Hanky Panky (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Hanky Panky
Artist = Tommy James and the Shondells


Released = 1963
Format = vinyl record (7")
Genre = Rock
Length = 2:59
Label = Roulette
Writer = Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich
Producer = Henry Glover
Last single = "Judy" (1962)
This single = "Hanky Panky"
(1963)
Next single = "Hanky Panky (re-release)"
(1966)"Hanky Panky" is a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich for their group, The Raindrops. It was famously remade by rock group Tommy James and the Shondells, who took it to number one in the United States.

Song structure and meaning

Donald A. Guarisco at Allmusic [ Guarisco, Donald. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:0uq6gjhttv3z "Song Review: Hanky Panky"] . "Allmusic". Retrieved August 30 2006.] wrote: cquote|The lyrics of this song convey the excitement of a hormonal lad driven mad by a girl who knows how to do the suggestive dance of the title, building themselves around the oft-repeated lyrical hook of "My baby does the hanky panky." The music is equally simple and infectious, building itself on simple verse and chorus melodies that bounce up and down in a pleasant, bouncy fashion. James' version is pure garage rock, a live-in-the-studio effort that layered low-slung guitar riffs over a shuffling stomp of a beat from the rhythm section. James topped it off with amusingly mush-mouthed vocals a la "Louie Louie" and an out-of-control guitar solo that is cheered on by the other band members.

Composition and history

Barry and Greenwich authored the song in 1963. They were in the middle of a recording session, and realized they needed a "B" side to a single. (It appeared on the flip of The Raindrops' hit "That Boy John.") The duo then went into the hall and penned the song in 20 minutes. Barry and Greenwich weren't particularly pleased with the song, and deemed it inferior to the rest of their work. "I was surprised when [Tommy James version] was released," Barry commented to Billboard's Fred Bronson, "As far as I was concerned it was a terrible song. In my mind it wasn't written to be a song, just a B-side."

Although only a "B" side, "Hanky Panky" became popular with garage rock bands, and many started including it in their act. James heard it being performed by one such group in a club in South Bend, Indiana. "I really only remembered a few lines from the song, so when we went to record it, I had to make up the rest of the song," he told Bronson, "I just pieced it back together from what I remembered."

James' version was recorded at a local radio station, WNIL in Niles, Michigan and released on the local label, Snap Records and sold well in the tri-state area of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. However, lacking national distribution, the song quickly disappeared. James moved on, breaking up the Shondells, and finishing high school. In 1965, unemployed James was contacted by a Pittsburgh disc jockey. The DJ had started playing "Hanky Panky", and it had become popular in that area.

Tommy then decided to re-release the song, travelling to Pittsburgh where he hired a local group to be the Shondells (the original members declined to re-form). After making appearances on TV and clubs in the city, he took a master of "Hanky Panky" to New York, where he sold it to Roulette Records. "The amazing thing is we did not re-record the song," James told Bronson, "I don't think anybody can record a song that bad and make it sound good. It had to sound amateurish like that. I think if we'd fooled with it too much we'd have fouled it up." It was released promptly and took the top position of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in June 1966.

Charts

Notes

References

*Bronson, Fred (2003). "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits ". ISBN 0-8230-7677-6.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles.shtml "BBC: The Official UK Charts Company"] . "United Kingdom sales chart". Retrieved June 11 2006.
* [http://billboard.com "Billboard"] . Billboard "Hot 100 airplay and sales charts". Retrieved June 11 2006.

External links

* [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1881 SongFacts Entry] with trivia about the song.
* [http://www.zokky.com/artist_t/tommy_james_and_the_shondells_lyrics/hanky_panky_lyrics.html Song lyrics]