Kung Fu Fighting

Infobox Single
Name = Kung Fu Fighting
Artist = Carl Douglas


Released = 1974
Producer = Biddu Appaiah
Length = 03:13
Genre = Disco
Chart position =
* #1 (Billboard Hot 100)
* #1 (UK Singles Chart)
Label = 20th Century Records
This single = "Kung Fu Fighting"
Next single = "Dance the Kung Fu"|

"Kung Fu Fighting" is a song written and performed by Carl Douglas and Vivian Hawke. It was released as a single in 1974, at the cusp of a chopsocky film craze, and quickly rose to the top of British and American charts. The song also is famous for its use of the quintessential Oriental Riff--a short musical phrase that is used to signify Asian culture.

It originally was meant to be a B-side to "I Want to Give You My Everything" by Brooklyn songwriter Larry Weiss, and was recorded in the last ten minutes of his studio time. [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4572 Kung Fu Fighting, SongFacts.com] ] [Bronson, Fred. "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits." 4th ed. New York: Billboard Books, 1997. 385.] This song has been featured prominently in pop culture including Mott's Clamato advertisements.

Douglas states that his inspiration to write the song was affected by three factors--He had seen a kung fu movie, later visited a jazz concert by Oscar Peterson, and was suffering from side-effects of pain killers (Douglas had injured his foot playing football)Fact|date=March 2007. Another account gives his inspiration simply as seeing two kids in London doing kung fu moves.

The song remains one of the most fondly remembered one-hit wonders. "Kung Fu Fighting" also was rated #100 in VH1's 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders. It appeared at number one in the UK's Channel 4's "Top 10 One Hit Wonders" list in 2000 and again in the station's "50 Greatest One Hit Wonders" poll in 2006. It also was included in another 2006 programme for Channel 4, "Bring Back ... the one-hit Wonders", for which Carl Douglas performed the song in a live concert.

Cover versions

British dance act Bus Stop reached #8 on the U.K. charts with their 1998 re-mix single of "Kung Fu Fighting", which sampled the original vocals by Carl Douglas and added rap verses. This version was used in an episode of One Tree Hill.

The song was very popular in Jamaica, and there were several cover versions by reggae artists including Lloyd Parks, The Maroons, The Cimarons, and Pluto Shervington. [ [http://www.roots-archives.com/search/?query=kung%20fighting&mode=song Search for "kung fighting", Roots-Archives.com] ]

There is also a version performed by punk/grunge band The Foo Fighers.

Jerry Lo (DJ Jerry, Taiwan) also produced a remake of the song [http://res.5k3g.com/up/tring/files/12349.wma] .

Cee-lo Green and Jack Black did a cover of Kung Fu Fighting for the movie "Kung Fu Panda".

Use in film, television & video games

The song has been used in several movies since 1990 where there is a light-hearted spirit to the martial arts, including "", "Shaolin Soccer", "Little Manhattan", "Epic Movie", "City of God","Beverly Hills Ninja", "Sin noticias de Dios", "Super Mario Bros. Super Show!", "Bowfinger", "Kung Fu Panda", and "Rush Hour 3", in which Chris Tucker sings the song after successfully defeating a group of Triads in martial combat. It also has been used in trailers for the films "Kung Fu Panda", Disney's "", & "Kung Fu Hustle", and a cover by Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black is used over the end credits of "Kung Fu Panda".

In the "Scrubs" episode "My Day at the Races", "Kung Fu Fighting" was playing while Turk and The Todd fought a large group of "surgical ninjas", who all were trying to retrieve the attending surgeon's briefcase to get on his good side. Also, in the episode "His Story", J.D. is seen singing the song on the elevator just before it stops working. It also was used in a humorous television commercial for the U.S. insurance company Geico in which the company's mascot (a talking gecko) breaks into the song while on a road trip, to the initial chagrin and disbelief of the other passengers, who in the end start singing along.

The song also appeared in early versions of Dance Dance Revolution and appears in the video games "Boogie" for the Wii system and "Kung Fu Chaos" for the Xbox system. The song is featured on the soundtrack of a "ZooYork" skate podcast filmed on their latest trip to China.

Influence on pop culture

"Kung Fu Fighting" is heard today on most radio oldies stations and even on Radio Disney. The song was performed live by Carl Douglas on the Dutch absurdity show "Discohoek".

References

External links

* [http://www.superseventies.com/sw_kungfufighting.html Billboard article]