C major · Camelot 8B · 123 BPM
Daddy Cool
by Boney M.
- 123
- BPM
- C major
- Key
- 8B
- Camelot
- 77
- Danceability
- 29
- Acousticness
Frank Farian played on his own teeth with a pencil for the intro of "Daddy Cool", adding rhythmic tic-tic-tics to the record he produced and co-wrote for his group Boney M. Farian, who had founded the band in 1974 so that performers could visually present his songs on television and in discos, also supplied all the male voice parts. His deep voice sang "She's crazy like a fool", answered by the layered voices of Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett singing "wild about Daddy Cool". Many listeners misheard that line as "what about Daddy Cool", and the mishearing stuck: the band eventually sang it that way on stage. Bobby Farrell, the group's dancer, always performed to full playback.
The single, the second release by Boney M., came out in 1976 and initially made little impression. That changed after an appearance on the German television show Musikladen in September, after which it topped several European charts. It reached number six in the United Kingdom, the band's first hit there, and number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. It also topped the German charts and entered the Top 20 in Canada, becoming the group's major European breakthrough.
Hansa Records had wanted the band's cover of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" as the A-side. Farian tested both tracks in his discothèque in Sankt Ingbert, saw that his own song won clearly, and persuaded the label to agree. In East Germany the record appeared in 1977, backed by "Sunny".
Daddy Cool runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in C major, Camelot 8B, which shares its notes with A minor and mixes cleanly with F major and G major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.