Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Police - "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"

De Do Do Do, de Da Da Da - The Police (Remastered)

(Debuted October 25, 1980, Peaked #10, 20 Weeks on the Chart)

For the second day in a row, here's a song that was in the film The Last American Virgin but isn't really remembered for that. Which might be a good thing, as the scene with the song involved teenage boys trying to kill a case of of the crabs by drowning them in a pool. I really don't think Sting and company really had that in mind when they conceived the song.

In fact, when Sting wrote the lyrics, he was trying to make a comment about how people claimed to like high art but then still gravitated to songs like "Doo Wah Diddy" and "Da Doo Ron Ron." They were good songs, but their catchy refrains were essentially gibberish. So, he wrote a song that used some nonsense lyrics. However, once the band's reggae-like rhythms were added and a groove was created for it, it was easy to miss the meaning of the song.

I really don't know if that proved Sting's point or not.



1 comment:

  1. I heard the story that the Police meant to call the song Words, Words, Words. As a joke they wrote down De, Do, Do, Do, De, Da, Da, Da, on the master tape thinking that the record company would either realize the joke or question the song title. The record company did neither and published the song title as the Police wrote it.

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