Wang Dang Doodle
Encyclopedia
"Wang Dang Doodle" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon
for Howlin' Wolf
at Chess Records
in Chicago
. It has been covered by many artists, including Love Sculpture
, Koko Taylor
, Z. Z. Hill, Ted Nugent
, the Pointer Sisters
, PJ Harvey
, Grateful Dead
, Ratdog
, Savoy Brown
, Charlie Watts
, Booker T. & The MG's, Hindu Love Gods
and the Dutch blues band: Livin' Blues. Robin Williamson
has performed his own version, using the title and the same tune, but substantially new words. Dixon has also recorded it. Jimmy Sturr
recorded a polka version of the song in later years.
, Illinois
. Backing Howlin' Wolf on vocals
were Otis Spann
on piano
, Hubert Sumlin
on guitar
, Dixon on bass
, and Fred Below
on drum
s. There is a chance that Freddy King
plays guitar on the recording, but this is not known for certain.
Willie Dixon says in his autobiography that of all the songs he wrote for Howlin' Wolf, "Wang Dang Doodle" is the one he hated the most. Howlin' Wolf did not think much of it either, calling it a "levee camp" song.
to Chess Records, where she recorded "What Kind of Man Is That?". Her next session for Chess was on December 7, 1965. It was at this session that she recorded her version of "Wang Dang Doodle". Backing Koko Taylor on vocals were Gene Barge
and Donald Hawkins on saxophone
s, Lafayette Leake
on piano, Buddy Guy
and Johnny "Twist" Williams on guitar, Jack Meyers on the bass guitar
, Fred Below on drums, and Willie Dixon singing with Koko.
Koko's version was released in early 1966 and peaked at #4 on Billboard
magazine's R&B Singles chart and #58 on the Hot 100
.
" and was also released on their self-titled debut album
. The single peaked at #24 on the R&B Singles chart and #61 on the Hot 100.
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
for Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
at Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. It has been covered by many artists, including Love Sculpture
Love Sculpture
Love Sculpture were a Welsh blues-rock band of the late 1960s, led by Dave Edmunds , plus bassist John Williams - stage name John David and drummer Rob 'Congo' Jones .-Career:Love...
, Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....
, Z. Z. Hill, Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...
, the Pointer Sisters
Pointer Sisters
The Pointer Sisters are an American pop/R&B recording act from Oakland, California that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning over three decades, their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, disco, jazz, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country and rock.The...
, PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
, Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, Ratdog
Ratdog
RatDog , is an American rock band. The group began as a side project for Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir and bassist Rob Wasserman. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in December 1995, following the death of Jerry Garcia on August 9, 1995, RatDog became Bob Weir's primary band...
, Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are a British blues rock band, formed in 1965, in Battersea, South West London...
, Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is also the leader of a jazz band, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.-Early life:...
, Booker T. & The MG's, Hindu Love Gods
Hindu Love Gods (band)
Hindu Love Gods was an American pop/rock and blues band that was, in essence, an occasional side project of members of R.E.M., with Warren Zevon and Bryan Cook.-History:...
and the Dutch blues band: Livin' Blues. Robin Williamson
Robin Williamson
Robin Williamson is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, songwriter and storyteller, who first made his name as a founder member of The Incredible String Band.-Career:...
has performed his own version, using the title and the same tune, but substantially new words. Dixon has also recorded it. Jimmy Sturr
Jimmy Sturr
James W. "Jimmy" Sturr, Jr. is a polka musician, trumpeter/clarinetist/saxophonist and leader of Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra. His recordings have won 18 out of the 24 Grammy Awards given for Best Polka Album. Sturr's orchestra is on the Top Ten List of the All-Time Grammy Awards, and has acquired...
recorded a polka version of the song in later years.
Style
Dixon had written hundreds of songs for many different artists in the basic blues format at Chess. "Wang Dang Doodle" was written relatively late in his career and by this time Dixon's songwriting had evolved from standard rural blues to a much more sophisticated format. "Wang Dang Doodle", a party song, is an example of his later, much more urban, style with its massive, rolling, exciting beat.Howlin' Wolf version
Howlin' Wolf recorded the song in June 1960 in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Backing Howlin' Wolf on vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
were Otis Spann
Otis Spann
Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....
on piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin
Hubert Sumlin is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer, best known for his celebrated work, from 1955, as guitarist in Howlin' Wolf's band. His singular playing is characterized by "wrenched, shattering bursts of notes, sudden cliff-hanger silences and daring rhythmic...
on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Dixon on bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, and Fred Below
Fred Below
Fred Below was a leading blues drummer, best known for his innovative work with Little Walter and Chess Records in the 1950s. Nobody laid more of the Chicago blues rhythmic foundations, particularly its archetypal backbeat, than Fred Below.-Career:He was born in Chicago, and started playing drums...
on drum
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
s. There is a chance that Freddy King
Freddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
plays guitar on the recording, but this is not known for certain.
Willie Dixon says in his autobiography that of all the songs he wrote for Howlin' Wolf, "Wang Dang Doodle" is the one he hated the most. Howlin' Wolf did not think much of it either, calling it a "levee camp" song.
Koko Taylor version
On June 30, 1964, Willie Dixon brought Koko TaylorKoko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....
to Chess Records, where she recorded "What Kind of Man Is That?". Her next session for Chess was on December 7, 1965. It was at this session that she recorded her version of "Wang Dang Doodle". Backing Koko Taylor on vocals were Gene Barge
Gene Barge
Gene Barge, a founding member of the 1960s band The Church Street Five, was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1926, is an accomplished tenor and alto saxophonist and composer in several bands....
and Donald Hawkins on saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
s, Lafayette Leake
Lafayette Leake
Lafayette Leake was a blues and jazz pianist, organist, vocalist and composer who played for Chess Records as a session musician, and as a member of the Big Three Trio, during the formative years of Chicago blues. He played piano on many of Chuck Berry's recordings.-Biography:Leake was born in...
on piano, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
and Johnny "Twist" Williams on guitar, Jack Meyers on the bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, Fred Below on drums, and Willie Dixon singing with Koko.
Koko's version was released in early 1966 and peaked at #4 on 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...
magazine's R&B Singles chart and #58 on the Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
.
Pointer Sisters version
The Pointer Sisters' version of "Wang Dang Doodle" was released as the follow-up single to "Yes We Can CanYes We Can Can
"Yes We Can Can" is a 1973 funk classic recorded by the American R&B girl group the Pointer Sisters and released on the Blue Thumb record label...
" and was also released on their self-titled debut album
The Pointer Sisters (album)
The Pointer Sisters is the self-titled debut by the Pointer Sisters, released in 1973 on the Blue Thumb label.-History:The album yielded the hits "Yes We Can Can" and "Wang Dang Doodle" and became a success based on word of mouth after heralded performances at The Troubadour in Los Angeles and the...
. The single peaked at #24 on the R&B Singles chart and #61 on the Hot 100.
Also
- On 13 February 2011 "Wang Dang Doodle" was performed at the pre-broadcast ceremonies of the 53rd Grammy Awards53rd Grammy AwardsThe 53rd annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights prior to the telecast on February 11. Nominations were...
by vocalists Cyndi LauperCyndi LauperCynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, Maria MuldaurMaria MuldaurMaria Muldaur is a folk-blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s...
, Mavis StaplesMavis StaplesMavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
and Betty WrightBetty WrightBessie Regina Norris, better known by her stage name, Betty Wright , is a Grammy winning Miami-based soul and R&B singer-songwriter, who won fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight Is the Night"...
; the number also featured guitarists Buddy GuyBuddy GuyGeorge "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
and Kenny Wayne ShepherdKenny Wayne ShepherdKenny Wayne Shepherd is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced a rare level of commercial success both as a blues artist and a young musician.-Biography:Shepherd graduated Caddo Magnet High School in Shreveport, Louisiana...
. - The small town of Forest, Mississippi has hosted the "Wing Dang Doodle Festival" each year since 2004. The festival generally has musical talent of the Blues variety and other events such as the wing cook-off and Wing Dang Dash 5K Run/Walk.