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Who Put the Bomp (song)

 

 
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Who Put the Bomp (song)
 
 
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"Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)" is a Doo-wop
Doo-wop

Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which developed in African-American communities in the 1940s and which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s the 1960s....
 style hit song from 1961 co-written (with Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin is an United States lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriter partner and first wife, Carole King....
) and recorded by Barry Mann
Barry Mann

Barry Mann is an United States songwriter, and part of one of the most prolific songwriting partnerships in the world of rock and roll music....
. He was backed up by The Halos
The Halos

The Halos were an American doo wop group from The Bronx.The group formed with members Al Cleveland, J.R. Bailey, Harold Johnson, and Arthur Crier ....
, who had previously backed up Curtis Lee
Curtis Lee

Curtis Lee is an United States singer of the early 1960s, and twice over, one of the beneficiaries of 1961 record producer by Phil Spector. These were "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" and "Under the Moon of Love" ....
 on the song "Pretty Little Angel Eyes". The song was originally released as a single on the ABC-Paramount label (10237).

In this song, Mann sings about the frequent use of nonsense lyrics in Doo-Wop
Doo-wop

Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which developed in African-American communities in the 1940s and which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s the 1960s....
 music, and how his girl fell in love with him after listening to several of such songs.






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"Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)" is a Doo-wop
Doo-wop

Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which developed in African-American communities in the 1940s and which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s the 1960s....
 style hit song from 1961 co-written (with Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin is an United States lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriter partner and first wife, Carole King....
) and recorded by Barry Mann
Barry Mann

Barry Mann is an United States songwriter, and part of one of the most prolific songwriting partnerships in the world of rock and roll music....
. He was backed up by The Halos
The Halos

The Halos were an American doo wop group from The Bronx.The group formed with members Al Cleveland, J.R. Bailey, Harold Johnson, and Arthur Crier ....
, who had previously backed up Curtis Lee
Curtis Lee

Curtis Lee is an United States singer of the early 1960s, and twice over, one of the beneficiaries of 1961 record producer by Phil Spector. These were "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" and "Under the Moon of Love" ....
 on the song "Pretty Little Angel Eyes". The song was originally released as a single on the ABC-Paramount label (10237).

In this song, Mann sings about the frequent use of nonsense lyrics in Doo-Wop
Doo-wop

Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which developed in African-American communities in the 1940s and which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s the 1960s....
 music, and how his girl fell in love with him after listening to several of such songs. The theme is illustrated by these partial lyrics:

I'd like to thank the guy who wrote the song
that made my baby fall in love with me...
Who put the bomp in the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp
Who put the ram in the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong
Who put the bop in the bop-she-bop-she-bop
Who put the dip in the dip-de-dip-de-dip
Who was that man, I'd like to shake his hand
He made my baby fall in love with me (yeah!)
When my baby heard bomp-bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp-bo-bomp-bomp
Every word went right into her heart
And when she heard them singing ram-a-lama-lama-lama-lama-ding-dong
She said we'd never have to part


Examples of the type of song referred to include the Marcels' version of "Blue Moon
Blue Moon (song)

"Blue Moon" is a classic Popular music. It was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934 in music, and has become a standard ballad....
" (in which they sing "Bomp bomp ba bomp, ba bomp ba bomp bomp" and "dip-de-dip-de-dip") and the Edsels' "Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong", both of which charted earlier the same year.

The song inspired the title of a music magazine, called "Who Put the Bomp
Who Put the Bomp

Who Put The Bomp was a rock music fanzine edited and published by Greg Shaw from 1970-79. Later its name was shortened to "Bomp!". Shaw was one of the first and best known rock fanzine editors....
".

The song fits into the category of "self-referential" songs. Rock songs are often about rock (We're gonna rock around the clock), reggae songs about reggae, rap songs about rap, etc. In this particular song that aspect is accentuated by the fact that Mann is a songwriter singing about songwriters.

It is also an ironic, lightly self-mocking song. This is a frequent phenomenon in popular music, M
M (band)

M was England singing Robin Scott's briefly active musical collaboration in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They played New Wave music and commercial synthpop, and are most known for their 1979 hit "Pop Muzik", which reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1979, and #1 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 record chart on 3 November 1979....
's "Pop Muzik
Pop Muzik

"Pop Muzik" is a 1979 hit song performed by the British band M , fronted by Robin Scott....
" being an example.

Chart Performance


The single debuted on Billboard's Hot 100 on August 7, 1961, and remained for twelve weeks, peaking at # 7. Mann's version did not chart in the UK, though a cover version by the Viscounts reached # 21 there in September, 1961, and another version by Showaddywaddy charted at # 37 in August, 1982.

Covers and related songs

The song has been covered by:
  • Jan and Dean
    Jan and Dean

    Jan and Dean were a rock and roll duet , popular from the late 1950s through the mid 1960s, consisting of William Jan Berry and Dean Ormsby Torrence ....
     (who claim "We put the bomp...")
  • The Viscounts
    The Viscounts (UK)

    The Viscounts were a United Kingdom pop music musical ensemble from London. Its members had formerly been part of a Television ensemble called Morton Fraser's Harmonica Gang....
     (on the album Who Put the Bomp -- The Pye Anthology)
  • The Wurzels
    The Wurzels

    Adge Cutler and The Wurzels, renamed The Wurzels after Adge cutler death, are a United Kingdom Scrumpy and Western band.This Somerset based band is best known by many people for its 1976 List of Number 1 Hits "Brand New Key", but has a history stretching over 40 years, and still performs to this day....
  • Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
    Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

    Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in 1995. The Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. They have covered songs from such artists as Whitney Houston, Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, and John Denver....
     (on the album Blow in the Wind
    Blow in the Wind

    Blow in the Wind is the third album by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, released in 2001 on the Fat Wreck Chords independent record label. 'Blow in the Wind' features several tracks which are led off with musical mash-ups of, or homages to, classic Punk songs - a trend the group began on their second album, Are a Drag, with an ap...
    )
  • Cartoons DK
  • Showaddywaddy
    Showaddywaddy

    Showaddywaddy are a 1970s popular music musical ensemble from Leicester, England. They specialised in revivals of hit single songs from the 1950s, and dressed as Teddy Boy ....
  • Frankie Lymon
    Frankie Lymon

    Franklin Joseph "Frankie" Lymon was an African-American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of a New York City-based early rock and roll musical group called The Teenagers....
     and the Teenagers
    The Teenagers

    The Teenagers are an American integrated doo wop group, most noted for being one of rock music's earliest successes, presented to international audiences by DJ Alan Freed....
    , who changed the title to "I Put The Bomp"
  • Los Twist
    Los Twist

    An Argentina rock group known for its campy and often satirical songs. Many of their songs have a 50s rockabilly sound, others have ska, rock and roll and twist....
     "Quien puso el bomp"
  • The Boppers, Swedish doo-wop band
  • Sharon, Lois and Bram
  • The Heebee-Jeebees (on their live album Surgical Strike)
  • The Real Group
    The Real Group

    The Real Group is a professional a cappella group from Sweden, consisting of five members: soprano Emma Nilsdotter, alto Katarina Henryson, tenor Anders Edenroth, baritone Peder Karlsson, and bass Anders Jalk?us....
     (on their album Debut)
  • Pennywise


The Adventures of Mary-Kate&Ashley(Trenchcoat Twins)Theme-"Give Us a Mystery" ponders...:"Who Put The Bop In The BopShoobopShoobop?"

The song was parodied by Bob Rivers
Bob Rivers

Bob Rivers is a well known United States rock and roll radio disc jockey in the Pacific Northwest as well as a prolific Record producer of parody songs, most famous for his Christmas song parodies....
 as "Who Put the Stump?", involving, from the perspective of an angel on top of a Christmas tree
Christmas tree

File:Christmas Tree.JPGThe Christmas tree is one of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. Normally an evergreen Pinophyta tree that is brought into a home or used in the open, a Christmas tree is decorated with Christmas lights and colourful Christmas ornaments during the days around Christmas....
, the tree being inserted up the angel's rectum
Rectum

The rectum is the final straight portion of the large intestine in some mammals, and the Gastrointestinal tract in others, terminating in the anus....
.

The song "Deceptacon" by Electroclash
Electroclash

Electroclash, sometimes alternatively spelled as Elektroklash, is a style of music that fuses new wave music and electronic dance music. Larry Tee coined the term, but DJ Hell from Gigolo Records is also often regarded as one of the pioneers of the genre....
/rock group Le Tigre
Le Tigre

Le Tigre is an United States dance-punk band, formed by Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman in 1998. It also featured Sadie Benning from 1998 until 2001, and JD Samson for the rest of the group's run....
 includes the lyrics "Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp, who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?"

The song "We Go Together" in the Broadway musical and subsequent film Grease
Grease (musical)

Grease is a musical theater by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey about the way rock and roll changed American sexuality and culture during the pivotal moment when America took its first tentative steps out of the conformity and social/sexual conservatism of the 1950s and toward the individualism and sexual revolution of the 1960s....
 includes a similar mix of nonsensical lyrics. The version of "We Go Together" on the 1993 London cast recording includes a bit of "Who Put the Bomp" sung in counterpoint at the end.

A parody titled "Who put the Bomb in Tehran
Tehran

Tehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Alborz mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia....
, Tehran, Tehran" was produced by political satirists Capitol Steps
Capitol Steps

The Capitol Steps is an United States political satire group. It has been performing since 1981, and has released approximately thirty albums consisting primarily of song parody....
 and included in their book Sixteen Scandals and the accompanying CD. An earlier parody, "Who'll Put a Bomb on Saddam Saddam Saddam" was introduced in the Capitol Steps' 1990 album, "Sheik, Rattle and Roll."

The song "Who Put The Mush" by The McCalmans
The McCalmans

The McCalmans are a folk song trio from Scotland. Formed in 1964, they have continued to record and tour without interruption.Their performance is based on searing three part harmony, humour and a respect for the tradition of song in Scotland....
 is a parody of "Who Put The Bomp", referring to similar nonsense lyrics in folk music
Folk music

Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:* Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World Music and Roots music; the term "Traditional music" was given its more specific meaning to distinguish it from the other definition...
, and explaining how the singer's rock-loving girlfriend left him as a result.

For a while, the Museum of Science (Boston, Massachusetts) had Leonard Nimoy perform a bit of this song in order to display the speaker quality in the Mugar Omni Theater.