Song of the Day 5/28: Iron Butterfly, “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida”

Doug Ingle, who wrote, sang and played organ on “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida,” Iron Butterfly’s iconic 1968 hit, died last week at age 78. Ingle was the last surviving member of the lineup that recorded it.

The 17-minute title track took up one entire side of the band’s second album and was a lot better known back in the day than its peak of No. 30 on Billboard’s Hot 100 would suggest. The full-length version was popular with late-night disc jockeys, who could take a long bathroom break while it played, and their support helped the LP reach No. 4 on the album chart.

The song’s cryptic title – like “Louie, Louie,” it was rumored to have some sexual meaning – came about because Ingle wrote the song after drinking a gallon of cheap wine. When he sang it for drummer Ron Bushy, that’s how he slurred the intended first line, “In the Garden of Eden,” so that’s how Bushy wrote it down. It was 17 minutes long because the studio engineer asked the band to play while he set recording levels, so they jammed away, unaware that it was all being taped. On the other hand, in concert they often extended the song even further – Jeff Beck claimed that when he saw them a year before they recorded their first album, the jam lasted 35 minutes.

“In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” was a landmark in the evolution of psychedelic rock into heavy metal, and countless metal musicians have cited it as an influence. For Ingle, it proved a mixed blessing. He spent much of his windfall, mainly on a 600-acre California ranch, before paying taxes, and lost most of it in ensuing battle with the IRS. When the band broke up in 1971 he left the music business, except for brief Iron Butterfly reunions through the end of the century.

“In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” has been covered by several bands, but perhaps its best rendition was by Rev. Lovejoy’s congregation on a 1995 episode of “The Simpsons.”