Billboard #1 Hits: #119: “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”- Manfred Mann. October 17, 1964. #1 for weeks.
- Single: “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”- Manfred Mann
- Record Company- Ascot
- Genre: Pop Rock
- Written by-Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich
- Time: 2:23
- B-side: “What You Gonna Do”
- Album- The Manfred Mann Album
- Grade: A
- Peaked at #1 2 weeks on Billboard Hot 100. Also #1 in UK, Canada and Sweden.
A very impressive run on #1 hits in 1964 continues-with another British Invasion hit. “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”- was first released in 1963 by The Exciters an American girl group- with one male member- the single made it to #78 on the charts. When I hear the song– I think of the scene in the movie Stripes where the song is used as a military cadence.
Manfred Mann was much bigger in the UK than in the US. They had 3 #1 hits in the 1960’s and 11 Top 40 hits in the UK during the 1960’s- in the US they had 4 hits during the same time period. Fast forward a dozen years and Manfred Mann lead another band- Manfred Mann’s Earth Band-where they had a #1 hit in 1976 with a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded By The Light.”
slicethelife 
I like the organ music with the bridge of the song. Stripes is Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and John Candy at their bests. Ramis wrote a lot of funny movies!
That was a fun movie– Ramis under appreciated.
Made me think of Moonlighting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyfYvP-bR8k
You’re pulling out another gem. I like this MM line up the best.