'Tis the season for bridal bliss. 'Tis also the season for the accompanying reception dance. And what's a wedding reception without that most unique of all marriage celebration dance numbers: The Chicken Dance.
You know the drill. Polka starts, beak-quacking hand gestures, flapping, butt shimmying, and clapping ensue. A fun time is had by all (especially if there's an open bar).
What you may not know is that:
1. This oom-pah song's origins rest with a Swiss according player named Werner Thomas who wrote it, most accounts say, in the 1950s. It originally was called the Duck Dance.
2. It is NOT German or Austrian, despite the images its roll-out-the-barrel-ish feelings it might conjure up.
3. A fellow named Norm Edlebeck, who was a bandleader from Wisconsin, introduced America to the Chicken Dance on TV's PM Magazine in 1982.
4. More than 140 versions of it have been recorded worldwide, including Walt Disney Records, together making more than 40,000,000 records (or whatever those wacky kids call 'em these days). I'd like to point out that, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles' Hey Jude has sold fewer than 10 million copies.
5. Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil served as the Grand Marshall of the World's Largest Chicken Dance at the Cincinnati Oktoberfest in 2004, and the event was dubbed the No. 1 Least Metal Moment of all time by VH1.
6. In Italian, the song is titled "Il ballo del qua qua." Cracks me up.
7. Chicken Dance didn't make the cut in this year's Top 200 Wedding Dance Songs as compiled by DiscJockeys.com. The top three were Dancing Queen by Abba, Hey Ya by Outkast and You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC.
More than you wanted to know? I've heard this Chicken song more times than I ever wanted to hear it. It's still wildly popular worldwide, though, going strong for about 50 years.
That's longer than most marriages last.
You know the drill. Polka starts, beak-quacking hand gestures, flapping, butt shimmying, and clapping ensue. A fun time is had by all (especially if there's an open bar).
What you may not know is that:
1. This oom-pah song's origins rest with a Swiss according player named Werner Thomas who wrote it, most accounts say, in the 1950s. It originally was called the Duck Dance.
2. It is NOT German or Austrian, despite the images its roll-out-the-barrel-ish feelings it might conjure up.
3. A fellow named Norm Edlebeck, who was a bandleader from Wisconsin, introduced America to the Chicken Dance on TV's PM Magazine in 1982.
4. More than 140 versions of it have been recorded worldwide, including Walt Disney Records, together making more than 40,000,000 records (or whatever those wacky kids call 'em these days). I'd like to point out that, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles' Hey Jude has sold fewer than 10 million copies.
5. Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil served as the Grand Marshall of the World's Largest Chicken Dance at the Cincinnati Oktoberfest in 2004, and the event was dubbed the No. 1 Least Metal Moment of all time by VH1.
6. In Italian, the song is titled "Il ballo del qua qua." Cracks me up.
7. Chicken Dance didn't make the cut in this year's Top 200 Wedding Dance Songs as compiled by DiscJockeys.com. The top three were Dancing Queen by Abba, Hey Ya by Outkast and You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC.
More than you wanted to know? I've heard this Chicken song more times than I ever wanted to hear it. It's still wildly popular worldwide, though, going strong for about 50 years.
That's longer than most marriages last.
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