OK, so I went to Polish Fest in Milwaukee on Saturday with my niece. (Not as much fun as Irish Fest of course, but a good time). Anyway, as part of the festivities, we participated in what was called “Wisconsin’s Largest Chicken Dance”. Well, I participated - my 17 year old niece would have no part of it. It was fun in a very silly way, but the problem is ever since then I have had the #$@& Chicken Dance song stuck in my head! I’ve tried listening to trad, country, contemporary Christian, and the Beatles and it’s still there!!! I even caught myself walking down the hall at work starting to do the stupid little motions (fortunately no one else was in the hall at the time). I think I am slowing going insane…
Oh great, you evil people!!! I read this post while I was noodling on a whistle. I started playing darn song!! Now it won’t stop and my daughters standing here doing the dance!!!
Hey, Beth, maybe you already know this but the Chicken Dance was made popular by Bob Kames from Milwaukee. He owned a piano store on the South side for many years, probably the number one piano store in Milwaukee when I lived there back in the eighties. Rumors that the original title was “dat dere Chicken Dance hey” are untrue.
I recently went to a large birthday party mostly filled up with white people between 30 and 50. There was a dance. We had the chicken dance. We had all kinds of dorky white-people-dancing dances.
I sat for awhile next to a very cool. African American guy. One of the few in the party. He and I watched the white people dance. I turned to him and said, in my dorkiest midwestern accent
“Caucasians sure know how to party. Soon they are quite likely to tear the roof off the sucker.”
And he responded, with a similarly affected white-guy dork voice,
“Yes. I do believe they are proceeding to turn this mother out.”
Well, I’m glad some of you are now sharing in my pain
I’ve heard the Chicken Dance countless times before (even at a wedding in Ireland), but it’s never stuck in my head like this. It is really bad. The only thing that was worse was when I had the B part of a jig that I was learning at a music workshop stuck in my head for weeks. Just the B part. Which was rather repetitive to begin with. Over and over and over again. I won’t name the jig because I’m afraid I’ll get that next.
Resolutely NOT playing the tune given.
now I’m hearing the thing too