Fact #168879

Lee Dorman (bassist, Iron Butterfly) : Doug (Ingle) wrote the lyrics, and he was writing about 'In the Garden of Eden.' When the band got a hold of the song, it was just a two-minute form. We started telling this story of the creation, in the biblical sense, of man, and ergo, took some liberties with playing tribal music and mid-Eastern music. We didn't say, 'Let's write a 17-minute song.' It just happened as we rehearsed and new ideas were put into it. 

Doug had been writing for two days and he was pretty spaced out and he had had some, shall we say, 'refreshments.' Liquid refreshments. By being in that zone, plus being tired and ready to fall asleep, he said 'In The Garden of Eden' but it came out 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.' Ron just happened to go into his room and write it out phonetically. So when the smoke cleared the next day, everybody just went, 'Yeah, why not? That's cool.' That's how cosmic that was.

Shadow Morton (producer) : It was The Long Island Sound they were looking for when they came to me. I wasn't too crazy about the band and I was looking to retire again, but I love a challenge so I took the job. I really wasn't all that involved in the track - I was more involved in the bar down the street - but, periodically, I would check out their progress and push them along. The bass player couldn't get what I wanted so I pushed him away from the rest of the band and sang the part I wanted into his ear. I didn't figure anything would happen with the track but who knew? The Iron Butterfly had a big hit with that song, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. I never cared for it.
(Source : not known)