Richie Unterberger of AllMusic said the track "epitomized rockabilly at its prime in 1956 with its sharp guitar breaks, spare snare drums, fluttering echo, and Vincent's breathless, sexy vocals".

This phrase, or something very similar, was widely used in jazz circles in the 1940s, giving its name to the bebop style, and possibly being ultimately derived from the shout of "Arriba!

[3] The writing of the song is credited to Gene Vincent and his manager, Bill "Sheriff Tex" Davis.

Evidently[4] the song originated in 1955, when Vincent was recuperating from a motorcycle accident at the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Vincent himself sometimes claimed that he wrote the words inspired by the comic strip, "Little Lulu": "I come in dead drunk and stumble over the bed.

It was just very early days of rock’n’roll, so it was just such a thrill, and then I got back on the bus, went home and played it endlessly, and these memories, of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps singing Be-Bop-A-Lula will stay with me forever.

[citation needed] The original demo for the song, probably recorded at radio station WCMS, has never been located and is presumed lost.

The Everly Brothers released a version only two years after Vincent's, on their 1958 self-titled debut album,[17] and they included it as part of the setlist at their Royal Albert Hall reunion concert in 1983.

[32] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, George Harrison played a psychedelic Stratocaster called "Rocky", which bore on its face the one-word slogan "Bebopalula".

[33] The song is name-checked in the opening of Dire Straits' 1985 hit "Walk of Life" as one of the great "oldies, goldies".

Every time it comes on I switch up the thing, and I have the record still.” [35] Spinvis, a Dutch one-man music project, released his seventh album Be-Bop-a-Lula on April 7, 2023, named after this song.