View source for My Ding-a-Ling

{{short description|Song most notably performed by Chuck Berry}}
{{redirect|Ding-a-ling|the 1960 Bobby Rydell song|Ding-A-Ling|the 2017 song by Stefflon Don and Skepta|Ding-a-Ling (Stefflon Don and Skepta song)}}
{{Infobox song
| name       = My Ding-a-Ling
| cover      = My Ding-a-Ling.png
| alt        =
| type       = single
| artist     = [[Chuck Berry]]
| album      = [[The London Chuck Berry Sessions]]
| B-side     = {{ubl|"Let's Boogie" (UK/Germany)|"[[Johnny B. Goode|Johnny B. Goode (Live)]]" (most countries)}}
| released   = {{Start date|1972|07}}
| recorded   = February 3, 1972 at the Lanchester Arts Festival in Coventry, England
| studio     =
| venue      =
| genre      = {{hlist|[[Pop rock]]| [[novelty song|novelty]]}}
| length     = {{Duration|m=4|s=18}} / {{Duration|m=11|s=33}} (Full Version)
| label      = [[Chess Records|Chess]] 2131
| writer     = [[Dave Bartholomew]]
| producer   = [[Esmond Edwards]]
| prev_title = Tulane
| prev_year  = 1970
| next_title = [[Reelin' and Rockin']]
| next_year  = 1973
}}
"'''My Ding-a-Ling'''" is a [[novelty song]] written and recorded by [[Dave Bartholomew]]. It was covered by [[Chuck Berry]] in 1972 and became his only number-one [[Billboard Hot 100]] single in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/chuck-berry/chart-history |title= Chuck Berry Chart History|website=Billboard.com |publisher=[[Eldridge Industries]] |access-date= January 23, 2018}}</ref> Later that year, a longer version was included on the album ''[[The London Chuck Berry Sessions]]''. Guitarist Onnie McIntyre and drummer [[Robbie McIntosh (drummer)|Robbie McIntosh]], who later formed the [[Average White Band]], played on the single, along with [[Nic Potter]] of [[Van der Graaf Generator]] on bass.
"My Ding-a-Ling" was originally recorded by [[Dave Bartholomew]] in 1952 for King Records. When Bartholomew moved to Imperial Records, he re-recorded the song under the new title "Little Girl Sing Ting-a-Ling". In 1954, the Bees on Imperial released a version titled "Toy Bell". [[Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts]] recorded it in 1961,<ref>{{cite web|title=Nuts to You| website=[[YouTube]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-OoN_NK89g |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627204640/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-OoN_NK89g |archive-date=2020-06-27 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and it was part of their live act for many years. Berry recorded a version called "My Tambourine" in 1968, but the version that topped the charts was recorded live during the Lanchester Arts Festival at the Locarno ballroom in [[Coventry]], [[England]], on 3 February 1972 by the Pye Mobile Recording Unit, engineered by Alan Perkins, where Berry{{emdash}}backed by the [[Roy Young (musician)|Roy Young Band]]{{emdash}}topped a bill that also included [[Slade]], [[George Carlin]], [[Billy Preston]] and [[Pink Floyd]]. Boston radio station [[WMEX (AM)|WMEX]] [[disc jockey]] Jim Connors was credited with a gold record for discovering the song and pushing it to #1 over the airwaves and amongst his peers in the [[United States]]. ''Billboard'' ranked it as the [[Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1972|No. 15 song for 1972]].
The song is based on the melody of the 19th-century folk song "[[Little Brown Jug (song)|Little Brown Jug]]". Bartholomew's 1952 version contains a [[Shave and a Haircut]] [[Motif (music)|motif]].
==Content==
The song tells of how the singer received a toy consisting of "silver bells hanging on a string" from his grandmother, who calls them his "ding-a-ling". According to the song, he plays with it in school, and holds on to it in dangerous situations like falling after climbing the garden wall, and swimming across a [[creek (stream)|creek]] infested with [[Common snapping turtle|snapping turtles]]. From the second verse onward, the lyrics consistently exercise the [[double entendre]] in that a [[human penis|penis]] could just as easily be substituted for the toy bells and the song would still make sense.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Burke|first1=Lucy|last2=Crowley|first2=Tony|last3=Girvin|first3=Alan|title=The Routledge Language and Cultural Theory Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7S29-ASD1HgC&pg=PA213|year=2000|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-18681-0|page=213}}</ref>
==Critical reception==
The lyrics with their sly tone and innuendo (and the enthusiasm of Berry and the audience) caused many [[radio station]]s to refuse to play it. British morality campaigner [[Mary Whitehouse]] tried unsuccessfully to get the song banned.<ref>{{cite web|last=Coleman|first=Sarah|title=Morals Campaigner Mary Whitehouse|url=http://www.worldpress.org/europe/0202whitehouse.htm|work=World Press Review|access-date=13 May 2012|date=February 2002}}</ref> Whitehouse wrote to the [[BBC]]'s [[Charles Curran (broadcaster)|Director General]], claiming that "...one teacher told us of how she found a class of small boys with their trousers undone, singing the song and giving it the indecent interpretation which—in spite of all the hullabaloo—is so obvious&nbsp;... We trust you will agree with us that it is no part of the function of the BBC to be the vehicle of songs which stimulate this kind of behaviour—indeed quite the reverse."<ref>Ben Thompson (ed.) ''Ban This Filth!: Letters from the Mary Whitehouse Archive'', London: Faber, 2012 cited by  [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/26/ban-this-filth-ben-thompson-review "Ban This Filth!: Letters from the Mary Whitehouse Archive by Ben Thompson – review"], ''The Guardian'', 26 October 2012</ref>
==Censorship==
For a re-run of ''[[American Top 40]]'', some stations, such as [[WOGL]] in [[Philadelphia]], replaced the song with an optional extra when it aired a rerun of a November 18, 1972 broadcast of ''AT40'' (where it ranked at #14)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oldradioshows.com/at40/111872.html |title=CASEY KASEM'S AMERICAN TOP 40 - 11/18/72 |publisher=oldradioshows.com |access-date=2008-11-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104013312/http://www.oldradioshows.com/at40/111872.html |archive-date=2009-01-04 }}</ref> on December 6, 2008. Among other stations, most [[iHeartMedia|Clear Channel]]-owned radio stations to whom the ''AT40'' 1970s rebroadcasts were contracted did not air the rebroadcast that same weekend, although it was because they were playing [[Christmas music]] and not because of the controversy. Even back in 1972, some stations would refuse to play the song on ''AT40'', even when it reached number one.
The controversy was lampooned in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Lisa's Pony]]", in which a [[Springfield Elementary School]] student <!-- not Milhouse or Ralph ---> attempts to sing the song during the school's talent show. He barely finishes the first line of the refrain before an irate [[Principal Skinner]] pushes him off the stage, angrily proclaiming "This act is over!"<ref name="Jean">{{cite video | people=Jean, Al|date=2003|title=The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa's Pony"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref><ref name="Reiss">{{cite video | people=Reiss, Mike|date=2003|title=The Simpsons season 3 DVD commentary for the episode "Lisa's Pony"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref>
==Charts==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
===Weekly charts===
{|class="wikitable sortable" border="1"
!scope="col"|Chart (1972)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
|Australia
|style="text-align:center;"|47
|-
|Canadian Top Singles (''[[RPM (magazine)|RPM]]'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.8257.pdf| title=RPM Top 100 Singles - October 21, 1972}}</ref>
|style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
{{singlechart|West Germany|40|song=My Ding-a-Ling|artist=Berry, Chuck|songid=23135|year=1972}}
|-
|Irish Singles Chart
|style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
{{singlechart|Dutch100|29|song=My Ding-A-Ling|artist=Chuck Berry}}
|-
|New Zealand (''[[New Zealand Listener|Listener]]'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=search+listener&qartistid=426#n_view_location|title=flavour of new zealand - search listener|website=Flavourofnz.co.nz|access-date=30 March 2019}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|19
|-
{{singlechart|Norwegian|7|song=My Ding-A-Ling|artist=Chuck Berry}}
|-
{{singlechart|UK|1|song=My Ding-A-Ling|artist=Chuck Berry|date=1972-11-25}}
|-
|US ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Billboard Hot 100|Hot 100]]<ref name="AM">{{cite web |url={{AllMusic |class=artist|id=p3664|tab=charts-awards/billboard-singles|pure_url=yes}} |title=Chuck Berry: Charts & Awards – ''Billboard'' Singles |work=[[AllMusic]] |publisher=[[Rovi Corporation]] |location=[[United States]] |access-date=March 28, 2011}}</ref>
|style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|US [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|R&B Singles]] (''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'')<ref name="AM" />
|style="text-align:center;"|42
|-
|US [[Cash Box (magazine)|''Cash Box'']] Top 100<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tropicalglen.com/Archives/70s_files/19721028.html|title=Cash Box Top 100 10/28/72|website=Tropicalglen.com|access-date=30 March 2019}}</ref>
|align="center"|1
|}
{{col-2}}
===Year-end charts===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Chart (1972)
! style="text-align:center;"|Rank
|-
|UK <ref>[[1972 in British music#Best-selling singles]]</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|18
|-
|US ''Billboard'' Hot 100<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1972.htm|title=Top 100 Hits of 1972/Top 100 Songs of 1972|website=Musicoutfitters.com|access-date=30 March 2019}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|15
|-
|US ''Cash Box'' <ref>{{cite web|url=https://tropicalglen.com/Archives/70s_files/1972YESP.html|title=Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1972|website=Tropicalglen.com|access-date=30 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928150812/http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/70s_files/1972YESP.html|archive-date=28 September 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|40
|-
|}
{{col-end}}
==Certifications==
{{Certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|artist=Chuck Berry|title=Ding-a-Ling|award=Gold|type=single|relyear=1972|certyear=1972|accessdate=July 8, 2024}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits'' (5th edition), Billboard Books, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0823076772}}
* Guterman, Jimmy and O'Donnell, Owen. ''The Worst Rock-and-Roll Records of All Time'', New York: Citadel, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0806512310}}
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070705145450/http://www.chuckberry.com/music/lyrics/dingaling.htm Lyrics]
*{{youtube|hMddte6yD2w|Chuck Berry Live 1972 ~ My Ding-a-Ling}}
{{Chuck Berry}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:1972 singles]]
[[Category:Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles]]
[[Category:Cashbox number-one singles]]
[[Category:Chess Records singles]]
[[Category:Chuck Berry songs]]
[[Category:Hokum blues songs]]
[[Category:Irish Singles Chart number-one singles]]
[[Category:RPM Top Singles number-one singles]]
[[Category:Novelty songs]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in music]]
[[Category:Censorship of music]]
[[Category:Live singles]]
[[Category:Songs written by Dave Bartholomew]]
[[Category:UK singles chart number-one singles]]
[[Category:1952 songs]]