The Sounds Of America: 'Wang Dang Doodle'

1A

NPR

News

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It made for an unlikely hit in 1966.

The authentic Chicago blues sound of "Wang Dang Doodle" packed a punch and put a hole through the popular and poppier tunes at the time.

Koko Taylor was born Cora Walton in Tennessee in 1935. For this song, she teamed up with blues composer, bassist, and producer Willie Dixon.

She was backed by a team that included Buddy Guy and a cast of characters featuring "Automatic Slim" and "Razor Totin' Jim."Taylor went on to become one of the great voices of Chicago Blues. But what is a "Wang Dang Doodle?"

We hear from singer Bonnie Raitt, actor Dan Akroyd, artist Shemekia Copeland, and producer Bruce Iglauer.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Find out how to connect with us by visiting our website.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Jen White.
0:06.0	You're listening to the 1A Podcast.
0:08.2	It's time for the final installment of our 2023 Sounds of America series, celebrating
0:14.0	some of the recordings chosen for the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress
0:18.5	this year.
0:20.0	The registry includes music, speeches, broadcasts, spoken word audio, and filled recordings
0:26.0	that have had a significant impact on American culture and are part of our American audio
0:30.4	heritage.
0:32.0	25 audio recordings are added to the registry each year.
0:35.5	Today, we profile another of them.
0:38.0	This time from Chicago Blues singer Coco Taylor and her 1966 recording of Wang Dang
0:44.3	Duodle.
0:45.3	The song was written by Blues artist Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Haolin Woolf
0:50.0	in 1960.
0:51.6	It was Coco Taylor's version that hit the charts and became a Blues standard.
0:55.8	To tell the story of Wang Dang Duodle, we begin with the Queen of the Blues herself.
1:00.4	1953 I moved to Chicago.
1:04.3	I went nothing but a spring chicken.
1:07.2	This is Coco Taylor.
1:08.6	They called me the Queen of the Blues.
1:11.8	Me and my husband, everybody knew him as pop's Taylor.
1:16.2	His name was Robert Taylor.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.