Album: Hanky Panky (1966)
Charted: 38 1
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  • My baby does the hanky panky
    Yeah, my baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    Hey, my baby does the hanky panky

    My baby does the hanky panky (yeah)
    Yeah, my baby does the hanky panky
    Hey, my baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    Hey, my baby does the hanky panky

    I saw her walking on down the line (yeah)
    You know I saw her for the very first time
    A pretty little girl standing all alone
    Hey baby, baby, can I take you home?
    I never saw her, never really saw her (oh, yeah)

    My baby does the hanky panky
    Yeah, my baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky

    Ah, let's move it out, let's go
    (Wooh-hoo, woo)
    Oh, yeah
    (Woo, yeah)

    I saw her walking on down the line (yeah)
    You know I saw her for the very first time
    A pretty little girl standing all alone
    Hey baby, baby, can I take you home?
    I never saw her, never really saw her

    Okay, we're low on time, hold on

    Hey, my baby does the hanky panky
    Yeah, my baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky

    Let's knock 'em dead one time, let's go

    Yeah, my baby does the hanky panky
    My baby does the hanky panky
    Yeah, my baby does the hanky panky Writer/s: Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 36

  • Rick From Pittsburgh from Lagrange, Ca.George taught band at Etna Jr High(part of Shaler Area school district) in the early 1970's for one year, probably 1974. He left because he was doing jingles for commericals and could make 10x what he was making as a band teacher.
  • George from Vancouver, CanadaI'm amazed they got away with this in that era of fustability & violent state-driven censorship! Today, if you heard a song that repeated "My girl is DTF" 23 times nobody would blink. . . but "baby" might call out the feminist war brigade.

    I think the fact he speaks of "never saw her" must refer to her being under the sheets with him in the dark (the only way people had sex back then, supposedly) to whomever claimed this is only about a dance of the '50s.
  • Mavis from Upper Great LakesFascinating thread! I heard the song today and came here to learn more about it.
  • J from Usaexcellent song in the pop rock almost bubblegummy vein
  • Larry Miller from Reading PaGeorge Magura was my friend and roommate at St. Vincent's in Latrobe. We had a small group of guys who hung out together, including some of the Raconteurs. I have a lot of wonderful memories of George including a rather awkward period where we shared the same girlfriend.
    The formation of the band happened quickly while I was MIA from college while on a tour with another group in Ohio.
    George talked about his ambition which was to play the oboe for the Pitts. Philharmonic orchestra and teach music on the side.
    After college, we just lost touch and no one seemed to know what happened to George.
    I see from a posting that George has a daughter!
    I would love to hear from her and share some memories.
  • Camille from Toronto, OhInteresting to see the Pittsburgh connection and comments from those who live there. I am an hour away and visit often. I was only 8 when this song hit #1 and yet I remember it so well. To this day, I have no idea what it means. The lyrics really make no sense and yet it makes sense that the hanky panky was a dance. I'm sure it could have the ever-popular double meaning, i.e., hanky panky being slag for having sex. No one has said it's about drugs! Maybe a first on songfacts comments!
  • Moanin' Lisa from Chillicothe Mo.This is a cool, simple, rockin' song. In the Sixties, I loved Tommy James & The Shondells' hits. Most of the kids at my high school were into The Beatles or Motown. No one seemed to like the early bubblegum rock, but me. Then TJ & S caught on & they had several big hits. Hanky Panky is simple & "groooovy" to dance to. In "66, I recall it getting up to #1. When this song was at #1, I recall me & some friends went to a high schooll dance & we danced to "Hanky Panky" and several big other chart hits, then we went to a local carnival & rode the ferris wheel. Then one of my friends got sick & vomited out of the cart when it was up high. She lost her balance & fell out of the cart 50 feet to the ground into a crowd! She wasn't even hurt. We all went back to the dance & resumed dancing to the "Hanky Panky." Ahhh, what memories! (hahaha!)
  • Allison from United StatesI read through the song facts and was surprised that no one mentioned the fact that The Hanky Panky was a 50's dance and the song is not a reference to sex.
  • Carol Cooley from Joliet, IllinoisGood morning! I do have one question for anyone who might know... I see that Juraj was 47 when he passed. What happened? Did he become sick, or was there an accident, or... ??? 47 is pretty young. Thank you in advance if you can tell me.
  • Rotunda from Tulsa, OkBack in '66 I bought the single when it first hit #1. It was indeed a fun song & pure rock & roll. It was on the charts when I was a sophomore in college. Rock & roll was changing that year, due to a lot of influences. So much was going on in the U.S., as well as the music world. But it's this song that brings back good memories or good friends that loved to dance to stuff like this. Rock on.
  • Carol from Joliet, IlHello! I am so glad to read all these comments regarding George Magura of TJ and the Shondells fame. I admired him alot; seemed very talented and intelligent. I still have my Hanky Panky album, and on the back it reads that he "plays anything you can name." My grandparents all lived in and around Uniontown, PA, and I'd read that George was from Greenburg, PA. I remember one summer I tried to look him up when on one of our many family trips to that region. Never had success finding him. It seemed that so soon he wasn't with the band any more. I like the song "Cleo's Mood" on that album, and I imagine that was George on the Rickenbacher and/or clavicle on that song. I found it touching to know he played and sang "Ave Maria" for his father as a Christmas gift. To all his family over in Pozdiŝovce, Slovakia, and here in the US, God bless you. I am so sorry to know that George has gone from us - thank you for all the great music, Juraj! (I'd love to hear more of his stories too.) There is now the vocal recording group Perpetuum Jazzile from Slovenia, nice to listen to. Rest in Peace, Juraj!!
  • Michael from Illinois, IlWho played that rave-up guitar solo? God that was cool
  • Angel from Pittsburgh, PaOne of my mother's sisters just told me about this website. George (Juraj) was my father. It is so cool to see a video from that time and people's comments after all these years! I remember being at the studio with him and met some people from a bunch of different bands he was in--Dave and Don for sure--but I was pretty little. I might not have been born if not for this song, right? Is there any way to send messages through this website? I would love to hear a few more stories...
  • Matthew from Toronto, OnPure crap. Barry & Greenwich explain it away as just a "B side" that they had to dash off in 5 minutes. Monotonous, nauseating delivery. Good for dancing, they say. Maybe; like disco. And Dave Marsh picks it as #911 of his top 1001 songs. Go figure.
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, Sc@Teresa from Belgium:

    I have really come to enjoy those Greenwichh?Berry songs. Including the ones which they worked on with Phil Spector. In fact, I recognized you because your the one who writes about being a Spector fan. And I didn't mean he was a bad producer when I wrote about the version of Beatles songs he produced vs. their non-spector produced counterparts. I know it may have come across that way.
  • Beth from Hartford, CtTo the Maguras: Imagine my surprise to find my surname associated with Tommy James and the Shondells! My grandfather was named Juraj Magura (born 1883 in what is now called Pozdiŝovce, Slovakia); he was from the clan whose nickname is "Vojačok," which means "Little Soldier." The songs "Hanky Panky" and "Crimson and Clover" are certainly part of the soundtrack of my life, so I am pleased to learn that a Magura had been involved in the making of this music. Stephanie from SC, Marianne in KY and Juraj in Bratislava, do you know which clan of Maguras you are descended from? I visited my grandfather's nephew this year (2011) in Pozdiŝovce, and he (also named Juraj) confirmed that our branch of the Maguras had been earthenware potters back many generations. So art is in the lineage, and so was singing...as they worked at the potter's wheel. For awhile, my Granddad lived in Etna, PA.
  • Sabrina from Corvallis, OrWhen I was a girl growing up in the 70s, my friends and I sang this song in this way "yo mama did the hanky panky, that's how she got that little baby.." LOL
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScIt's been a long time since I've been on here, so those of you who knew George, I'm just now getting back to replying:

    @Juraj: My dad still keeps up with anna and that side of the family, and while I know she's back in the US, I'm not sure how she's doing except that it seems that she hasn't been doing well recently. I saw that it said you're from Bratislava. I wonder how many other people would be familiar with that. My parents, both Maguras, visited there in the early 1980's.

    @Marrianne: I think I've met you at family functions, but the Magura family is so big, that it is a little hard to keep everyone straight.

    @Don and Dave: Did you two know each other? It was interesting to here from you two about what George did before and after the Shondells.

    @All of you:
    I've heard how talented and nice George was. My aunt Barbara, who is my dad's sister, met him and said he was very nice. It's nice to see you all. I wasn't sure I'd get any comments.
  • Don from Pittsburgh, PaInteresting to see comments on George Magura. I worked at a studio and production company in Pittsburgh in the early 70's and George (Juraj)was our arranger. The last I heard of him was that he was working for John Williams (Star Wars) as an assistant in LA.
    Juraj was wonderfully talented fellow. One night at the end of a session, he had me record him playing piano and singing "Ave Maria". While I was making a dub of it for him, I asked what it was for. He said " I'm sending it to my father for a Christmas present. It will make him cry"
  • Dave from Cullman, AlAmazing! I went to high school (Elkhart, Indiana) with the piano player in that local "Spinners" band--Tommy Estok. He had dropped out by the time Tommy Jackson/James would have heard them, and I never heard from him again.
  • Dave from Pittsburgh, PaI played with George Magura in two bands in the early 1970s in Pittsburgh -- Three Rivers Blues Band and Pyewacket. George was multi-instrumetalist -- guitar, bass, keyboards, reeds and probably others, as he taught music in the public schools while in those bands. He also produced records and commercials. George told me that he played bass on "I Think We're Alone Now" just before he was fired from the group. There's at least one video of George playing Rickenbacker guitar behind Tommy on Youtube, but I don't know what instrument he played primarily in the Shondells. A couple of the other Shondells played in bands around Pittsburgh at the same time George & I were in Pyewacket, but I've forgotten the names. George passed some time ago, but he was an intelligent, funny, talented guy.
  • Teresa from Mechelen, BelgiumOn August 26 2009 Ellie Greenwich died of an heart attack. As a Phil Spector's fan I know all those beautiful songs Spector has written with Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. RIP Ellie and thank you for your talent.
  • Reed from New Ulm, MnLove that old vibrato arm on the guitar----catchy little hook.
  • Bill from Pittsburgh, PaI played with George Magura (or Juraj) in Pittburgh with a few bands. The "groove-U" - and also in "Q" (he was a sideman), and played clavinet on our album dancin man. I joined the group called the sonics, with Mike Vale and Eddie for a very short time, who later became the racconteurs, and they were picked up to be the shondells at the sunset lounge in the irwin area outside pittsburgh. George played sax, piano, and a little guitar in the bands we played together in. He was also a songwriter & arranger. A delightful character was George! I remember some of his stories about his short time with the shondells.
  • Juan from Buenos Aires, ArgentinaThere's another song called "Hanky Panky" by Chicago
  • Juraj from Bratislava, EuropeStefanie, George was my mother's cousin. His mother Anna lived for some months with us (her sister's family) in Slovakia in early 1990's. I had no chance to meet him or listen to his music much. Yet, Hanky Panky is great song and it's fine to read about George's family here. Juraj
  • Marianne from Lexington, KyStephanie, George Magura was my uncle. My mom is his sister and I find it fascinating that you were on here talking about him. He was incredibly talented and is very missed in our family. I too did not know him all that well. Nice to talk to you...Marianne
  • Teresa from Mechelen, BelgiumTommy James didn't write this song; it's written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich.
  • Lorelei from San Diego, Ca"My baby does the hanky panky" are unforgettable lyrics but I think have a sexual connotation as well. Tommy James might have been suggesting something else while writing this song.
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScAfter my last post, I talked to my dad, I foundout that George was in the group that Tommy James chose to perform "Hanky Panky" with him. George was one of the original founders, but he didn't stay in the group for its tenure.
  • George from Richmond, VaAny Tommy James song makes me thing of smoking weed, those were the days my friends, I thought they'd never end...........
  • Teresa from Mechelen, Belgium"My baby does the Hanky Panky ...", a song of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich that I like very much, it remembers me my schooltime. When I listened the first time Phil Spector's cd called
    "Back to Mono" I realised how many songs are written by Spector/Barry/Greenwich. It surely was/is a supergood songwriting team.
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScI'm not sure what instrument George Played when he was in the Shondells, but he was apparently a very tallented guy, who could play quite a few of them.
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScYou guys might not believe this but here goes. My dad's cousin George Magura was in this group. I found out when I was about eight years old, and I first heard Hanky Panky on a vinyl, and the copy of the album it was on was given to my dad by George. George had been dead for awhile, so I never got to know him, but I have the same last name as he did. my last name is Magura too.
  • Mike from New Point, VaSomewhere, I have a copy of Neil Diamond doing it on the Bang label.
  • Fred from Summit, NeThe song was FIRST recorded and released by the Summits (before the Raindrops) for the Hanover label. (Ellie Greenwich has confirmed this). It was soon afterwards issued on Rust Records, right about when the Raindrops "That Boy John" was becoming popular.
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