| "Disco Duck" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots | ||||
| from the album 'The Original Disco Duck' | ||||
| A-side | Disco Duck (part one) | |||
| B-side | Disco Duck (part two) | |||
| Released | 1976 | |||
| Format | 7" and 12" single | |||
| Recorded | Memphis, Tennessee | |||
| Genre | Disco | |||
| Length | 3:17 | |||
| Label | Fretone (initial release) RSO (wide distribution) |
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| Writer(s) | Rick Dees | |||
| Producer | Bobby Manuel | |||
| Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots singles chronology | ||||
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"Disco Duck" was a satirical disco novelty song performed by Memphis disc jockey Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. It became a number-one hit on the Billboard Chart for one week in October of 1976 (and ranked #99 out of the 100 most popular songs of the year according to Billboard Magazine). It also made the top 20 on the Black Singles chart, peaking at number 15. Disco Duck was initially released in the south by Estelle Axton's Fretone label, but was later released by RSO Records for national and international distribution.
Contents |
Origin and storyline
Written by Dees, "Disco Duck" was inspired by a 1960s novelty dance song "The Duck", recorded by Jackie Lee in 1965. According to Dees, it took one day to write the song, but three months to convince anyone to perform it.[1]
Combining orchestral disco styles with a Donald Duck-esque voice as the main plot point, the story within "Disco Duck" centers around a man at a dance party who is overcome by the urge to get up and "get down" in a duck-like manner. When the music stops, he sits down, but when he decides to get up and dance again, he finds that everyone in the room is now doing his dance.
The voice of the duck
A misconception about Disco Duck is that the voice of the duck itself was provided by Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck in many Walt Disney cartoons, but several times the Disney company said Nash had nothing to do with the record. The voice was performed by Ken Pruitt, an acquaintance of Dees, as stated on the label of the RSO release.
Response and repercussion
Disco Duck became a nationwide hit by the early fall of 1976. Nationally it peaked at #1 on October 16, 1976 for one week, held the #2 spot for the following four weeks and stayed in the Top 10 for ten weeks altogether. [2]
For all its success, Disco Duck was shunned by radio stations in Memphis, including WMPS-AM, the station Dees worked for at the time. Station management forbade Dees from playing the song on his own show and rival stations refused to play it for fear of promoting the competition. When Dees talked about the song on his show one morning, the program director fired him, citing conflict of interest. After a brief mandatory hiatus, Dees was hired by WHBQ-AM, WMPS's primary competition in Memphis.[3]
By the time Disco Duck had become a hit, Dees and his "Idiots" starting making the rounds of the popular TV music shows to promote the song. On American Bandstand and similar shows he lip-synched to the recording, alone on stage with an unseen person animating a duck hand puppet. But when he appeared on The Midnight Special he gathered together a band, backup singers and possibly Pruitt, the voice of the duck on the record, and performed the song live.
Disco Duck even made a "cameo" appearance in Saturday Night Fever in a dance club scene in which a group of senior citizens were learning to dance disco-style. It was also featured in a deleted scene added back to the PG version. According to Dees, his manager at the time made the unwise decision to cancel plans to include the song on the film's soundtrack because of fears that it would compete with sales of Dees's own album.[4] Had Disco Duck been included in the film's soundtrack, royalties would have theoretically earned Dees at least $3.5 million,[citation needed] as the soundtrack has sold over 35 million copies.
Inspirations and later uses
The 1979 Disney-produced album Mickey Mouse Disco, a late entry into the disco genre, featured a track called "Macho Duck," (inspired mostly by the Village People hit, Macho Man) with the voice of Nash on the track, in response.
Disco Duck was covered in 1977 by D.J. Scott and Willem, a German Parody Version called "Tarzan Ist Wieder Da," and later become the theme song of the defunct Philippine reality TV show The Misadventures of Maverick And Ariel.[citation needed]
Also in 1977, Peter Pan Records put out a series of children's records featuring Irwin the Disco Duck.
Disco Duck was referenced in an episode of Animaniacs when the Warner siblings attend a karaoke club and Dot Warner flips through the book, saying "See if they have Disco Duck."
In Beverly Hills 90210 episode "Duke's Bad Boy" Steve Sanders insults David Silver's producer by asking if his last hit was "Disco Duck."
DJ Shadow sampled Disco Duck's trademark riff on the track "Right Thing/GDMFSOB," from his 2002 album The Private Press.
In the popular Las Vegas video slot machine "Ducks In A Row," the song plays when three bonus icons line up.
In the episode Lisa's Sax on The Simpsons, Disco Duck is referred to in the opening song sung by Homer and Marge spoofing the theme to All in the Family
References
- ^ Bronson, Fred (1992). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, 3rd Edition. New York, New York: Billboard Publications. p. 445. ISBN 0-8230-8298-9.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2001). Billboard Top 10 Singles Charts, 1955-2000. New York, New York: Billboard Publications. pp. 305–307. ISBN 0-89820-145-2.
- ^ Bronson, Fred (1992). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, 3rd Edition. New York, New York: Billboard Publications. p. 445. ISBN 0-8230-8298-9.
- ^ Boucher, Geoff. "A New Dees Dawn", The Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2006.
| Preceded by "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single October 16, 1976 |
Succeeded by "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago |
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