Doris Day (song)

"Doris Day" is a song from 1982 by Dutch band Doe Maar. It was the title-track off their third album Doris Day en Andere Stukken and became their first top 10-hit.

Bass-player Henny Vrienten, lead-vocalist alongside pianist Ernst Jansz, wrote "Doris Day" as a complaint about TV-boredom (which includes the screening of a Doris Day-movie) best tackled by pressing the off-button and going out. The original lyrics also mentioned movie-expert Simon van Collem, but this was altered to "ein Wiener Operette" when he appeared to be the father of the band's new drummer Rene (1961).

"Doris Day" catapulted the otherwise thirtysomething Doe Maar into superstardom, but overexposure and creative exhaustion would split them up two years later. Vrienten, who went on to write TV- and movie-soundtracks, told Music Maker-magazine in 1985: "You can flush 'Doris Day' down the toilet anytime you like; it's the worst song I ever wrote. Rhyming for rhyming's sake, and stuff. And the worst thing of all is that it drew full crowd-participation every night".

Doe Maar reunited in 2000 for 25 shows including a record-breaking 16 nights at the Rotterdam Ahoy arena; "Doris Day" became a live staple again after its 1983-relegation to the encore-medley. The band staged further reunions since 2008; their headlining-performances at the 2012 Symphonica in Rosso-concert series mark the 30th anniversary of "Doris Day".