Drum Week, Part 3: Everybody Bo Diddley on the Count of 4

First, work out this rhythm, emphasizing the bolded hits:

ONE and two AND three and FOUR and

one and TWO and THREE and four and...¹

Got it? That's the hook of the day. Now let's work our way back on the pop charts to see it in action, starting at 1982:

Hear the hook: I Want Candy MP3 (Bow Wow Wow version), Bo Diddley beat #3             Copyright info

Now let's try 1957:

Hear the hook: Not Fade Away MP3 (Buddy Holly), Bo Diddley beat #2             Copyright info

And finally, the most classic example (circa 1955):

Hear the hook: Bo Diddley MP3 (Bo Diddley playing Bo Diddley)             Copyright info

With this final example, we have its best known practitioner: Bo Diddley. And the rhythm is commonly referred to as the Bo Diddley beat.

The Bo Diddley beat is, I believe, fundamentally hook-y, though I couldn't tell you anthropologically why that's so. It's also familiar, and familiarity is generally hook-y when something you know is incorporated into something new. If you write a tune with the beat, the audience already knows where it's going, and you've got a head start on hooking them. (Check out U2's "Desire" for a contemporary example.)

The Bo Diddley beat, of course, didn't start with Mr. Diddley. It's also referred to as the Hambone beat, and has roots that stretch at least as far back as African-American plantation songs and probably to pre-slavery African rhythms. But it was Diddley who made it mainstream, and who used it over and over (and over) again, locking his name with that beat.

Some other examples (lifted from the Wikipedia entry):

• Sha Na Na "Born to Hand Jive"
• The Who "Magic Bus"
• The Guess Who "Follow Your Daughter Home"
• George Michael "Faith"
• KT Tunstall "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"

Wikipedia even adds The Smiths "How Soon Is Now?" to the list, but though the rhythm is nominally the same, I'd argue that there's a spiritual disconnect between the Bo Diddley beat and something as dark as a Smiths song.

SPECIAL REQUEST: Can you think of other examples? Especially (but not necessarily) modern ones. Please comment, below.

1. thanks to wikipedia for spelling this one out in an easy-to-understand way.