"Da Doo Ron Ron" is a song written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. It first became a popular top five hit single for the American girl group The Crystals in 1963. American teen idol Shaun Cassidy covered the song in 1977 and his version hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. There have also been many other cover versions of this song, including a version by the Raindrops, which featured the original songwriters of "Da Doo Ron Ron" Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich.
The song is the first collaboration in songwriting by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. The song was composed over two days in Spector's office in New York. The title "Da Doo Ron Ron" was initially just nonsense syllables used as dummy line to separate each stanza and chorus until proper lyrics could be written, but Spector liked it so much that he kept it. Phil Spector did not want lyrics that were too cerebral that would interfere with a simple boy-meets-girl story line. The rhymes of the opening lines, "I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still ... Somebody told me that his name was Bill" was inspired by Bill Walsh, a friend of Spector who happened to visit Spector while the three were writing the song.
The Crystals recorded "Da Doo Ron Ron" in March 1963 at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. It was produced by Phil Spector in his Wall of Sound style. Jack Nitzsche was the arranger and Larry Levine the engineer. The drummer was Hal Blaine. Dolores "LaLa" Brooks was the lead vocalist. La La Brooks told the syndicated radio program Solid Gold Weekend that Cher was one of the singers backing her lead vocals.
On June 8, 1963, it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and on June 22, 1963, number four on the Cash Box chart. It also reached number five in the UK.
That's gold. That's solid gold coming out of that speaker.
In 2004, the Crystals' song was ranked number 114 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was, however, removed from the same list in the 2010 update, being the highest-ranked of the 27 songs that were removed. It was listed at number 528 by Q Magazine in their list of The 1001 Best Songs Ever, published in 2003. Berlin Media listed the song at number 43 on their list of The 100 Best Singles of All Time list published in 1998. It was also recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock".
"Da Doo Ron Ron" was covered in 1977 by teen idol Shaun Cassidy on his first solo LP, Shaun Cassidy, launching his career. His version was produced by Michael Lloyd and issued on Warner. It peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. (The words were changed slightly to make it a boy-girl song, after The Searchers' cover version.) The song was his first of three consecutive Top 10 U.S. hits. Cassidy's cover of "Da Doo Ron Ron" spent 22 weeks on the chart. It became a gold record, as did all of Cassidy's first three single releases.
Jack Nitzsche recorded a slowed-down ballad-style instrumental version on his 1963 album The Lonely Surfer.
The Searchers recorded it soon after an original release, on their debut album, Meet The Searchers, released in August 1963. They changed the words slightly to make it a boy-girl song, referring to a girl named Jill instead of a boy named Bill.
Original songwriters of "Da Doo Ron Ron" Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich covered the song as The Raindrops, who released it on their debut studio album on Jubilee Records towards the end of 1963.
Iain Matthews recorded a version of this song on Tigers Will Survive. He kept the gender-orientation intact. His cover charted at #96 in 1972.
Bette Midler recorded a version of the song for her album Bette Midler (1973). The song is performed as a medley with "Uptown" and "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)".
In 1977, Tina Arena and John Bowles recorded a version for their album "Tiny Tina and Little John".
In 1983, Mike Love of The Beach Boys covered the song on Love's and Dean Torrence album Rock 'N' Roll City.
Hungarian band Dolly Roll in 1989.
In 1996, all-girl rock band The Donnas recorded a version of the song as a single, which was later placed on the 1998 re-release of their 1997 self-titled CD.
The Beach Boys recorded a cover for their 1980 album Keepin' the Summer Alive, with Carl Wilson on lead vocals, but it was not released on that album. It was later released on their box set Made in California.
Bootlegged studio recordings of the song are found by Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.
Other artists who have covered this song include Dave Edmunds, The Carpenters, and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes.
It was used as the theme tune to Hale & Pace's one sitcom vehicle, The Management.
In 1963, Johnny Hallyday sang a French version, written by Georges Aber, in his first film, D'où viens-tu Johnny ? Other French singers also covered the song, including Frank Alamo (June 1, 1963), Richard Anthony and Sylvie Vartan, and Donald Lautrec in Quebec.
The Belmonts also recorded this song on their album Cigars, Acappella, Candy.
In the 1981 movie Stripes starring Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, Russell (Ramis) is an English as a second language instructor. In an early scene he is seen teaching his students the song.
In 1984, singer Karen Kamon did a version of the song sounding similar to The Crystals version, and a music video was created for MTV. The video's premise was that of a guy going up to pick up his date (played by Kamon) and her taking much longer than expected while she finds out what to wear. While waiting, he ends up eating the chocolates he brought for her, and eventually his friends and their dates, who were all in the convertible he jumped out of at the beginning, show up at the apartment wondering what's taking so long and wait along side him. By the third verse, she's down to needing to put on makeup, and goes through numerous exotic looks before finally coming out in a simple t-shirt and jeans, and they all leave for their night out.
The British comedy show, Spitting Image, parodied this song as "Da Do Run Ron", a spoof election campaign song for Ronald Reagan in 1984, just after the programme was launched.
At least two parodies were made of this song revolving around the Enron scandal ("Enron-ron-ron"): one was a full recording of a song by political commentator and talk radio host, Dave Ross. The other was a quick singing of a verse by comedian Robin Williams on his Live on Broadway special. (Not present on the DVD.)
The song was also parodied for Energizer battery commercials in the mid 1980s, most notably one consisting of a robot entertaining a bunch of kids.
