Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

Just a segue from my previous “I remember when” post, here are a few factoids about two popular songs I hated.

In A-Gadda-Da-Vida and Wipe Out were consistently banged out by the live bands we hired for our high school dances.

Can I remember even one of the band’s name? Near to impossible I think some 35 years later. Can I remember the dances? Near to impossible X two.

To hear a clip of In A-Gadda-Da-Vida, click on the sound icon:  

SongFacts about In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly

• The song was written by Doug Ingle, their vocalist and keyboard player. His father was a church organist.
• The title was supposed to be “In The Garden Of Eden.” Someone had written “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” possibly while drunk, on a demo copy. A record company executive saw it and decided to use it as the title, since it sounded mystical, and Eastern spirituality was big at the time, with The Beatles going to India and The Rolling Stones experimenting with Indian instruments.

For some more information and to hear clips of these two immortal tunes, click to the next page of this entry.

• The album version is over 17 minutes long. The single was edited for radio.
• The band’s original guitar player quit before this was recorded. He was replaced by Eric Braun, who had only played the guitar for 3 months.
• The title loosely translates as “In The Garden Of Life.”
• This was the first hit song that could be classified as “Heavy Metal.” The phrase was introduced that year in the Steppenwolf song “Born To Be Wild.”

To hear a clip of Wipe Out, click on the sound icon:  

SongFacts about Wipe Out  by The Surfaris

• This is an instrumental with a continuous surf rhythm. The only vocal is the occasional phrase “Wipe Out.”
• When Frank Zappa lived in Cucamonga, CA he bought a small run down recording studio. There he let The Surfaris record a single for $13. The band only had one song planned, but there were two sides to a record. So for a half an hour, the Safaris jammed and came up with this. They recorded it in 2 takes. (thanks, Tim Hidalgo - Downingtown, PA)
• Considered a throwaway, The Surfaris released this as the B-side to “Surfer Joe” when the engineer reminded the group that it takes two songs to make a single. Disc Jockeys liked this better, so they flipped the record, making it a hit.
• The laugh at the beginning is Dale Smallin, the band’s manager and producer.
• Radio stations often use this as a “bed,” which can be background music for commercials or provide disc jockeys with a beat to talk over.
• To complete the song, they sped up the guitar work on “Surfer Joe” and married it to the drum solo of Preston Epps’ #14 hit, “Bongo Rock.”
• After thinking about calling this “Stiletto” (with the sound of a switchblade knife opening the song), The Surfaris decided to crack a half-broken 2-by-4 over the microphone and call the song “Wipe Out.” (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL)

This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2005 at 9:20:44 PM and is filed under JOURNAL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.