Sportsong of the Week #36

"Kung Fu Fighting"

Carl Douglas

1974

Pye Records

It's almost weekend again, so it's time for Sportsong of the Week #36! And time to dance! Or fight? No, dancing is what we do! This legendary disco single and sportsong by Carl Douglas will most definitely get you movin' and groovin'! It's the catchy 'Kung Fu Fighting'! Everybody is doing it!

This song is from Douglas' album Kung Fu Fighting and other great love songs. He wrote the lyrics and the music is by Biddy Appaiah. There's two stories about how he came up with the song. One is that Douglas supposedly got inspired by two fighting kids in the streets. Another story is that after watching a martial arts film with a concert by Oscar Peterson, he went home, took painkillers for a foot injury and it wrote itself in that state. I like the second story better I have to admit!

It wasn't supposed to be an official song, but it went from the B-side of the record to the A-side real quick after recording. The rest is history. The world was captured by martial arts and kungfu at the time, partially because of the television show Kungfu with David Carradine, and the song shot to number 1's all over the world. It sold 11 million times in total! Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!

Lyrics 'Kung Fu Fighting' - Carl Douglas

Oh-ho-ho-hoooo (x4) Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, those flips were fast as lightning, In fact it was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert timing There were funky China men, from funky China town They were chopping them up, they were chopping them down It's an ancient Chinese art, and everybody knew their part From a faint into a slip, and I'm kickin' from the hip Everybody was Kung Fu fighting (huh), those kids were fast as lightning In fact it was a little bit frightening (ha yeah), but they fought with expert timing There was funky Billy Chin and little Sammy Chung He said, here comes the big boss (where? where?), let's get it on We took a bow and made a stand, started swaying with the hand A sudden motion made me skip, now we're into a brand new trick Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, (huh) those kids were fast as lightning (hah) In fact it was a little bit frightening, (huh) but they did it with expert timing (hah) oh,ho,ho,hoooo (hah) oh,ho,ho,hoooo (hah) oh,ho,ho,hoooo (huh) oh,ho,ho,hoooo (hah) Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, (huh) those filps were fast as lightning (hah) In fact it was a little bit frightening, (huh) make sure you have expert timing (hah) Kung Fu fighting, had to be fast as lightning. (oh,ho,ho,hoooo (x7)) Keep on keep on keep on.. yeah yeah... Everybody was Kung Fu fighting... (fade)...