Dancing Pingu - Episode 130: In A Gadda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly

Today, Pingu visits Iron Butterfly's one hit wonder from 1968 called "In a Gadda Da Vida". Originally meant to be called "In the Garden of Eden", it was changed to "In a Gadda Da Vida" after Don Ingle had a hard time pronouncing or writing the proper phrase after gulping down a whole gallon of Red Mountain wine. The song would eventually last 17 minutes long, completely unheard of for a song at the time, and most radio stations refused to play the long version except for when the DJ needed to take a bathroom or smoking break. A shorter version was made in order to get more airtime which excluded the long musical number in between taking the song down to just under 3 minutes and became a Top 40 hit climbing to number 30 in the United States. The song would also hit number 7 in the Netherlands, cracking the Top 50 in both Canada (43) and Belgium (49) and hitting 92 in Australia. In addition, the song would be used in the 1986 motion picture Manhunter and would also be included in The Simpsons (Bart Sells His Soul, where Bart pranks the church to playing the song under "In the Garden of Eden" while Reverend Lovejoy got suspicious of the song being rock and/or roll) and Seinfeld (Season 9's The Slicer, where Elaine is locked in her apartment and blasts the song to drain out the loud meows from her next door cat). My first introduction to this song comes from The Simpsons episode where it's played in church, although many years later my father asked me into helping him find the 17-minute version of the song online which I didn't know was the same till I started hearing the vocals. Sorry to disappoint you all, but there will be NO 17-minute version of Dancing Pingu today but be lucky with the 41 second clip I was able to put together. If you would like me to actually put a 17-minute version together, please let me know in the comments below.