*fun fact > IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is the 17 minute epic song by Iron Butterfly and is generally considered to be one of the songs that later influenced and helped shape heavy metal. But where did the title “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” come from?

The song was actually supposed to be titled “In The Garden of Eden” and there are a couple of different stories about how the name was changed. The first was that singer Doug Ingle was so drunk during the recording and slurring the lyrics so badly that the line “in the garden of Eden” sounded like “in-a-gadda-da-vida” and the band went with that as the title. The other story is that Doug Ingle was (again) either drunk or high when Ron Bushy, the drummer asked him the title. Ingle, slurring his words, said “in-a-gadda-da-vida” and that’s what Bushy wrote down. Bushy showed what he had written to Ingle and they went with that as the title.

Either way you look at it Doug Ingle must have been pretty intoxicated when the song was recorded.