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Concept
Bo Diddley (Bo Diddley song)
Summary
"Bo Diddley" is a song by American rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley. It introduced the rhythm that became known as the Bo Diddley beat and topped the Billboard R&B chart for two weeks in 1955. The song is included on many of Diddley's compilation albums including Bo Diddley (1958) and His Best (1997). Buddy Holly recorded a version that became his highest charting single in the UK.
The song is rhythmically similar to hambone, a technique of dancing and slapping various parts of the body to create a rhythm and song. Diddley's electric guitar along with his backup musicians on maracas and drums contributed to the patted juba rhythm. This combination of rock and roll, African rhythms and guitar was an innovation and came to be known as the Bo Diddley Beat. Lyrically, it is similar to the traditional lullaby "Hush Little Baby".
"Bo Diddley" was recorded in Chicago at his first formal session for Leonard Chess on March 2, 1955. Diddley, on guitar and vocals, was accompanied by Frank Kirkland on drums, Jerome Green on maracas, and Billy Boy Arnold on harmonica.
Checker Records released "Bo Diddley" as a single with "I'm a Man" in April 1955.The song spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, eventually becoming the tenth best-selling single of 1955 on the chart.
Music critic Richie Unterberger described the song as:
soaked with futuristic waves of tremolo guitar, set to an ageless nursery rhyme ... The result was not exactly blues, or even straight R&B, but a new kind of guitar-based rock 'n' roll, soaked in the blues and R&B, but owing allegiance to neither.
In 1998, "Bo Diddley" received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and it is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". In 2011, the A and B-side pair were added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" American sound recordings. In 2017, the single was inducted in to the Blues Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked the song at No.
Official source
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