Sensational '70's Tune for Wed, Feb. 4th, '09

A number one hit for Carl Douglas in 1974:



Timing is important in pop music in so many ways. It's crucial that a pop song reflects its time so that it's relatable. Timing played an important role on so many levels with Carl Douglas' career-making gold single "Kung Fu Fighting." In spring 1974, London-based producer Biddu was looking for a singer to record a song by "Rhinestone Cowboy" songwriter Larry Weiss. He remembered a singer that he'd worked with on the soundtrack of the Richard Roundtree movie Ecstasy. He thought that Jamaica-born singer Carl Douglas would be just right for "I Want to Give You My Everything." With the Weiss song recorded and pegged for the A-side, Biddu wondered what the B-side would be. He asked Douglas if he had any original songs. Out of the five songs the singer sang off the top of his head, the producer picked "Kung Fu Fighting." It was recorded with the karate chop-related "hoo"s and "haaas"s with the remaining studio time they had leftover. The kung fu movie craze driven in part by movie legend Bruce Lee and the ABC-TV series Kung Fu was at its peak, but still Biddu didn't think the song was another more than amusing B-side filler. When he submitted it to Pye Records, the label's A&R head excitedly chose "Kung Fu Fighting" as the A-side. After hitting number one in the U.K., the single was picked up by American label 20th Century Records. It began to take off in the disco clubs before crossing over to R&B- and disco-oriented radio stations. The million-selling "Kung Fu Fighting" went to number one R&B and parked at number one pop for two weeks in late 1974.