"Double Dutch" is a 1983 single by Malcolm McLaren. It is taken from his debut album Duck Rock. "Double Dutch" is the follow-up to his successful debut single, "Buffalo Gals", and reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, making it his highest-charting single release. The album version is a slight re-edit of the single, with part of the original middle eight moved to the end of the track. The song concerns the skipping game of the same name, with McLaren's narration mentioning several New York double dutch troupes by name, notably the Ebonettes, whose name is also used as a chant in the chorus.
Mbaqanga group, The Boyoyo Boys, took legal action against McLaren over the similarity of "Double Dutch" with their own hit "Puleng". After a lengthy legal battle in the UK the matter was settled out of court, with payment made to the South African copyright holders, songwriter Petrus Maneli and publisher Gallo Music, but Horn and Mclaren retained their songwriting credits.
The track was heavily sampled by British house music trio Dope Smugglaz on their 1999 track Double Double Dutch.
Famous quotes containing the words double and/or dutch:
“In a symbol there is concealment and yet revelation: here therefore, by silence and by speech acting together, comes a double significance.... In the symbol proper, what we can call a symbol, there is ever, more or less distinctly and directly, some embodiment and revelation of the Infinite; the Infinite is made to blend itself with the Finite, to stand visible, and as it were, attainable there. By symbols, accordingly, is man guided and commanded, made happy, made wretched.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Too nice is neighbor’s fool.”
—Common Dutch saying, trans by Johanna C. Prins.