I’m angrier than a blogger with no story ideas over this review, because this song never attained the fame that it deserved here in the United States. This week, we go back in time, all the way back to 1994, to a song called Dooper Than Doop, by Dutch artists Doop. I don’t know how they got their name, because “doop” is the Dutch word for baptism. But no matter. The song is all that counts!
This video is so simple yet entertaining. It’s based on another of Doop’s song, called simply Doop. And then there’s a reprisal version of Doop as well. They don’t exactly get points for originality or variety, but this week’s pick is still worth it.
This week’s pick relies heavily on what appears to be stock black and white footage of dancers dancing to music that appears to match the video.
Of course, the first of the two clips could have been filmed in 1994 and simply filmed in black and white. The second clip looks to genuinely been from maybe the 1940’s. There’s no definitive answer to those questions that I can find.
In my pursuit of a comment from either of the group’s producers, Ferry Ridderhof and Peter Garnefski I came across offline websites and email addresses that bounce back. I would like to hear from them in regards to this video. They are very hard to find.
However, Ridderhof is currently on the faculty of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he teaches various music-related classes.
It took some doing, but me being very good at tracking people (I used to be a skip tracer!) down came in handy, because I found a website that’s online and an email address that hasn’t bounced back, so hopefully he’ll comment. It’d just be nice to hear from one of the song’s creators.
Dooper Than Doop is an energetic song and the video matches that vibe. It’s such a simple video that it’s complicated!
According to the website that I found, run by Ridderhof himself, Doop stayed on the charts at the #1 position in the United Kingdom for three weeks. Ridderhof and Garnefski performed on the famous Top of The Pops show three separate times.
The Doop songs are all based on the music of the 1920’s. The original Doop song made it to the #2 position on Billboard’s dance chart here in the United States and did rather well on the pertinent charts around the world.
If you’re looking for a unique dance tune that’s high energy, this would be the one.