History of the Chicken Dance

History

• "The Chicken Dance" was hatched as an instrumental tune in the late 1950s by Swiss accordion player Werner Thomas. Thomas, who took care of a lot of ducks and geese at the time, called it "Der Ententanz" (The Duck Dance). Thomas started to perform the song at his restaurant, and, according to the Old World website, got instant reactions. "People spontaneously began to move with the melody," the website said.

Evolution

• As the song grew in popularity, the dance began to add beak, wing and tail motions. Thomas renamed it "Tchirp-Tchirp." The song really caught on in 1971 after Belgian music publisher Louis van Rijmenant stopped in at the restaurant and heard it. According to the Old World website, Rijmenant added words to the song in Dutch and released it to the public. His first version didn't quite catch on, but, according to the Liles Net website, the Dutch band De Electronica released an instrumental version of the that became a big hit in that country.

Coming to America

• By the late 1970s the song was called "Vogeltanz" (bird dance) or "Vogerltanz" (little bird dance). It also made its way to America. Stanley Mills, who owned the September Music Corporation of New York, changed the name to "Dance Little Bird." Mills pushed it to polka artists like Jimmy Sturr, who recorded it in 1982, and even had Americanized lyrics put to the tune but it failed to find a big audience...or so Mills thought.

Surprise Success

• The song started popping up at Oktoberfests, sporting events and more during the 1980s. Mills heard it played by the band at his son's Bar Mitzvah, then started getting calls from a record label about the rights. Mills found out bands around the country were playing it at weddings and other events and consistently used the name "The Chicken Dance."

Commercialized

• By the late 1990s, the song was included on dance CDs, karaoke collections and even on TV commercials for Burger King. According to the Old World website, Mills license income from "The Chicken Dance" went from a mere $7,000 in 1995 to more than $50,000 a few years later.

Doing the Dance

• The dance in 2010 is much the same as it was in the beginning. It starts out with you moving your hands in a beak-like motion, then flapping your arms like a chicken would flap its wings, then shaking your bottom as a chicken would shake its tail feathers. Finally, you would clap a few times with the song's drum beat. Then the motions are repeated.

  Several groups have attempted to set world records for the most people doing the chicken dance at one time. As of 2010, the record belongs to a crowd of 72,000 at the Canfield Fair in Canfield, Ohio.