"Hot Diggity" is an American popular

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 written by Al Hoffman

Al Hoffman

Al Hoffman , a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame since 1984, was a hit songwriter active in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, usually co-writing with others and responsible for number one hits through each decade, many of which are still sung and recorded today...

 and Dick Manning

Dick Manning

Dick Manning was a Russian-born American songwriter, best known for his many collaborations with Al Hoffman....

. Published in 1956

1956 in music

-Events:*January 26 – Buddy Holly's first recording sessions for Decca Records take place in Nashville, Tennessee*Roy Orbison signs with Sun Records*January 27 – Elvis Presley's single "Heartbreak Hotel" / "I Was the One" is released...

, it was recorded by Perry Como

Perry Como

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...

 and went to #1 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

pop music chart later that year. The song's melody is based on Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...

's 1883 composition, España

España, rapsodie pour orchestre

España, rhapsody for orchestra is the most famous orchestral composition by the French composer Emmanuel Chabrier...

.

Perry Como's recording was done at Webster Hall in New York City. The conductor was Mitchell Ayres and the producer was Joe Carlton. One small bit of trivia: The regular guitarist had injured his wrist and the Musician's Union sent a last minute replacement; a young 19 year old Juilliard School of Music student named Bill Aken (aka Zane Ashton) who would become a well-known musician in his own right.

The nonsense phrase of the song's title, repeated throughout the song, is used as counterpoint to the lines it precedes in the lyrics, as in the following excerpt:

"Hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom

What you do to me,

When you're holding me tight."

The phrase "hot diggity dog!" dates to at least 1928, when Al Jolson

Al Jolson

Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....

was recorded saying "Hot diggity dog! Hot kitty! Hot pussycat! Didn't I tell you you'd love it?" after a performance of the tune "There's A Rainbow Around My Shoulder".