The Chicken Song

"The Chicken Song"
Single by Spitting Image
featuring The Wet Gits
from the album Spit in Your Ear
B-side "I've Never Met a Nice South African"
"Hello, You Must Be Going"
"We're Scared of Bob"
Released April 1986 (1986-04)
Format 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl
Recorded 1986
Genre Pop, Parody
Length 2:37 (7" version)
Label Central TV / Virgin
Writer(s) Music: Philip Pope
Lyrics: Rob Grant and Doug Naylor
Producer Philip Pope

"The Chicken Song" is a novelty song by the British parody/satire comedy TV programme Spitting Image. The nonsensical lyrics were written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor; the music was written by Philip Pope, who also produced the song.

The song was a parody of summer holiday disco songs such as "Agadoo" and "Do the Conga", which were in vogue during the mid 1980s. The song made specific reference to the group Black Lace, who performed those songs ("those two wet gits with the girly curly hair"). The song featured heavily during the 1986 series of Spitting Image, playing recurrently in the background, and being hummed by characters. At one stage, the puppet of Pope John Paul II played it on a banjolele. A subsequent release as a single reached number one in the official UK Singles Chart for three weeks in 1986.[1]

Contents

Song versions

On the Spit in Your Ear album, the "Celebrity Mega Mix" version of "The Chicken Song" was included, which features celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Tina Turner singing the lyrics. The 12" single of "The Chicken Song" featured the extended "12 hour version", which contains numerous random repetitions of the verses and chorus at times when the song appears to be over. When the track is actually finished and the stylus reaches the end of the run-out groove, the first bar of the song is constantly repeated in the final locked-groove in order to irritate the listener even further.

B-sides

On the B-side of the 7" and 12" singles was another popular song from the TV series, entitled "(I've Never Met) A Nice South African", which mocked the apartheid-era nation's inhabitants. The 12" single also contained "Hello, You Must Be Going", a parody of Phil Collins who seems as much concerned about his receding hairline as his failed relationship, and "We're Scared of Bob", a parody of the Band Aid / USA for Africa charity records with the various artists suggesting they're only making the record because they were too afraid to say no when Bob Geldof asked them - even the ones who shouldn't have been on the record because they weren't even pop singers, but Geldof had dialled a wrong number.

Track listings

7" vinyl

Side one
No. Title Lyrics Music Length
1. "The Chicken Song"   Rob Grant, Doug Naylor Philip Pope 2:37
Side two
No. Title Lyrics Music Length
1. "(I've Never Met) A Nice South African"   John Lloyd Peter Brewis 3:08

12" vinyl

Side one
No. Title Lyrics Music Length
1. "The Chicken Song (12 Hour Version)"   Rob Grant, Doug Naylor Philip Pope 6:59
Side two
No. Title Lyrics Music Length
1. "(I've Never Met) A Nice South African"   John Lloyd Peter Brewis 3:08
2. "Hello, You Must Be Going"   Ian Hislop, Nick Newman Philip Pope  
3. "We're Scared of Bob"   Rob Grant, Doug Naylor Philip Pope 2:50

Chart performance

chart (1986) peak
position
UK Singles Chart[1] 1
Dutch GfK Chart[2] 49
Irish Singles Chart[3] 1

References

  1. ^ a b "Chart Stats - Spitting Image - The Chicken Song". http://www.chartstats.com/songinfo.php?id=13365. Retrieved 26 February 2009. 
  2. ^ "dutchcharts.nl - Spitting Image - The Chicken Song". http://dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Spitting+Image&titel=The+Chicken+Song&cat=s. Retrieved 26 February 2009. 
  3. ^ "IrishCharts.ie search results". http://www.irishcharts.ie. Retrieved 26 February 2009. 
Preceded by
Rock Me Amadeus by Falco		 UK number one single
13 May 1986		 Succeeded by
Spirit in the Sky by Doctor and the Medics