Ding-a-ling Day

When:
🗓️ December 12

Where:
🌐 Everywhere

Since:
1971

Created by Franky Hyle in 1971
📞

Ding-a-ling Day is a time to ring up those you haven’t spoken to in ages, unless they’ve blocked your number.
So pick up the phone and spread some holiday cheer, …or just order a pizza!

Ding-a-ling Day was created in 1972 by Franky Hyle.
Franky placed an ad in the paper offering membership in the Ding-A-Ling Club for $1.
For this fee they would become an official member and receive a bumpersticker saying “Be a Bell Ringer”.
The purpose of the Ding-a-ling club was placing phone calls to lost friends and relatives on Ding-a-ling Day, which would be every year on December 12.
Because December is a great month for spreading some extra love.

“Ding-A-Ling” is also a bouncy 1960 song from Bobby Rydell.
More popular is the song “My Ding-A-Ling” written and recorded by Dave Bartholomew in 1952 which had quite the whimsical lyrics.

In 1972 the Bartholomew version was covered by Chuck Berry who scored an international hit with it.
Though some radio stations banned it, because they thought a song about a boy who loved to play with his “ding-a-ling” was “suggestive”.
It takes a quite dirty mind to think that way.
There was frankly nothing obscene to be found in the lyrics.
Hear it for yourself: