"Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha" (usually shortened to "Da Da Da") is a song by the German band
Trio. Trio was formed in 1980 by
Stephan Remmler,
Gert "Kralle" Krawinkel and
Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and ...
. Released as a single in 1982 and featured on their 1981
self-titled debut album, "Da Da Da" became a hit in Germany and about 30 other countries, selling 13 million copies worldwide. The lyrics were written by Remmler, the music by Krawinkel. "Da Da Da" remains the band's biggest German hit and their only hit outside Germany.
Background and composition
It is known in many language versions:
*German version as "" (or simply "Da Da Da")
*English version as "Da Da Da I don't love you you don't love me"
*French version as "Da Da Da je t'aime pas tu m'aimes pas"
The song "Da Da Da" became quite popular despite being extremely repetitive. It was a product of the ''
Neue Deutsche Welle
Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW, , "New German Wave") is a genre of West German rock music originally derived from post-punk and new wave music with electronic influences. The term was first coined by Dutch radio DJ Frits Spits on the popular nationwid ...
'' (or NDW). However, Trio preferred the name ''Neue Deutsche Fröhlichkeit'', which means "New German Cheerfulness", to describe their music. At that time, popular songs were based on extremely simple structures that were ornately produced. Trio's main principle was to remove almost all the ornamentation and polish from their songs, and to use the simplest practical structures (most of their songs were
three-chord song
A three-chord song is a song whose music is built around three chords that are played in a certain sequence. A common type of three-chord song is the simple twelve-bar blues used in blues and rock and roll.
Typically, the three chords used are t ...
s). For this reason, many of their songs are restricted to drums, guitar, vocals, and just one or maybe two other instruments, if any at all. Bass was used very infrequently until their later songs, and live shows often saw Remmler playing some simple pre-programmed rhythms and melodies on his small
Casio VL-1
The VL-1 was the first instrument of Casio's VL-Tone product line, and is sometimes referred to as the VL-Tone. It combined a calculator, a monophonic synthesizer, and sequencer. Released in June 1979,Mark Vail, ''The Synthesizer: A Comprehens ...
keyboard while Behrens played his drums with one hand and ate an apple with the other. Remmler used a
contact microphone
A contact microphone, also known as a piezo microphone, is a form of microphone that senses audio vibrations through contact with solid objects. Unlike normal air microphones, contact microphones are almost completely insensitive to air vibra ...
on his throat to achieve a different
timbre
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...
to his voice on lyrics where he stepped away from the regular mic.
Chart positions
* The song was a chart success in more than 30 countries.
* The German version of "Da Da Da" reached No. 2 on the charts (April 1982). There were three versions: the single version for 3:23, a longer version for 6:36. The live version came in the album ''Trio live im Frühjahr 82'' and goes on for 1:32. On the B-side of the 7" single release was "Sabine Sabine Sabine", whereas the B-Side of the maxi-single carried two more songs: "Halt mich fest ich werd verrückt" and "Lady-O-Lady".
* In the UK, "Da Da Da" hit No. 2 in July 1982. The single version goes on for 3:23 and the longer version for 6:36.
* In Canada, it peaked at No. 3 in December 1982.
* In France, the song was made more popular in 1982 with Zam making a French version titled "Da Da Da je t'aime pas tu m'aimes pas".
* In the US, the song peaked at No. 33 on the dance charts.
In 1997, the song gained further chart success when the CD of ''TRIO and Error'' was released as ''Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha'' in the United States and was a US-only promo CD-single in response to the 1997 US
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...
commercial that featured the song "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha", often contracted to simply "Da Da Da". The re-release had some changes: two songs were added to the CD and the album was digitally remastered. The shorter version known as a radio edit version goes on for 2:49.
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Sales and certifications
Cover versions
In 1982, German singer and actor
Frank Zander released a cover of the song titled "Da da da ich weiß Bescheid, du weißt Bescheid" that also reached number two on the West German chart. The same year, an Italian version made by I Masters (a trio formed by three Italian young men, Paolo Paltrinieri, Lorenzo Canovi and Romeo Corpetti) called ''Da Da Da Mundial '82'' was made after Italy's victory at the
1982 FIFA World Cup
The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...
, with the lyrics honouring the Italian team, with the part prior to the refrain, before the "Aha" saying ''Son tutti figli di Bearzot'' (translated, ''They are all sons of
Bearzot''). In early 2019, YouTuber MaximillianMus created a parody titled, "Oh Yeah Yeah", and ordered his fanbase to take over YouTube comment sections, title-dropping the song across many videos on the platform, prompting YouTuber/rapper
KSI
Olajide Olayinka Williams "JJ" Olatunji (born 19 June 1993), known professionally as KSI, is an English YouTuber and rapper. He is a co-founder and member of the British YouTube group known as the Sidemen. He is the CEO of Misfits Boxing and ...
to address the meme in one of his videos.
See also
*
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...
*
Lists of number-one singles (Austria)
The listing of number-one hits in Austria taken from the Ö3 Austria Top 40 listing per year can be found as follows:
Number-one singles
*List of number-one hits of 1990 (Austria)
*List of number-one hits of 1991 (Austria)
* List of number-one hi ...
*
List of number-one singles from the 1980s (New Zealand)
The following lists the number-one singles on the New Zealand Singles Chart during the 1980s. The source for this decade is the Recorded Music NZ chart, the chart history of which can be found on the Recorded Music NZ website or Charts.nz.
A to ...
*
List of number-one singles of the 1980s (Switzerland)
This is a list of singles that reached number one on the Swiss Hitparade during the 1980s.
Number-one singles
See also
*1980s in music
References
{{SwissNumber1s
Number-one singles
Switzerland
1980s
File:1980s replacement montage02.PN ...
Note
References
External links
Lyrics of "Da Da Da"
{{authority control
1981 songs
1982 singles
Number-one singles in Austria
Number-one singles in New Zealand
Number-one singles in South Africa
Number-one singles in Switzerland
Trio (band) songs
German synth-pop songs
German-language songs