His most famous songs have only one chord and clomp along as if not really doing doodley squat (which is one possible source of his stage name). Wikipedia calls his signature beat a rumba, clave or hambone. Ben Ratliff writing in The Times described it well as bomp-ba-domp-ba-domp, ba-domp-domp (the same transcription as in the All Music Guide), or a syncopated beat of three strokes, a rest and then two strokes.

It is a honking, shuffling sound, a thud suggestive of serious nocturnal slamming or a locomotive getting up to speed. It is the sound of the holler and slide of Chicago blues hardening its veins into rock.

Listening to it I hear “I Want Candy”, The Smiths' “How Soon is Now?” and the Hand Jive. Wikipedia also mentions among others The Stooges' “1969” and the Who's “Magic Bus.” And of course, Buddy Holly famously reused the beat for his hit “Not Fade Away.” (Here is a collage by Mike Stark of derivatives, including Springsteen's “She's The One” and U2's “Desire.”)

Diddley played a square guitar which he built himself from Gretsch parts and tuned to an open E chord. He should be remembered not only for the pounding beat he popularized but for the seductively wobbly tremolo sound he got using one of the first effects boxes, the sinuous sonic equivalent of air shimmering in the desert heat. As this 1966 clip shows he also had a female guitarist, Norma-Jean Wofford, playing a second guitar, which helped produce an early version of the layered effect that Johnny Marr or My Bloody Valentine would later create in the studio with obsessive multi-tracking.

The two songs here are lyrically based on “Hush Little Baby” and “Old MacDonald” respectively, with a healthy dose of egoism thrown in. His two acknowledged classics are “I’m a Man” and “Who Do You Love” (“Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind/ Just 22 and I don't mind dying”) but the jukebox has ruined them for me, while the less known “You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover” (link) is fresher and more subtle.

In 1955 he got on Ed Sullivan but played his own song instead of the country standard by Tennessee Ernie Ford that had been agreed on, and as a result was chewed out and banned from the airwaves for ten years. In his long life he had boxed, studied classical violin and worked two years as a deputy sheriff in New Mexico after his fame had faded. Clean living got him to a natural death at the ripe old age of 79, but not without some bitterness at not receiving what he felt was his due.