"Kung Fu Fighting" is a disco song by Carl Douglas, with production by Biddu. It was released as a single in 1974 on the cusp of a chopsocky film craze and rose to the top of the British and American charts, in addition to reaching the top of the Soul Singles chart. It received a Gold certification from the RIAA in 1974 and popularized disco music. It eventually went on to sell eleven million records worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. The song uses the quintessential Oriental riff, a short musical phrase that is used to signify Chinese culture.
"Kung Fu Fighting" was rated number 100 in VH1's 100 Greatest one-hit wonders, and number 1 in the UK Channel 4's Top 10 One Hit Wonders list in 2000, the same channel's 50 Greatest One Hit Wonders poll in 2006 and Bring Back ... the one-hit Wonders, for which Carl Douglas performed the song in a live concert.
Production and release
The song was originally meant to be a B-side to "I Want to Give You My Everything" (written by Brooklyn songwriter Larry Weiss and sung by Carl Douglas). The producer Biddu originally hired Douglas to sing "I Want to Give You My Everything" but needed something to record for the B-side, and asked Douglas if he had any lyrics they could use. Douglas showed several, out of which Biddu chose the one that would later be called "Kung Fu Fighting" and worked out a melody for it without taking it too seriously.
After having spent over two hours recording the A-side and then taking a break, "Kung Fu Fighting" was recorded quickly in the last ten minutes of studio time, in only two takes, due to a three-hour time constraint for the entire session. According to Biddu, "Kung Fu Fighting was the B-side so I went over the top on the 'huhs' and the 'hahs' and the chopping sounds. It was a B-side: who was going to listen?" After hearing both songs, Robin Blanchflower of Pye Records insisted that "Kung Fu Fighting" be the A-side instead.
Following its release, the song didn't receive any radio airplay for the first five weeks and sold poorly, but the song began gaining popularity in dance clubs, eventually entering the UK Singles Chart at No. 42 on 17 August 1974 and reaching the top on 21 September, where it would remain for three weeks. It was then released in the United States, where it quickly topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single went on to sell eleven million records worldwide.
- "Kung Fu Fighting" (3:15)
- "Gamblin' Man" (3:03)
British dance act Bus Stop reached number eight on the UK Singles Chart with their 1998 remix single of "Kung Fu Fighting", which sampled the original vocals by Carl Douglas and added rap verses. In Australia, the single received a gold certification from the ARIA.
The song was very popular in Jamaica and there were several cover versions by reggae artists, including Lloyd Parks, The Maroons, The Cimarons and Pluto Shervington.
In 1975, comedy rock duo Flo & Eddie (formerly The Turtles, as well as vocalists with Frank Zappa) recorded a parody called "The Kung Fu Killer" on their album Illegal, Immoral and Fattening.
Brazilian singer Fernanda Abreu covered the song as a bonus track available only on the CD version of her 1990 album SLA Radical Dance Disco Club.
Robyn Hitchcock also covered the song for the anti-poll tax album Alvin Lives (In Leeds) in 1990.
Peaches covered the song on her 1995 album Fancypants Hoodlum.
Patti Rothberg covered the song for the Beverly Hills Ninja soundtrack in 1997.
In 2004, the German record label Echo Beach released an album entitled Kung Fu Fighting Remixes (Dub Drenched Soundscapes) that featured remixes of the track by 16 different artists including Adrian Sherwood, Dreadzone and Pole.
A cover version of the song was performed by CeeLo Green and Jack Black for the 2008 animated movie Kung Fu Panda. This version has partially rewritten lyrics to avoid the term "chinaman". For the Russian edition of the movie, Mumiy Troll performed the song.
A cover version of the song was performed by The Vamps for the 2016 animated movie Kung Fu Panda 3. There was also a fully orchestrated version with a choir performing a different version of the song as well.
There is also a Finnish version of this song, sung by Frederik. The song's translated name is "Kung-Fu Taistelee".
Tom Jones and the band Ruby covered the song for the Jackie Chan film Police Story 3: Super Cop, reworking the lyrics to add a reference to Jackie Chan.
Fun Tomas performed the remix of this song re-entitled "Everybody was Kung-Fu Dancing" with Carl Douglas's vocals still in tact for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.
The song was featured in the Seventies episode of The Supersizers Go... on BBC Two. The episode was aired on 10 June 2008, and featured Sue Perkins and Giles Coren sitting down to eat an average 1970s dinner in a period living room, watching the music video for "Kung Fu Fighting."
This song was sung by Homer Simpson and kazooed by Barney Gumble while they were beating up Waylon Smithers in Homer's high school flashback in The Simpsons episode "Bye Bye Nerdie".
Douglas' version is heard in the 2008 movie Kung Fu Panda. Two versions of it were also in its 2016 sequel Kung Fu Panda 3.
The song was used for comic effect in the Bollywood film Happy New Year directed by Farah Khan when Shah Rukh Khan's character was battling the captain of the Korean Dance team on top of a building.
The song was also used for comic effect in the Bollywood film Ek Ajnabee directed by Apoorva Lakhia when Arjun Rampal's character was fighting some people, just a little later after the movie starts.
The song was used in the 2003 comedy Daddy Day Care.
The song was also played in a Cantonese film Shaolin Soccer, directed by Stephen Chow, as the film ends.
Douglas' version is heard in a 2016 commercial for Scotts lawn care.
The song is featured as playable track in the music games Band Hero and Lego Rock Band.
This song is featured in an episode of the TV Show Scrubs (Season 5, Episode 3), when J.D. imagines that Christopher Turk has to fight off colleagues in order to deliver a briefcase to a superior.
