My Ding-a-Ling

"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 Billboard Hot 100 single in the United States. Later that year, a longer version was included on the album '' The London Chuck Berry Sessions''. Guitarist Onnie McIntyre and Robbie McIntosh, a drummer who later formed the Average White Band, played on the single along with Nic Potter of the British band 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 titled "Toy Bell". Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts recorded it in 1961, and it was part of their live act for many years. Berry recorded a version called "My Tambourine" in 1968, but the version that topped the charts was recorded live during the Lanchester Arts Festival at the Locarno ballroom in Coventry, England on 3 February 1972 by the Pye Mobile Recording Unit, engineered by Alan Perkins, where Berrybacked by the Roy Young Bandtopped a bill which also included Slade, George Carlin, Billy Preston, and Pink Floyd. 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". Bartholomew's 1952 version contains a Shave and a Haircut motif.

Content

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 holding on to it in dangerous situations like falling while 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 a penis could just as easily be substituted for the toy bells and the song would still make sense.

Critical reception

The lyrics with their sly tone and innuendo (and the enthusiasm of Berry and the audience) caused many radio stations to refuse to play it. British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse tried unsuccessfully to get the song banned. Whitehouse wrote to the BBC's Director General claiming that "one teacher told us of how she found a class of small boys with their trousers undone, singing the song and giving it the indecent interpretation which—in spite of all the hullabaloo—is so obvious... We trust you will agree with us that it is no part of the function of the BBC to be the vehicle of songs which stimulate this kind of behaviour—indeed quite the reverse."

In ''Icons of Rock'', Scott Schinder calls the song "a sophomoric, double-entendre-laden ode to masturbation". Robert Christgau remarked that the song "permitted a lot of twelve-year-olds new insight into the moribund concept of 'dirty.

Censorship

For a re-run of ''American Top 40'', some stations like WOGL in Philadelphia, replaced the song with an optional extra when it aired a rerun of a November 18, 1972, broadcast of ''AT40'' (where it ranked at #14) on December 6, 2008. Among other stations, most Clear Channel-owned radio stations to whom the ''AT40'' 1970s rebroadcasts were contracted did not air the rebroadcast that same weekend, although it was because they were playing Christmas music and not because of the controversy. Even back in 1972, some stations would refuse to play the song on ''AT40'', even when it reached number one.

The controversy was lampooned in ''The Simpsons'' episode " Lisa's Pony", in which a Springfield Elementary School student attempts to sing the song during the school's talent show. He barely finishes the first line of the refrain before an irate Principal Skinner pushes him off the stage, angrily proclaiming "This act is over!"

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Bibliography

* ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits'' (5th edition), Billboard Books, 2003,
* Guterman, Jimmy and O'Donnell, Owen; ''The Worst Rock-and-Roll Records of All Time'', New York: Citadel, 1991;

External links

Lyrics
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1972 singles
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Cashbox number-one singles
Chess Records singles
Chuck Berry songs
Hokum blues songs
Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Novelty songs
Obscenity controversies in music
Censorship of music
Live singles
Songs written by Dave Bartholomew
UK singles chart number-one singles
1952 songs