This week in 1968, San Diego psychedelic, hard rock band, Iron Butterfly released their second album, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” which sold a record, at the time, 8 million copies in its first year and a reputed 30 million, to date, worldwide. The song was voted the 24^th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1 in 2009 and also contained the 10^th greatest drum solo of all time, as voted WatchMojo.

“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” was planned as a love song to Adam and Eve tentatively titled “In the Garden of Eden” but when vocalist and song writer Doug Ingle, sang the song after drinking a whole freaking gallon of Red Mountain wine, he slurred the words so badly that drummer, Ron Bushy, transcribing the lyrics, mis-interpreted “In the Garden of Eden” as what became one of the great rock songs, ever.

In the 1995 episode “The Simpsons – Bart Sells His Soul”, Bart pranks his church into singing “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” for the opening hymn which he labeled as “In the Garden of Eden” by I. Ron Butterfly in the sheet music handout.

Source: Simpson Wiki. Watch Mojo. Graphic: Album cover, Atco Records.