RICK DEES DISCO DUCK VIDEO TV

'Disco Duck' was covered in french in 1976 by the Quebec singer/manager Paul Vincent (Ti-Polo Vincent). In 1979, Kermit the Frog sang a song called ' Disco Frog' on Sesame Street, which he also later sang on The Muppet Show, and was most likely inspired by 'Disco Duck'. The 1979 Disney-produced album Mickey Mouse Disco featured a track called 'Macho Duck', (inspired mostly by the Village People hit, Macho Man) with the voice of Nash on the track, in response. ^shipments figures based on certification alone Not one of them would admit to doing so today.' Certifications Region The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack has now currently sold 40 million copies worldwide, and is the second best-selling soundtrack of all time.Īlthough 'Disco Duck' hit #1 on the charts, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked the song at #54 on his list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, stating that 'six million people bought this piece of duck droppings in 1976.

According to Dees, his manager at the time made the unwise decision to deny use of the song on the film's soundtrack because of fears that it would compete with sales of Dees's own album. As it stands, Dees could have made an even more substantial amount of money from the song. It was also featured in a deleted scene added back to the PG version. 'Disco Duck' even made an appearance in the film Saturday Night Fever, in a dance club scene in which a group of senior citizens were learning to dance disco-style. But when Dees appeared on The Midnight Special and a live tour up the East Coast he gathered together a band, backing singers and a commercial artist, Michael Chesney to perform the duck vocals and did everything live. Ironically, this appearance was never seen in the Memphis area due to then-ABC affiliate WHBQ-TV pre-empting Bandstand for wrestling at the time and for the aforementioned Memphis radio avoidance reasons.

On American Bandstand (and similar shows), Dees lip-synched to the recording, alone on stage with puppeteer Rickey Provow animating a duck puppet that he had made.

RICK DEES DISCO DUCK VIDEO TV

īy the time 'Disco Duck' become a hit, Dees and his 'Idiots' started making the rounds of the popular TV music shows to promote the song. After a brief mandatory hiatus, Dees was hired by station WHBQ-AM, WMPS's primary competition in Memphis. When Dees talked about (but did not play) the song on his show one morning, his boss fired him citing conflict of interest. Station management forbade Dees from playing the song on his own show and rival stations in the city refused to play it for fear of promoting the competition. įor all its success, 'Disco Duck' was shunned by radio stations where Dees was living in Memphis, including WMPS-AM, the station Dees worked for at the time. On the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, it peaked at number one on October 16, 1976, for one week, held the number-two spot for the following four weeks and remained in the Top 10 for a total of ten weeks.

'Disco Duck' became a nationwide hit in the United States by September 1976.

For the live tour, the duck vocals were handled by Michael Chesney, another acquaintance of Dees. The voice of the duck was performed by Ken Pruitt, an acquaintance of Dees, as stated on the label of the RSO release. When the music stops, he sits down, but when he decides to get up and dance again, he finds that everyone in the room is now doing his dance.Ī misconception about 'Disco Duck' is that the voice of the duck itself was provided by Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck in many Walt Disney cartoons, but on several occasions the Disney Company maintained that Nash never contributed to the song. Ĭombining orchestral disco styles with a Donald Duck-esque voice as the main plot point, the story within 'Disco Duck' centers around a man at a dance party who is overcome by the urge to get up and 'get down' in a duck-like manner. According to Dees, it took one day to write the song, but three months to convince anyone to perform it. Written by Dees, 'Disco Duck' was inspired by a 1960s novelty dance song called 'The Duck', recorded by Jackie Lee in 1965.

Rick dees disco duck video