"Chicken Fat," The Song

Currently experiencing a revival in World Cup Apple iPhone commercial. Perhaps familiar to some aging US ilxors from gym class long ago, when it used to be played in gym class in grade school. More specifically, we would even put on a little show at the end of the school year for the parents and other students, in which the finale would be us exercising on the auditorium stage to the tune of "Chicken Fat." Does anyone else remember this? How far in space and time did it spread? Was it only in NYC in the 70s?

Suburban DC (Montgomery County, MD), late 1970s, most definitely.

Or maybe the finale was doing a line dance to "Alley Cat."

Okay, story is here: http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/06/26/why-kids-in-1960s-knew-the-go-you-chicken-fat-go-song-in-todays-iphone-ads/

My kid did chicken fats in school last year! I never heard of this, growing up one county over in the 1980s.

in I think kindergarten, possibly a little later, one of the kids said excitedly to me 'we're gonna do 'chicken fat'!!" and I was like "what are you even talking about"and then the teacher played the record while we did exercises and I was like "I do not fucking get this at all" and I think that was the only time I ever heard it.

WEIRD. Creepily martial, glorifying strength and shaming "the flabby guys," the song is terrible and I hate it, but I never would have guessed at the history.

Wonder how widespread the use of "Alley Cat" was, even if not centrally mandated. Feel like the tempo of that tune is so slow any motion done to its accompaniment is like tai chi.

I wish people would still write hit marches.

But now I have "Herman, what have you done to me" stuck in my head, so maybe nevermind.

every time I hear this song/see that commercial, I think at some point in US history there was a government program that sanctioned the rendering of obese children :-(

http://i.imgur.com/OH93R1I.jpg

I have no memory of it.

...but I can't believe this fucking ad used a cover version instead of Robert Preston.;

JFK worried it made him think of chickenshit.

late 90s this was still a thing in elementary school PE

this song makes me quite killy

Same here, get it off our British televisions, Yankee (song) go home.

xp Yeah I think Apple greenlighting this commercial is the single biggest sign that Apple is over the hill

As someone who exercises a lot and uses his phone to track it, I really like this ad and think the song's really cute.

I will never trust anything you say about music or popular culture ever again.

Worst sound of the World Cup, ahead of even 'Braaaazil Braaaazil' in the stfu stakes.

Tbf the recording quality is quite high

ha!

It's fun! It makes me want to do star-jumps and ride a bicycle.

Scik Mouthybot

This was definitely horrifically stuck in my head for a few weeks because of that Apple ad

Apple greenlighting this commercial is the single biggest sign that Apple is over the hill

Retro audio from the early to mid '60s is lately TV ads' version of a trucker hat. I think about three months ago some running shoe was using the Underdog theme.

anyway per my allusion above:

There was at least one rocky moment at the outset. In May 1962, Variety reported that the song had been banned in Detroit schools by Delia Hussey, supervisor of health and physical education, and Homer G. LaGassey, director of music, because, first, they felt the lyrics were in poor taste, and, second, because the record represented an old-fashioned view of phys ed. “Use of the recordings would make things too regimented,” Hussey said. “It would remove the human touch that allows the children to proceed at a pace set by the teacher.”

(Composer Meredith) Willson defended the song in a letter to Hussey. “ ‘Chicken Fat’ was not written for children,” he contended. “It was written for older youngsters in whose vocabulary words like ‘chicken,’ ‘nuts’ and ‘flab’ are comparative drawing room conversation.”

...Not long ago, one of (Fitness Council chief Bud) Wilkinson’s aides recalled a reception for the Council on Physical Fitness, held at the White House.

“Kennedy told us that he liked the song,” the aide, Dick Snyder, said, “but every time he heard it he thought of ‘chicken shit,’ and he wondered if maybe we shouldn’t change the title. We said we’d talk to Willson about it, but we never did.”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/06/13/chicken_fat_song_apple_iphone_5s_commercial_uses_kennedy_era_exercise_anthem.html

i was gonna say it's the equivalent of "Keep Calm and Carry On" but basically any equivalency with something fucken evil will do

Horst Wessel Song p'raps?