes were born.
Of course, not every OG harkens back to the 20s and 30s, many of them were more recent creations, i.e. first committed to wax during the 50s or even the early 60s, with the R&B and soul, and electric blues performers that exerted a much more significant influence on the British Invaders of ‘64 and beyond.
One of these artifacts, that I’d known about for decades, but only scored a copy of earlier this year is the track I bring you today.
I’ll assume that literally everyone reading this has heard the version of ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ by Manfred Mann, which was a huge hit in 1964, and has forever after been a staple of oldies radio. Featuring the voice of Paul Jones (one of the more soulful singers of his time) the Manfred’s version, like many of their storming covers of blues and soul material actually does justice to the original (and maybe exceeds it in some respects).
That original was recorded by the Exciters the year before. Their version only reached #78 on the Pop charts, quite a letdown after their biggest hit ‘Tell Him’ which was Top 20 earlier in 1963, and is also a cornerstone of oldies radio.
Written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, the Exciters’ original is still a slamming slice of soulful group action, with pounding drums, and a wild lead vocal by Brenda Reid. The production by the geniuses (and my idols) Leiber and Stoller is spot on, and a little rawer than you might expect from a group often thought of as a ‘girl group’ (even though there was a guy – Herb Rooney – in their ranks).
The instrumentation is pretty basic, with drums and piano backing the singers, followed by a horn section. Things get a little more ornate in the bridge, but you’d never mistake it for a Phil Spector production, though the chimes in the instrumental break lean in that direction a tiny bit.
Give it a close listen and you can almost imagine you’re there watching Leiber and Stoller building it bit by bit.
Though they’re known mainly as songwriters, they deserve a lot of credit for their work producing and arranging records as well, especially in an era where the best of the Brill Building-related writers were all making strides in that regard.
The Exciters remained together into the early 70s, though their last chart record was a 1966 cover of the Jarmels’ ‘Little Bit of Soap’. You should also be on the lookout for their Northern Soul stormer ‘Blowing Up My Mind’ from 1969 (I know I’m still looking for a copy…).
It’s a great cut, and I hope you dig it.
Peace
Larry
Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press
PS Head over to Iron Leg for some great instrumental pop.
Themocracy
Larry
Hope you have the great book about the Brill Building era “Always Magic in the Air” by Ken Emerson. It tells the tales of these covers that Brit bands had greater success with.
Brenda Reid had that slightly out of tune thing going on that made the Exciters so cool.
Morlock’s used to freak the pants off me.Actually they still do!!!!
@Porky – Yeah, I read it last year. Fantastic book, and right up my alley with all the Leiber/Stoller info.
You might be interested to know that I saw the Exciters open for the Beatles at Atlantic City Convention Hall (now Boardwalk Hall) in August of 1964. The other opening acts that night were the Bill Black Combo, and the Righteous Brothers.
was watching The Pick-up Artist and this song came on, dug the beat and knew it wasn’t the one I was used to hearing, I hit the googles and your site came up, thanks
for the info – a.t.