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The "Chicken Dance," also known as the Birdie Song, is an oom-pah song and its associated fad dance is now a contemporary dance throughout the Western world. The song was composed by accordion (Handharmonika) player Werner Thomas from Davos, Switzerland, in the 1950s. ==History== The name of the original Swiss song was "Der Ententanz" (The Duck Dance). It is rumored to be a drinking song sung at Oktoberfest. Sometime in the late 1970s, the song acquired the name "Vogeltanz" (The Bird Dance) or "Vogerltanz" (Little Bird Dance or Birdie Dance), although these names never caught on seriously in Germany. On some sheet music and recordings it is called "Dance Little Bird." It appears that no one in Germany uses the term "Kükentanz" or "Huhn/Hühnertanz" (Küken means chick, Huhn/Hühner means chicken (sg./pl.)). Since 1963 Werner Thomas had played it in restaurants and hotels. During one of Thomas' performances, Belgian producer Louis van Rijmenant heard the song. Van Rijmenant had some lyrics created and in 1970 released it to the public through his publishing company Intervox Music (later on co-publishing with his other company Eurovox Music) without much success. However, on subsequent releases of the song, Van Rijmenant was listed as co-author under the pen name of Terry Rendall. Eurovox Music now manages the publishing rights worldwide, except for the US (September Music), UK (Valentine Music) and the Netherlands (Benelux Music), sub-publishers. The dance and song was originally brought from Germany to the US by Eddie Duling and Larry Karhoff of Glandorf Ohio in 1974. They gave a copy of the song to the local radio station and history was made. In 1980, Dutch local band "De Electronica's" released an instrumental version called "De Vogeltjesdans" ("The dance of the little birds") as the B-side of a single. The A-side was not a hit, but local radio stations in the south and east of the Netherlands decided to flip the disc and started playing "De Vogeltjesdans". The record entered the Dutch charts and stayed there for over seven months, and started the international success of the song. On some recorded releases of the music Werner Thomas is listed as the sole composer, while on others other authors are listed, e.g., as "Thomas/Rendall/Hoes", the last name referring to Dutch singer/producer Johnny Hoes, who re-arranged the song for the Electronicas recording (which was released on Hoes' own record label, Telstar Records). He also wrote new Dutch lyrics for the song, although the Electronicas version is an instrumental one (Hoes himself recorded the vocal version, but that did not become a hit). Since then the song has become known under numerous other "birdie" names, including "''Vogerltanz''" (Bird Dance), "Danse des Canards", "Baile de los Pajaritos", "Chicken Dance" and "Dance Little Bird". Over 140 versions of it are recorded worldwide, including various versions that were released by Walt Disney Records, together making over 40,000,000 records. The dance was reintroduced in the United States in 1981 during the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oktoberfest. They wanted to demonstrate their love through dance in costumes, but there were no duck costumes available anywhere near Tulsa. At a local television station, however, a chicken costume was available which was donated for use at the festival, giving the "Chicken Dance" its name. A 1982 performance on the Nationwide Television Show "P M Magazine" produced by "Group W Productions" of San Francisco featuring Wisconsin Orchestra Leader Norm Edlebeck further popularized the song. "Group W Productions" repeated the segment again nationwide on August 9, 1983 and included Edlebeck's picture in their weekly ad slick sent to every station in their network for publication in ''TV Guide''. Group W titled the segment the "World's Stupidest Dance". Also in 1982, polka-loving cover band "The Emeralds", from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, recorded a polka-inspired version of the song, released by K-Tel records. The album "Bird Dance" went double-platinum in Canada, and gold in Australia. The song also contributed to the success of multiple gold albums for the Emeralds in 1983 and 1984. The song went on to further fame when it was used in two movies: John Paizs's cult classic Crime Wave, and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. In the Hispanic realm around this time, ''"El Baile de los Pajaritos,"'' a localized version of the song, was popularized by ''acordeonista'' Maria Jesús in several television appearances. The LP "Bird Dance" sold millions of copies in the first year. It has become a standard request at weddings and family gatherings. Contrary to some misconceptions, it is not an Austrian folk dance, although it was presented as one in the Austrian film ''Das Fest des Huhnes''. In the United States, the publishing rights for the song were acquired by a New York publisher Stanley Mills. In Denmark, a version of this song is used by the brewery Tuborg in their commercials for their "Easter Brew" ("Påskebryg" in Danish). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chicken Dance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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