One of the most important characteristics of a good pop song is that it’s catchy. Some unusual melody, a sound or a strange enough word that gets stuck in your head, may just do the work of getting the audience attention. Well, in the fifties and sixties there was a big emphasis on the strange words, and lyrics such as “Bee-Bop-A-Lula” and “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy” came to be popular choruses. The later is a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and originally recorded in 1963, as "Do-Wah-Diddy," by the American vocal group The Exciters. Jeff Barry was a prolific hit-writer of songs such as "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Then He Kissed Me," "Be My Baby," "Chapel of Love", and "River Deep - Mountain High" (all written with his then-wife Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector.) Still, the original version wasn’t a big success, but the song was soon covered by the English band Manfred Mann which gave it a new life. Manfred Mann recorded their version in 1964, only a year after the original one. The recording session happened on 11 June 1964, and the song was released on 10 July that same year. Manfred Mann’s version of “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy” spent two weeks at the No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in August, and two weeks at the No.1 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October. It was covered many more times after that, the most notable version being DJ Ötzi’s, titled "Do Wah Diddy," which charted peaking at No.9 in Ö3 Austria Top 40, also charting in Germany, Switzerland, UK and Ireland.
