(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Carl Douglas - "Kung Fu Fighting"
Hit Number 1: December 7, 1974
Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks
I'm going to start this off with the most obvious sentence I've likely ever said on this blog: "Kung Fu Fighting" was only brought into this world as a joke, and nothing more than that. Carl Douglas, the artist of the song, was a no-name artist out of Jamaica, who was trying to break it into the music world under a contract with Pye Records in England. In fact, "Kung Fu Fighting" was a scrapped together song by Douglas that he wasn't sure he'd ever release or not. He got the idea to write it after he saw two kids doing some Kung Fu moves in London, and considering this was 1970s England, the Kung Fu moves probably sucked hard, but whatever. He had been working with an Asian producer who went by the name Biddu, and at first, Douglas and Biddu were working real hard on a song called "I Want to Give You My Everything". There's a reason why nobody today knows that song.
Douglas and Biddu had rented out studio time to work on "I Want to Give You My Everything", and they had spent 2 of the 3 hours just on that one song. But they still needed a B-Side to the song, so Biddu asked Douglas if he had any other lyrics handy that the two could make a B-Side song out of. Douglas had a few that he could show Biddu, and after looking at his options, Biddu chose the set of lyrics that would become "Kung Fu Fighting". With him being an Asian, he probably got a pretty good kick out of Douglas' stupid song, so he decided that that song would be the B-Side. It was 1974 after all. Reportedly, "Kung Fu Fighting" took only 10 minutes to record, and Douglas cranked it out in just 2 takes. Biddu admitted that he didn't care how corny the record sounded, as he threw in some "huhs" and "hahs" and chopping sounds, likely in some sort of effort to give the song some personality. In his own words: "It was a B-Side. Who was going to listen?" Given how the song's history would play out, it's pretty funny for us to look back on that. I'm sure Biddu even had to laugh about it.
Biddu played "I Want to Give You My Everything" to one of the head honchoes at Pye Records, Robin Blanchflower, to get his thoughts. Blanchflower was interested to hear the rest of the reel, so when Biddu obliged and played "Kung Fu Fighting", Blanchflower was convinced that that should be the B-Side instead of "I Want to Give You My Everything". There's some pretty good reason as to why "Kung Fu Fighting" shouldn't be hiding on a B-Side of another song. For one, Kung Fu movies were apparently really popular back then, and Bruce Lee was one of the biggest movie stars. Another is that novelty songs were really big in the early to mid-'70s, so now was the perfect time for Douglas and company to try to cash in on the novelty craze. In the end, "Kung Fu Fighting" remains today as a song everyone knows, and it's hard to figure out if that would still be the case if it was released in another time.
"Kung Fu Fighting" is literally only about some kids doing Kung Fu. The narrator is impressed by how these kids are as "fast as lightning" and fight with "expert timing." It's just another one of those goofs that became a hit, but "Kung Fu Fighting" is overtly, almost annoyingly goofy for its own good. Douglas' intro with "ho ho hoooo" is probably my favorite part of the song. It gets your attention, and you're wondering where he goes from here. After that, though, you're thrown into this world of craziness. There's so many moving parts to this song; sometimes I'm left wondering if the song is only so popular because of how corny it is. "Kung Fu Fighting" has always gotten under my skin because of that. However, there is some "flare" to the song that keeps me from hating it. It does succeed in trying to be a fun song, and although it's also annoying, I have to tip my cap to its personality. You can't really say that it's a stale, generic or boring song.
Anyway, Douglas ended up being a one trick pony as far as his chart presence went. Although "Kung Fu Fighting" isn't my most favorite song in the world, I can't deny that the song has some serious staying power. It's been featured in many movies, and every time that happens, Carl Douglas only gets richer. The fact that Douglas is only known for his one silly song, but he can still break the bank with it, is enough to make anyone envy the man.
GRADE: 4/10
JUST MISSED:
In one of the more disappointing moments of Hot 100 history, The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again" peaked at #2 behind "Kung Fu Fighting". It's a 9.
IN POP CULTURE:
Every time I hear "Kung Fu Fighting", I of course always think of Kung Fu Panda, the 2008 kids movie about a fat panda learning the arts of Kung Fu and starring the voice of Jack Black. Anyway, there was a re-recorded version of "Kung Fu Fighting" that was recorded by CeeLo Green and Black himself. I had other options, but I felt like this was the most appropriate thing to put under the IPC section for this song. Here it is:
(CeeLo Green's highest-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 was "F**k You! (Forget You)", which peaked at #2 in 2010. It's an 8. Jack Black, as you can probably assume, never had a Hot 100 hit. However, he did get on the chart with his band Tenacious D, and they peaked at #78 in 2006 with "The Pick of Destiny", which was in the movie of the same name. I'm not sure it's even fair to give that song a grade, so I'm not going to.)
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