Buzz
Playful, infectious, and ubiquitous, "The Chicken Dance" is a simple yet delightful routine mastered in moments, making it a favorite at school events, bar mitzvahs, and Oktoberfest festivities. Its origins trace back over six decades to a Swiss composer, Werner Thomas, who crafted its iconic melody.
In the 1950s, Thomas made a living as an accordionist at Swiss vacation spots. As he shared in a German-language interview, the melody struck him around 1955. Over the following years, he refined the tune and developed a matching dance. Surprisingly, the inspiration for the moves came not from chickens but from skiers.
During the 1950s, Switzerland was renowned for its ski resorts, which Thomas often visited. Observing skiers' energetic descents, he noticed their motions resembled those of a waterfowl. Their hand gestures reminded him of a duck’s beak, while their arm and leg movements evoked flapping wings and waddling. These observations led to the creation of "Der Ententanz" or "The Duck Dance."
The song’s next significant milestone occurred in the early 1970s when Belgian music producer Louis Julien van Rijmenant heard Thomas perform it at a Davos, Switzerland hotel. By 1973, Rijmenant teamed up with Bobby Setter's Cash & Carry to release the track as a single, titled “Tchip, Tchip.” This rendition, crafted using a synthesizer, surprised Thomas when he first encountered their interpretation.
“The synthesizer was entirely new to me,” Thomas admitted. Though he was initially skeptical of the electronic adaptation, he eventually grew fond of it. The public shared his enthusiasm: Rijmenant’s “Tchip, Tchip” sold over a million copies in Europe within a year.
While the melody gained traction, Thomas’s dance routine remained relatively obscure until the Dutch group De Electronica revived it in 1980 with their version, “De Vogeltjesdans” (“Dance Little Bird”). Their cover spent an impressive 29 weeks on the Dutch charts, peaking at number eight. During performances and TV appearances, De Electronica reintroduced Thomas’s original duck-inspired choreography, reconnecting the dance with its roots.
By this time, the tune had already reached the United States, thanks to music producer Stanley Mills. He first encountered Thomas’s work at a 1972 convention in Cannes, France, and was instantly captivated. Mills secured the American rights and released his version, also titled “Dance Little Bird.” Despite its current ubiquity at American celebrations, the song initially struggled to gain traction. Mills tried to boost its appeal by adding English lyrics, though these were eventually forgotten. (The chorus included lines like, “Hey you’re in the swing / You’re cluckin’ like a bird / You’re flapping your wings / Don’t you feel absurd?”) Despite efforts to promote it through polka bands, the song didn’t achieve immediate success.
However, the melody’s charm couldn’t be suppressed. In the 1980s, instrumental versions of “Dance Little Bird” began gaining popularity in cities like Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Austin, where polka music had a strong following. “It became a hit at weddings, bar mitzvahs, and local dance events,” Mills said. “Polka bands started recording it and selling it directly to fans.”
At this stage in its journey, the song adopted a new title without Mills’s knowledge. While the exact moment Americans began referring to it as “The Chicken Dance” is unclear, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s 1981 Oktoberfest likely played a key role. During the event, a German band performed “Dance Little Bird” and demonstrated Thomas’s Duck Dance to the crowd. To assist with the demonstration, organizers searched for a duck costume but settled for a chicken suit borrowed from a local TV station, cementing the song’s new identity.
In 1994, Mills received a call from a company planning to produce a dance party compilation album. The caller inquired about including a track named “The Chicken Dance.”
“I don’t own a song by that name,” Mills responded.
“Yes, you do. Let me play it for you over the phone,” the caller insisted.
“When he played it,” Mills later recounted, “I realized it was my song. It had earned that name on its own.” The compilation album, titled Turn Up the Music, became a massive hit, and “The Chicken Dance” has since been a lucrative venture for Mills.
According to a 2001 The Wall Street Journal report, “His earnings from ‘The Chicken Dance’ skyrocketed, starting from a modest sum in the early 1990s to around $7000 in 1995, and then exceeding $50,000 by 2000, largely due to television commercials.”
“It’s performing exceptionally well,” Mills remarked at the time, “but it hasn’t made me a millionaire.”
Over the years, “The Chicken Dance” has firmly embedded itself in popular culture, becoming a staple at celebrations and sporting events. While many artists grow weary of their most famous work, Thomas remains proud of his creation. As he mentioned in the interview, every time he spots “The Chicken Dance” on TV, he knows his next beer is covered.
This story was updated in 2019.
