Talk:Kung Fu Fighting

Grammy Award
This record did not win a Grammy Award, it is not listed in the Grammy Award database of winners. There is also not a Grammy Award category "Best Selling Single" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.52.21.133 (talk) 16:56, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Mistaken identity
There is a common mistake on the internet that this song was sung by Foo Fighters (try searching "foo fighters kung fu fighting"). More details here. Senaiboy (talk) 20:44, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Yes, this should be mentioned, i was surprised at how many people think the Foo Fighters wrote this which is weird because it sounds nothing like them. This should be mentioned--67.86.119.65 (talk) 14:11, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

that is b/c foo fighters did cover this song once they did an excellent job of it too there are only a couple spots that dont sound like the original —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.227.122.154 (talk) 14:32, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The Foo Fighters were known for having covered Roberta Flack's 'Killing Me Softly' from 1973, so that may account in part, for the rumors.

Another story going around is the song on the B-side of the original version of Kung Fu Fighting has been said to have been 'Rhinestone Cowboy', which was later performed by Glen Campbell who had a number one hit with it, but the article clearly debunks that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.41.169.177 (talk) 02:36, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I also commonly see this song mis-credited to the Bee Gees, which is equally wrong and silly. Some note should probably be made of this phenomenon.174.101.88.221 (talk) 04:28, 17 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I'd like to mention that this was the first single I ever bought, and if memory serves, "Witchfinder General" was on the B side...Ah those heady days...82.6.1.85 (talk) 23:12, 17 February 2010 (UTC)Lance Tyrell

There's a story in Fred Bronson's Book 'The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. "Biddu was looking for a singer to records a tune by Brooklyn songwriter Larry Weiss in the spring of 1974.(...) Thinking that Douglas might be right for Weiss' 'I Want to Give You My Everything', Biddu gave him call". 'I Want to Give You My Everything' was not recorded by Larry Weiss. Larry Weiss is songwriter who wrote the song 'I Want to Give You My Everything'. 'I Want...' was originally recorded by Carl Douglas in 1974. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mireflejo (talk • contribs) 17:30, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

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Other cover versions

 * 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.

In popular culture

 * 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. AdwenKnowItAll (talk) 23:14, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I just checked — this was done on 4/10/2017 by a single user who boldly removed the two entire sections with the justification "unsourced/badly sourced entries". A contribution I had made earlier had already been removed by then: "The song can be heard in the 1975 French movie Les Galettes de Pont-Aven, during a scene where a young couple is dancing fully naked in front of a drunk Jean-Pierre Marielle."--Abolibibelot (talk) 08:04, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Disco connection
Several disco-sounding songs appeared on the U.S. charts in 1974, notably Rock the Boat (The Hues Corporation song), but I don't think that the majority of the American public were aware of disco as a music style until 1975. It seems doubtful that Kung Fu Fighting "popularized disco". AnonMoos (talk) 00:02, 27 March 2024 (UTC)