In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

This article is about the song. For the album, see In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (album).

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (derived from "In the Garden of Eden") is a song recorded by Iron Butterfly, written by band member Doug Ingle and released on their 1968 album of the same name.

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"
Cover of the 1968 German single
Single by Iron Butterfly
from the album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
B-side	"Iron Butterfly Theme"
Released	June 14, 1968 (1968-06-14) (album) July 31, 1968 (1968-07-31) (single)[1]
Recorded	May 27, 1968
Studio	Ultrasonic Studios, Hempstead, New York, U.S.
Genre	Acid rock[2] progressive rock[3] psychedelic rock[4] hard rock[5] occult rock[6]
Length	17:05 (album version) 2:52 (single version)
Label	Atco Atlantic
Songwriter(s)	Doug Ingle
Producer(s)	Jim Hilton
Iron Butterfly singles chronology
"Unconscious Power" (1968) "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (1968) "Soul Experience" (1969)

At slightly over 17 minutes, it occupies the entire second side of the album. The lyrics, a love song from the biblical Adam to his mate Eve, are simple and are heard only at the beginning and the end. The middle of the song features a two-and-a-half-minute Ron Bushy drum solo.

A 2-minute-52-second 45-rpm version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was Iron Butterfly's only song to reach the top 40, reaching number 30,^[7] while the album itself reached number four on the album chart and has sold over 30 million copies.^[a] An 8-minute-20-second edit of the song was included in the soundtrack to the 1986 film Manhunter.^[15] In 2009, it was named the 24th-greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.^[16] It is also often regarded as an influence on heavy metal music and one of the firsts of the genre.^[17][18]

Background

Though it was not recorded until their second album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was written during Iron Butterfly's early days. According to drummer Ron Bushy, organist-vocalist Doug Ingle wrote the song one evening while drinking an entire gallon of Red Mountain wine. When the inebriated Ingle then played the song for Bushy, who wrote down the lyrics for him, he was slurring his words so badly that what was supposed to be "in the Garden of Eden" was interpreted by Bushy as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".^[19][20]

Even though nearly all of Iron Butterfly's songs were quite structured, the idea of turning the minute-and-a-half-long ballad into an extended jam emerged very early on. Jeff Beck claims that when he saw Iron Butterfly perform at the Galaxy Club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in April 1967, half a year before the band recorded their first album, their entire second set consisted of a 35-minute-long version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.^[19] The track was recorded at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, New York.^[21]

Musical references

The song contains a musical quotation of the Christmas hymn "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", included by Ingle because he "wanted to touch the spiritual." The song's structure and drum solo refer to the Congolese Christian Missa Luba, which Erik Brann introduced to the group.^[22]

Reception

Cash Box said that it was an "eerie blues work with a pounding rhythm backing and hypnotic chord structures".^[23]

Track listing

1968 single

1. A. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – 2:52
2. B. Iron Butterfly Theme – 3:24

1971 single

1. A. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Part 1) – 4:14
2. B. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Part 2) – 3:53

1979 reissue

1. A. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida – 3:10
2. B. Easy Rider – 3:06

Charts

Chart (1968–1972)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[24]	92
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[25]	49
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[26]	43
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[27]	7
US Billboard Hot 100[28]	30

Other versions

The Incredible Bongo Band covered the song in 1973.^[29] The composer and percussionist David Van Tieghem released a version and two remixes in 1986.^[30] 16 BIT (a German dance project from 1986 to 1989 by Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti) recorded in 1987 a single "(Ina) Gadda-Da-Vida",^[31] also included in album Inaxycvgtgb.^[32] New Jersey psychedelic band 6 Feet Under recorded a version in the late 1960s.^[33] In 1987, Slayer recorded a cover version that appears on the Less than Zero soundtrack. Rapper Nas sampled the Incredible Bongo Band's cover version of the song on his singles "Thief's Theme" and "Hip Hop Is Dead".

In popular culture

• Ron Bushy's drum solo was the inspiration for Ringo Starr's drum solo on "The End" from the Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road. It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles.^[34][35]
• The song is prominently featured in the finale of the 1986 film Manhunter, in which serial killer Francis Dolarhyde plays the song (via an 8-track tape of its parent album) throughout the shootout.^[36]
• The song is featured in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, "Bart Sells His Soul". Bart Simpson tricks the congregants of a Sunday mass at the First Church of Springfield into singing the song as an opening hymn titled "In the Garden of Eden" by "I. Ron Butterfly". Reverend Lovejoy describes the "hymn" as "sound[ing] like rock and/or roll" and punishes Bart for the prank by making him clean out the organ pipes, which he has "befouled with [his] popular music". Homer recalls a time when he and Marge "used to make out to this 'hymn'". The church organist, Gertie, an elderly woman, collapses after finishing the seventeen-minute long song.^[37]

See also

• List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States

Notes

1. Attributed to multiple references:^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}