# Lesser-Known Origins of Hit Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777 "2020-04-14T16:46:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/21 "2020-04-16T16:04:56Z")
Tommy James got the idea for “Mony, Mony” by looking out his window and seeing the Mutual of New York Insurance Company sign flash M-O-N-Y. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/22 "2020-04-16T16:16:56Z")
Tommy James got the idea for “Mony, Mony” by looking out his window and seeing the Mutual of New York Insurance Company sign flash M-O-N-Y. Duplicate because I kept resending after 504 errors. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/23 "2020-04-16T19:00:20Z")
“Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard Of Oz was repeatedly cut/reinstated from the film by the Studio Suits because they felt it slowed down the flow of the movie, and was too deep and melancholy for a little girl to sing. They envisioned the movie as sort of a light cartoon. The song went on to become the most beloved movie soundtrack Standard - covered thousands of time, rated #1 in Standard lists, and Judy Garland’s iconic signature tune. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/24 "2020-04-30T20:50:33Z")
That whistling in “[Handy Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKpbNvDg6zY)”? That’s supposed to be a flute but the flautist didn’t show up in time for the recording session. Jimmy Jones provided those whistles himself. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/25 "2020-04-30T21:26:22Z")
Sort of related: Pete Townshend recently revealed that he got the closing riff of _Won’t Get Fooled Again_ from Fleetwood Mac’s _Station Man_. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/26 "2020-05-03T02:57:09Z")
I read somewhere (on the internet) that [**The Duke of Earl**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4snbI_xfdGM) came about as Gene Chandler and his group were practicing doo-wop singing by making the usual sounds doo doo doo which progressed to duke duke duke. One of the guys in the group was named Earl and someone began the chant duke duke duke, duke of Earl. And the rest is history. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2020, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/27 "2020-08-25T06:43:26Z")
Sam Cooke wrote “Another Saturday Night” while spending a Saturday night in a hotel which did not allow female guests. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/28 "2020-08-26T12:35:07Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > And then we have more than a few songs that just dribbled from intoxicated brains. Take IN-A\_GADDA-DA-VIDA. Please, take it. :smack: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida = In the Garden of Eden ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/29 "2020-08-26T18:19:20Z")
_Lola_ by The Kinks was inspired by an actual encounter by the band’s manager. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/30 "2020-08-26T19:21:27Z")
No mention yet of [Creeque Alley by The Mamas And The Papas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32qxM0BJyOY)? Okay, maybe that’s not “lesser-known” as OP is requesting. Does everybody know the story? It’s a autobiographical song about the early years of the group, including background of the singers in some earlier groups. [Detailed, line-by-line story here](http://www.creequealley.com). ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/31 "2020-08-27T15:41:26Z")
Whippin’ Piccadilly by Gomez. OK, so it wasn’t the biggest of hits, may not even have been a hit outside of the UK, and the story of the song’s origin isn’t that little-know. But I like it for it’s unexpected simplicity. A bunch of student friends (who went on to form Gomez) from Sheffield University took the train to Manchester to see a Beck gig. They got wasted, and on the way back one of their number, completely off his head, inexplicably decided to whip the floor of Piccadilly train station, Manchester. [Whippin’ Piccadilly](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzIfaW7dS5E). I told you it was simple. j ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777/32 "2020-08-27T17:18:39Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > An infatuated high school student wrote a love poem about Dorothy Sloop, a nearby jazz singer. He gave the poem to a songwriter who turned it into HANG ON SLOOPY, now Ohio’s official state rock song. Rick Derringer of the McCoys tells this story, based on reading a newspaper story much later about the student, who claimed that Bert Burns, who gets the songwriting credit with Wes Farrell, bought the poem from him for a lot of money, maybe thousands of dollars. I can’t find the newspaper story and I wonder how it explains how a record company executive/songwriter would even find a poem by a high schooler or why he would pay lots of money for it. “Puff the Magic Dragon” was a poem with depth and meaning. “Sloopy” is basic doggerel just like a thousand other 60s songs. Anyway, I just happen to be reading Joel Selvin’s _Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm & Blues_. He says that Berns and Ferrell wrote the song in their offices at 1650 Broadway and they debuted for the staff right afterward. No mention of a poem, though he could have had it in his back pocket, I suppose. The [Dorothy Sloop connection](https://www.columbusmonthly.com/news/20190825/from-archives-real-story-of-hang-on-sloopy) is just as tenuous. > Fortunately, Jane Heflick—Sloopy’s daughter—can provide a few more details. The story she heard was that, “The club was a little rambunctious that night,” she says. Patrons were heckling a bit, and giving Sloopy a rough way to go. The musicians Sloopy had spoken to came to her defense, says Jane, shouting out their encouragement: “Hang in there, Sloopy,” they’d yell. “Hang on, Sloopy.” But the song that Berns and Ferrell wrote for The Vibrations was called “My Girl Sloopy.” The “Hang on” didn’t come until they turned it from r&b to rock for the McCoys. And Dorothy Sloop always had short hair, so she couldn’t let it down. Berns claimed that Sloopy was Cuban slang for an unknown girl, something he could legitimately have picked up in his long stay in Havana, assuming that that story has any truth to it. Nobody knows. I’d love to see that newspaper article, though. It could explain so much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lesser-known-origins-of-hit-songs/851777.md?page=1)