In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is a 1968 rock song by the band Iron Butterfly. It was the title track from their second album. It was so popular it soared past the usual measure for a "Gold" album so Ahmet Ertegun (then boss of ATCO) had to produce a new "Platinum" sales award to acknowledge its success - 140 weeks in the charts, 81 of which were in the Top Ten.
The title translates as "In the garden of life" but it was originally called "In the garden of Eden". A drunken rehearsal resulted in the slurring of "In the garden of Eden" into In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa covered In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by combining it with the opening melody of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring. It was made available as In-A-Gadda-Stravinsky on Frank Zappa: Guitar.
Frank Zappa about In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
"We once played a horrible venue -- some kind of sports hall -- in southern Illinois. The band was set up on the floor, and our amplifiers were playing straight into a concrete wall about two stories high, with the audience at the top of it -- looking down. Can you visualize that? It was the worst setup imaginable. So, naturally, I decided to try some 'audience participation' (like we can barely see them, and I want them to 'participate.' Surrrrre you do). I divided them into five sections, according to the way the seats fanned out -- each section was going to be a different part of a mass chorus of maybe five thousand people. I said, "Now, you guys over here, you're going to sing 'Harbor Lights.' ' They had never even heard of "Harbor Lights," but we showed them how it goes. Then I said to each of the other sections, "You are going to sing 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.' You're going to sing the opening bassoon solo from The Rite Of Spring. You're going to sing the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, and you lucky folks over there get 'Ave Maria.' I'll show you when to come in." What a noise that was." - Frank Zappa in The Real Frank Zappa Book.
