"Hanky Panky" is a song written by

Jeff Barry Jeff Barry (born Joel Adelberg; April 3, 1938) is an American pop music songwriter, singer, and record producer. Among the most successful songs that he has co-written in his career are " Do Wah Diddy Diddy", " Da Doo Ron Ron", " Then He Kiss ...

and

Ellie Greenwich Eleanor Louise Greenwich (October 23, 1940 – August 26, 2009) was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Be My Baby", "Maybe I Know", "Then He Kissed Me", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", ...

for their group,

the Raindrops The Raindrops were an American pop group from New York, United States, associated with the Brill Building style of 1960s pop. The group existed from 1963 to 1965 and consisted of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, both of whom worked as writer/pr ...

. A 1964 recording by the Shondells, later reissued in 1966 under the band's new, and more successful, incarnation of "

Tommy James Tommy James (born Thomas Gregory Jackson; April 29, 1947), also known as Tommy Tadger, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, widely known as frontman of the 1960s rock band Tommy James and the Shondells, who were know ...

and the Shondells," is the best known version, reaching #1 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in 1966.

Song structure and meaning

Donald A. Guarisco at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

wrote: In the

Young People's Concert The Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic are the longest-running series of family concerts of classical music in the world. Genesis They began in 1924 under the direction of "Uncle" Ernest Schelling. Earlier Family Matinees had ...

episode titled "What Is a Mode?",

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

explained that the song was composed in the

Mixolydian mode Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic sc ...

Composition and history

Barry and Greenwich authored the song in 1963. They were in the middle of a recording session for their group, The Raindrops, and realized they needed a B-side for their single, "That Boy John". The duo then went into the hall and penned the song in 20 minutes. Barry and Greenwich weren't particularly pleased with the song and deemed it inferior to the rest of their work. "I was surprised when ommy James' versionwas released," Barry commented to

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

Fred Bronson Fredric M. "Fred" Bronson (born January 10, 1949) is an American journalist, author and writer. He is the author of books related to #1 songs on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and other books related to various music charts as well. He is also k ...

. "As far as I was concerned it was a terrible song. In my mind it wasn't written to be a song, just a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

." Greenwich has a different recollection of events, stating that the song was written in a car at a

lover's lane A lovers' lane is a secluded area where people kiss, make out, or engage in sexual activity. These areas range from parking lots in secluded rural areas to places with extraordinary views of a cityscape or other features. "Lovers' lanes" are typ ...

. Greenwich claimed that while "everyone else was making out, Jeff and I were making music." The single "That Boy John"/"Hanky Panky" was released in November 1963. The song was also recorded by "an obscure R&B girl group", The Summits, in 1963 (as Harmon 1017/Rust 5072), but failed to chart.Greenwich and Berry, ''Do-Wah-Diddy: Words and Music by Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry'', CD, Ace Records Ltd., London, 2008, liner notes Tommy James and the Shondells recorded their first song, "Long Pony Tail," in 1960 and had 500 copies pressed and distributed in southwest

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

. Jack Douglas, a disc jockey at

WNIL WNIL is an AM radio station located in Niles, Michigan and broadcasting to the Niles- Buchanan region airing a soft adult contemporary format. It broadcasts on AM frequency 1290 kHz and 107.5 MHz; it is under ownership of Marion R. Williams. ...

Niles, Michigan Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near the Indiana border city of South Bend. In 2010, the population was 11,600 according to the 2010 census. It is the larger, by population, of the two principal cities ...

, heard the song and asked James if he had other material to record. James had heard "Hanky Panky" being performed by a garage rock band in a club in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

. "I really only remembered a few lines from the song, so when we went to record it, I had to make up the rest of the song," he told author Fred Bronson. "I just pieced it back together from what I remembered." "Hanky Panky" was released on Douglas' Snap Records in February 1964, selling well in the tri-state area of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. However, lacking national distribution, the single's popularity quickly faded. James moved on, breaking up The Shondells and finishing

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

. In 1965, an unemployed James was contacted by

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

disc jockey "Mad Mike" Metrovich. Metrovich had begun playing The Shondells' version of "Hanky Panky", and the single had become popular in that area. James then decided to re-release the song, traveling to Pittsburgh, where he hired the first decent local band he ran into, The Raconteurs, to be the new Shondells (the original members having declined to re-form). A debate continues over whether Metrovich or Pittsburgh disc jockey Bob Mack actually broke the single in the area. James credits Mack. After appearances on TV and in clubs in the city, James took a master of "Hanky Panky" to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he sold it to

Roulette Records Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed direc ...

. "The amazing thing is we did not re-record the song," James told Bronson. "I don't think anybody can record a song that bad and make it sound good. It had to sound amateurish like that. I think if we'd fooled with it too much we'd have fouled it up." It was released promptly and took the top position of the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for two weeks in July 1966. In 2003,

Bob Rivers Robert Rivers (born July 7, 1956 in Branford, Connecticut) is a retired American rock and roll radio on-air personality in the Pacific Northwest, as well as a prolific producer and songwriter of parody songs, most famous for his Christmas son ...

parodied the song as "

Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...

Does the Hanky Panky". In 2014, "Hanky Panky" was referenced in the song "Coffee" by Sylvan Esso. The song was featured in Netflix's ''

Sex Education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...

'' and the 2002 horror movie ''

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

.''

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Notes

References

*Bronson, Fred (2003). ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits ''. .
"BBC: The Official UK Charts Company"
''United Kingdom sales chart''. Retrieved June 11, 2006.
"''Billboard''"
Billboard ''Hot 100 airplay and sales charts''. Retrieved June 11, 2006. *

External links

SongFacts Entry

{{authority control 1963 songs 1963 singles 1966 singles Songs written by Ellie Greenwich Songs written by Jeff Barry Tommy James and the Shondells songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles Roulette Records singles