Happy Clucking Holidays

Background

Keysser, a software services manager at Fordham University in New York City, recorded 14 minutes of material in ten Christmas season songs on Happy Clucking Holidays. He replaced the lyrics with chicken clucking, and used a variety of background musical arrangements.

Keysser has performed chicken-inspired Christmas music twice on the “Is This Anything?” segment of the Late Show with David Letterman, clucking “Joy to the World” on December 17, 2002, and “Deck the Halls” on December 17, 2003.

Reception

Happy Clucking Holidays has received somewhat wary reviews. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution commented, "You just haven't been annoyed until you've been annoyed by Dirk Keysser clucking out the melody to 'Little Drummer Boy'." The Contra Costa Times remarked, “You have not known fear and hatred until you have heard a man clucking like a chicken to 'Silent Night' - with feeling."

More positive feedback came from USA Today which noted, “The gaping hole in Christmas catalogs for carols sung in a chicken voice is filled by this eclucktic 14-minute collection.” And Jack Cafferty, on the CNN program American Morning, commented the recording had value “because we're really lacking in Christmas carols sung by a chicken.”

Future releases

Following the release of Happy Clucking Holidays, Keysser announced plans to release poultry-inspired albums based on the classical music compositions of Maurice Ravel and Sergei Prokofiev. To date, however, Happy Clucking Holidays remains the only recording featuring Keysser’s chicken music.

Track listing

1. "Deck the Halls" – 1:13
2. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" – 0:59
3. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" – 2:38
4. "Carol of the Bells" – 0:48
5. "Silent Night" – 2:02
6. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" – 1:26
7. "Little Drummer Boy" – 2:03
8. "Ode to Joy" – 0:39
9. "Winter Wonderland" – 2:30
10. "Joy to the World" – 0:32