25 years after the release of the film, "Shout" is still the most popular audience participation number at parties. People still act out the scene from the toga party. As a DJ, I have had 2,000 people simultaneously crawl down on the ground in the middle of the street and raise their hands and yell "Shout" at the appropriate times, the whole bit. The DJ, the conduit, can feel the power flow as people are united into a unanimous, joyous unit.
Essentially then, Animal House is a naturalistic musical with "Shout" as its centerpiece.
4. Animal House's second-most memorable scene is the one in the black bar, again featuring Otis Day and the Knights. In this one, Otis isn't so happy to see the lads as they stumble in to where they shouldn't oughta. The scene perceptively points out that a performer must wear many faces, one for each crowd that he entertains. This is not the Otis Day of the fraternity party. This is the Otis Day that is a black man performing for other black people. They do an original written for the film (by Mark Davis) entitled "Shama Lama Ding Dong" (not to be confused with "Rama Lama Ding Dong" by the Edsels). The song is an excellent R&B finger snapper with a Fats Domino feel.
Another remarkable tribute to the power of this film and to its impact upon popular culture, is the Otis Day phenomenon. Otis Day and the Knights were not a real group. By now that should be obvious. They were a group of actors portraying musicians. Mark Davis assembled the musicians to record "Shout" and "Shama Lama Ding Dong."
DeWayne Jesse, the actor portraying Otis Day, had nothing to do with the recordings. As "Otis Day" he was only onscreen for six minutes. And yet the impact of those six minutes was so great that there arose a demand for Otis Day and the Knights in the real world: the Otis Day and the Knights as seen in the movie. This created a problem. How to reconcile the appearance with the sound? Fortunately, as his manager put it when I booked Otis Day and the Knights into high school dances and frat parties, "It's a damn good thing that DeWayne can sing."
Jesse assembled a backup band and hit the college circuit as "Otis Day and the Knights." He was Otis Day, and he sounded enough like Williams (the singer on the soundtrack) to make it work. DeWayne made a good living as Otis for many years thereafter. Every college wanted to prove it could live up to the Animal House tradition, and Otis Day had to be there to sanction the event - like the NCAA. There was even an Otis Day and the Knights album, produced not by Davis, the rightful heir to this good fortune, but by George Clinton! It failed, but the VHS tape of the live Otis show is much better.
![Otis!, My Man! [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HG9Z4BRGL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - brad
Hello Eric,
There was a movie in the late 70's or early 80's where a piano player was singing "The Gang Bang Song."
ex "Knock, Knock. Who's there? Tijuana. Tijuana who? Tijuana bring your mother to the gang bang." It was hilarious, and he had so many knock knock jokes. Any idea what movie that was, or who sang the song?
Thanks,
Brad
2 - Doug
Hey Brad,
The movie with "The Gang Bang Song" is "Busting Loose". It was like a "Porky's" type movie with Tom Cruise in it.Pretty funny movie.
Later,
Doug
3 - Eric Olsen
Sorry I missed that Brad. Thanks for helping out Doug!
4 - Doug
I got the wrong movie earlier. It's not "Busting Loose", it's "Losin' It".
Sorry,
Doug
5 - Eric Olsen
now all is right with the world
6 - Eric Olsen
by the way, I think this is a conceptually brilliant post that has been appallingly ignored, only to be resurrected by an inquiry into gang bangs.
7 - Kirby Junge
Hey, back in the eighties Jesse appeared at out college (Central Oklahoma) but he was backed by what was called the Animal House Band. Anyways, he was made an Honorary Initiate of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity.
8 - Panama Jack
I just saw Animal House on a T V network replay and realized that their is a "bridge" to the Otis Day and the Knights Shama Lama Ding Dong. It appears once with vocals and later in the song as an instrumental. It is the classical 4th chord to 4th chord minor, etc.
I have performed this tune numerous times without the "bridge" but would like to include it.
Can you locate a version of the song with the bridge including the words, etc? Thanks
9 - Eric Olsen
does the soundtrack version have the bridge?
10 - Giuseppe
what is the name of the song that replaced wonderfull world of sam cooke in the new dvd version?
11 - Eric Olsen
I hadn't noticed it was replaced - what part of the movie is it?
12 - Eric Dungan
Correction on #7, it's not "The Dexter Lake Club", it's the "Depth of the Lake Club". Check out the sign as the Deltas drive into and walk into the club.
13 - Eric Schelkopf
Maybe DeWayne could sing at one time, but he can't now. I just attended his show in St. Charles, and I had to leave because his "singing" was literally hurting my ears.
14 - Eric Olsen
well, the soundtrack WAS recorded 27 years ago - I haven't heard him live since the mid-'80s, when he sounded pretty good and put on a ripping show
15 - john Holley
Eric, I'm trying to find out what the obscure piece of music is that Otter uses to seduce Mrs. Wermer in his pad during Toga Party. He turns it on from the wall as he is adjusting the lights. It's totally bossa-nova feeling and wondered if you had any idea! I must own it! Thanks for you help and your blog! Best, John
16 - Bill
Wow. Amazing "analysis" of the impact this movie has had on the American college scene in the past 25 years. Now, as an ancient 45 year old ;-) there's no movie more fond to me than Animal House. Searching the internet for the soundtrack, I found your article. Many thanks! I thought your ideas on why "Shout" is so powerful were right on the money. There's no other feeling of connection with friends and celebration of life than in the times in my life when I've been down on the floor gatoring with my friends. Thank you Eric. Awesome artticle!!
17 - js
no, it is indeed the Dexter Lake Club there is a big neon sign on the roof.
I saw Otis Day and the Knights twice, once in the middle of campus at USC, and again at SC he joined the Trojan Marching band to sing Shout at a football game backed by the 100+ member marching band and for an audience of about 90,000 at the LA Memorial Coleseum.
18 - q
What is that song/soundtrack played when they were making their getaway from the black bar and smashing most (if not all) of the cars in the parking lot with theirs? ("Lay it down"?) I can't find it listed anywhere.