"You Can't Sit Down" was originally recorded as in instrumental in 1959 as "Can't Sit Down" by The Bim Bam Boos on Dasher Records catalogue number D-500 and credited to Dasher - Muldrow; it featured Philip Upchurch on guitar and Cornell Muldrow on organ.
1963: vocal added version, The Dovells / the phrase "hip hop"
The Dovells added dancing themed lyrics and vocals to their cover of the song and was released in 1963. Although unrelated to specifically describing the much later music genre of the same name the song has the first known instance of the phrase "hip hop" in a recording, the lyric "...you gotta slop, bop, flip flop, hip hop, never stop".[3] the song reached a peak at #3 on Billboard on April 27th of 1963 and charted for 14 weeks.[4]
The song lyrics also mention in South Street in Philadelphia. Their labelmates on Cameo-Parkway Records), the Orlons, released a song in the same year called "South Street" and in 1964 the two songs appeared on an album called "Golden Hits", comprising half Dovells songs and half Orlons songs in addition to their previous releases.[5]
Other versions
The later better-known recording of "You Can't Sit Down" by Phil Upchurch and his Combo (Upchurch, Muldrow, David Brooks, Mac Johnson and Joe Haddick) was re-recorded in New Orleans in 1960 and released in 1961 by Boyd Records (Boyd 3398) of Oklahoma with distribution by United Artists Records.[6] Upchurch's own version reached No.29 on the Billboard pop charts.[7]
This was followed by the vocal cover version by the Dovells that reached No.3 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in 1963. It is based, at least in part, on the gospel song "Sit Down Servant".[citation needed] This version also reached No.10 on the Hot R&B Singles chart[8]
^Porter, James (2001). "The Hardy Boys". In Cooper, Kim; Smay, David (eds.). Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth. Los Angeles: Feral House. pp. 211–213.