Today’s long-forgotten classic song of the day is “How Do You Do” by Mouth and MacNeal. This precious little track was released in 1971 in Europe and a year later in the U.S., where it hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. It did even better elsewhere, hitting #1 in Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland. (It peaked one shy of the top spot in Canada.)
The reason that “How Do You Do” (written by Hans van Hemert and Harry van Hoof) was released first and did better in Europe is that Mouth and MacNeal were from the Netherlands. Willem Duyn (AKA Big Mouth) and Sjoukje van’t Spijker (AKA Maggie MacNeal), each with previous experience on the Dutch music scene, got together in 1971 to perform as a duo. They had a ton of hits in Netherlands and surrounding countries, but only hit it big in the U.S. with “How Do You Do,” which sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. That made Mouth and MacNeal seem like a one-hit wonder, even as they churned out hit after hit overseas.
In 1974, Mouth and MacNeal represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “I See a Star,” coming in third behind that year’s winner ABBA and their huge international hit, “Waterloo.” The duo split up later that year, with both performers pursuing solo careers.
Maggie MacNeal represented the Netherlands again in the 1980 Eurovision contest, finishing third that year. She’s still performing today at age 73. Willem Duyn passed away in 2004, aged 67.
And here’s your daily bonus, Mouth and MacNeal having a jolly old time lip-syncing “How Do You Do” on German TV in 1972. It always looked like they were having fun!
