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In addition to its musical quality, the song is remarkable as an instance of convergence. Although only a one-hit wonder, the recording was touched by, or touched, a large number of important people and musical trends, even down to a dispute over authorship.
Mickey was Mickey Baker[?], guitarist on dozens of rock and roll hits and many recordings, considered the "go to" session guitar player of the 1950s and early 1960s. Sylvia was Sylvia Vanderpool[?], formerly billed as Little Sylvia Vanderpool, who became in the 1980s the impresario behind Sugar Hill[?] records and a major force in the emergence of rap music. The song was written by Bo Diddley, but credited to his wife, allegedly to switch his royalties away from Chess records[?]. It seems likely, however, that another reason was to protect his royalties from Jody Williams[?], his former guitarist, who had developed the distinctive lead riff. Williams had recorded the riff earlier on a song called "Billie's Blues" for Billie Stewart[?]. Williams was never compensated and eventually the song, much more than just a riff, ended up being owned by Bo Diddley, Baker and Vanderpool. Buddy Holly adopted the riff and melody for his own "Words of Love".
In 1967, the duo Peaches and Herb[?] had Top 40 success with their own cover version of the song.
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