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Boom Bang-a-Bang
1969 song by Lulu, joint Eurovision winner
1969 song by Lulu, joint Eurovision winner
| Field | Value | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| name | Boom Bang-a-Bang | |||||||||
| cover | Lulu - Boom-Bang-a-Bang.jpg | |||||||||
| type | single | |||||||||
| artist | Lulu | |||||||||
| B-side | March! | |||||||||
| released | 1969 | |||||||||
| * Europop<ref name | "Doggett 2015"{{cite book | title= Electric Shock: From the Gramophone to the iPhone - 125 Years of Pop Music | first=Peter | last=Doggett | date= 1 January 2015 | chapter= The Devil's Interval | page= 428 | publisher=The Bodley Head | location= London | isbn=978-1-847-92218-2 |
| url | https://books.google.com/books?id=guSsCAAAQBAJ | access-date= 22 February 2025}} | ||||||||
| * schlager<ref name | "Petridis 2023" | |||||||||
| length | 2:22 | |||||||||
| composer | Alan Moorhouse | |||||||||
| lyricist | Peter Warne | |||||||||
| misc | {{Infobox song contest entry | embed=yes | ||||||||
| artist | Lulu | |||||||||
| song | United Kingdom "Boom Bang-a-Bang" | |||||||||
| country | United Kingdom | |||||||||
| year | 1969 | |||||||||
| language | English | |||||||||
| composer | Alan Moorhouse | |||||||||
| lyricist | Peter Warne | |||||||||
| conductor | Johnny Harris | |||||||||
| place | 1st | |||||||||
| points | 18 | |||||||||
| prev | Congratulations | |||||||||
| prev_link | Congratulations (Cliff Richard song) | |||||||||
| next | Knock, Knock Who's There? | |||||||||
| next_link | Knock, Knock Who's There? | |||||||||
| {{External music video | header | Official performance video | }} |
| B-side = March!
- Europop{{cite book|title= Electric Shock: From the Gramophone to the iPhone - 125 Years of Pop Music|first=Peter|last=Doggett|date= 1 January 2015|chapter= The Devil's Interval|page= 428|publisher=The Bodley Head|location= London|isbn=978-1-847-92218-2
- schlager
- EMI
- Columbia
"Boom Bang-a-Bang" is a song recorded by Scottish singer Lulu, with music composed by Alan Moorhouse and lyrics by Peter Warne. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, held in Madrid, and became one of the four winning songs. It made No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart and was a major hit throughout Europe.
Background
Conception
"Boom Bang-a-Bang" was written by composer Alan Moorhouse and lyricist Peter Warne. Lyrically, the song is a plea from the singer to her lover to "cuddle me tight". She then goes on to explain that "my heart goes boom bang-a-bang boom bang-a-bang when you are near", complete with appropriate musical accompaniment.
Eurovision
On 22 February 1969, "Boom Bang-a-Bang" performed by Lulu competed in the organized by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to select the song she –who had already been internally selected– would perform in the of the Eurovision Song Contest. The song won the competition so it became the for the contest. Lulu recorded the song with the same title in five languages: English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.
On 29 March 1969, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Teatro Real in Madrid hosted by Televisión Española (TVE), and broadcast live throughout the continent. Lulu performed "Boom Bang-a-Bang" seventh on the night, following 's "Due grosse lacrime bianche" by Iva Zanicchi and preceding 's "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr. Johnny Harris conducted the live orchestra in the performance of the British entry.
At the close of voting, the song had received 18 points, the same number of points as 's "Vivo cantando" by Salomé, the 's "Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara, and the Netherlands's "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr. As there was no tiebreaker rule in place at the time, all four countries were declared joint winners.
Aftermath
Lulu performed her song in the Eurovision twenty-fifth anniversary show Songs of Europe held on 22 August 1981 in Mysen. The BBC included the song on a blacklist of banned songs issued during the 1991 Gulf War. The song is the end theme tune for the BBC Three 2010 sitcom Him & Her.
Boom Bang-A-Bang was also the name of a 2006 BBC One 1-hour programme made to celebrate the fifty years of the Eurovision Song Contest. Broadcast during that year's Eurovision week, the special was hosted by Terry Wogan and featured archive footage and highlights of past contests, along with a performance of "Teenage Life", by Daz Sampson.
Chart history
Weekly charts
| Chart (1969) | Peak | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| position | Australia (Kent Music Report) | Denmark (Hitlisten) | Finland (Official Finnish Charts) | New Zealand (RIANZ) | Spain (Promusicae) | Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) | West Germany (Musikmarkt) | |
| 15 | ||||||||
| 9 | ||||||||
| 10 | ||||||||
| 5 | ||||||||
| 5 | ||||||||
| 3 | ||||||||
| 8 |
References
References
- Petridis, Alexis. (May 11, 2023). "All 69 Eurovision song contest winners – ranked!".
- "Boom Bang-a-Bang - lyrics".
- "UK National Final 1969".
- (29 March 1969). "Eurovision Song Contest 1969".
- "Official Eurovision Song Contest 1969 site".
- Gleyze, Jean-François. (2011-01-10). "L'impact du voisinage géographique des pays dans l'attribution des votes au Concours Eurovision de la Chanson". Cybergeo.
- (22 August 1981). "Songs of Europe".
- "BBC Four - More Dangerous Songs: And the Banned Played On - 16 songs banned by the BBC".
- "BBC One - Boom Bang a Bang: 50 Years of Eurovision".
- McGrath, Noel. "Australian Encyclopaedia of Rock". Outback Press.
- (24 May 1969). "Billboard Magazine, May 24, 1969".
- (7 June 1969). "Billboard Magazine, June, 1969".
- "New Zealand charts". Flavour of New Zealand.
- "Switzerland charts". CHCharts.
- "Germany charts". DECharts.
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
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