How Did the WORST Song of the Rock Era Make it to #1 & Sell 6 million copies? | Professor Of Rock
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- Against all odds, and against better judgement, today’s artist wrote a song that went to #1 on the Hot 100 and sold over 6 million copies…AND IT’S the WORST SONG EVER WRITTEN. To prepare for this episode, I scoured a every valid list of ‘Worst Song Ever Polls’ and was surprised to find that this 70s hit rarely made the cut… I alway try to be positive but you have to trust me, this is TRULY the worst song of all time. I don’t think there is a person living who would say otherwise. and yet is isn’t included in any of the worst songs list I’ve looked atSo, what’s the deal? Is this actually some kind of a ‘worst song hidden gem?’ I had to wonder if there are there listeners who secretly like this sort of ear poison? Today we discuss Disco Duck by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots and how the song went from a really bad idea to a #1 hit in the middle of the disco era of the 70s. How Rick was fired for even talking about the song as it was making it’s way up the charts…
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#1970s #rock #vinylstory
Hey music junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time except for today. We are going to Celebrate the worst song ever. . make sure to subscribe below and click the bell so you can be a part of this community and check out out patreon where I’m going to give my top 10 worst songs of all time
It’s time for a new program on our channel. It’s going to be a history of the odd, the kitschy and the truly awful songs of the rock era. it’s usually based around songs that are a bit of a novelty, a bit of bizarre and somewhat gimmicky. We’ll call the show NOVELTY MY DEAR WATSON?
Today we are going to give you the retched yet fascination history of my pick for the worst hit song of the rock era. It’s a very interesting story to say the least.
Okay, it’s almost universally agreed upon that the worst of the disco craze that swept the late 70s wasn’t exactly modern music’s finest hour. And yeah, there are a lot of people who consider it a blot on music history. But for better or worse, like any genre. the best of Disco was a sound that was buzzing on the streets and the beat booming in the clubs. and would produce some truly memorable and fun songs that have become permanent pop culture fixtures.
For rock acts, it was a difficult time artistically. In fact, from the mid to late 70s, the conventional wisdom was that if you didn’t jump on the disco bandwagon, you weren’t going to have any hits. So, to stay hot on the scene, some of rock’s biggest names at the time succumbed to the pressure and created music with a disco beat and to mostly great results in my opinion. But for dance acts in particular, disco was a godsend. The genre definitely had its day in the sun. But when that day was over, the backlash was immediate and disco came crashing down hard.
But going back to when disco was just starting to trend, one Memphis disc jockey had the foresight to capitalize on its growing popularity. He would go on to write a song that would hit number one. Easily the worst #1 hit of all time. Many of the worst songs lists put the same two or three songs at the top of their list…And I have to say Any one who tries to say that We Built this City by Starship is somehow worse than this audible garbage needs to have their ears checked.
This can’t be the worst song of all time when Nicki Minaj and Cardi B exist 😢
Yeah WAP I’d definitely one of the worst.
Honestly I'd rather listen to WAP than disco duck
Sisqo's Thong Song is the worst
WAP wins!
L comment. Nicki is good.
My entire 25 year on-air radio career was inspired by Rick Dees, not gonna lie I emulated him a bit while I was trying to find my own style. It all came full circle for me in 1995, when as the morning host on Maui's rock station - I was invited to be an in-studio guest from Rick's live broadcasts from Maui. He's a really nice guy, loved Maui and contributed to the community, and I'm glad I had a chance to tell him how he had inspired me.
I guessed it was Disco Duck, but I loved that song back in middle school. It was genius.
My little brother got a K-Tel record with novelty songs like this. I had nightmares about this. Thanks for undoing many years of recovery...lol. EDIT- How Much is That Doggie in the Window? was also on the record. I honestly think that was worse.
Also, Mr. Custer is absolute garbage.
Rick Dees was my Boy Scout summer camp counsellor for knot tying and climbing, and was a heck of a great guy. He mentioned to us scouts that he and his team at the radio station were the ones who had just done "Disco Duck", but he didn't take it or himself as a radio personality at all seriously. He took scouting, and his role as a family man and father VERY seriously, contrary to his public image at the time. He was one of the best people I've ever had the privilege of learning from. Rick also did an Elvis spoof called, "Jelly Donuts", which unfortunately was written only a few months before Elvis died spookily in a similar manner to the ending of that song, which really bothered Rick, and probably led to his not writing any more of these comedy-satirical songs after that time. I will always remember, love and respect the real human being, Rick Dees, a really decent guy and role model for young people in his private life!
Thank you for your kind comment. It doesn't surprise me. He always seemed like a nice guy and as I said in the video, he was a good DJ and did a good job with the countdown. I'm partial to Casey Kasem but Rick was a great second choice. Again thanks for sharing.
@@ProfessorofRock , you are another of my personal heroes, and I think highly of you, as well, and I think that your aesthetic assessment of his intentionally bad satirical song would make Rick smile in agreement, because That's was yhe ironic point of his act, in my opinion. I mean, he did call his act Rick Dees, and his Cast of Idiots, after all! I remember the a tual warm friendship of Mohammed Ali and Howard Cossell who always tore each other apart good-naturedly, and the Dean Martin roasts, and think that you would jave enjoyed a similar popularity back then, as now, giving your honest critical opinions and your awesome educational historic takes that I enjoy and appreciate so much! Please keep educating and delighting us, your loyal audience!🙏😉
Good story. Now I want to hear the song.
Yeah, from everything I've read Dees knew exactly what this song was and had no dreams of becoming some rock star.
@@jeanlloydbradberry9099 Wow! Thanks you Jean. I really appreciate that. I would love to interview Rick someday. Get his take on many great moments of those years. Please let me know if it's possible to connect with him. My email is the professor@professorofrock.com.
Studio 54 and Saturday Night Fever both happened AFTER Disco Duck, so disco's best days were still in front of it when Rick Dees made his novelty song. If it was responsible for the death of disco, it had an incredibly gradual delayed reaction.
So so true!!!
@@terrym9435 Yeah, we have a "Professor" who can't read a calendar. Pretty pathetic, Reader.
Disco's best days were before it made it out to the suburbs. The Philly Sound of 1972-76 - featuring the Trammps rhythm section - were the pioneers.
Ironically, a snippet of Disco Duck can be heard in a scene from Saturday Night Fever
I think some of the older video releases may have omitted it.
I've got a good Disco Duck story Professor... when I was in 7th grade, they put a jukebox in our school cafeteria. Well, no more than a month or so into use, the damned thing broke and the only song that would play was, you guessed it, Disco Duck. After a couple of months... seems like eternity, they mercifully took the jukebox out. Every day for lunch you got the Duck.
That is HYSTERICAL! I'd be the guy picking it, just to piss off the people who hated it!
😭
They took it out for a couple of months? Don't you mean 'after a couple of months'?
@@screwyootube1spoken like a true a§§ (and proud of it) My kind of guy. You, sir/ma'am I applaud.
This was meant to be a light hearted, comic sendup of the disco craze, and from that point of view I reckon it hit the bullseye! Take it as comedy relief instead of looking for deep and meaningful artistic value and remember the crowd doing the 'duck walk' to this song.
That is how I feel about it. I don't think it fits in a bad song category. I think was consciously being light hearted. Now we built this city is not trying to be light hearted. They were serious.
Yep, just because it was stupid didn't mean it wasn't fun.
This is a novelty song. I believe that they should not be on a worst song list as they were never intended to be taken seriously. That list should be reserved for songs meant to be serious but miss the mark.
I agree with you, I think POR is being a little hard on Rick here.
I agree, but need to add that they don't belong on top song lists either - LOL!
I'm with Charlie
Yes, I agree novelty songs shouldn’t be on worst song lists unless it’s specifically a worst novelty song list. There are plenty of “serious songs” that qualify for worst song.
That's exactly my take. There are plenty of bad songs that were just awful because they were trying to be good but failed - and not even "We Built This City" comes close to some real stinkers out there.
This song was basically the Baby Shark of the 70's. It was so popular because little kids couldn't get enough of it. My mother, who was eight years old in 1976, can attest to this.
I too was 8 years old in 1976 but I don’t remember this song at all. In the 80’s I remember Rick Dees as a DJ in L.A. on KISS FM.
Or the monster mash from the 60s
I was 13 in 1976 and I liked this song!
Yep exactly. I thought it was hilarious 😆
Exactly perfect description. This was the first 45 record I ever asked for, and got, as a gift. It drove my parents nuts how many times I’d play it over and over. So embarrassing 😂 now
I played golf with Rick once, I am in radio, and it was like a software engineer getting to spend 4 hours with Steve Jobs. He is brilliant, so nice, and so kind, and he didn't have to be. He was one of the last guys to make millions doing radio, and he bought airplane patents. He moved from Los Angeles to I think Kentucky, and has his own private golf course!. He would take no umbrage at the ranking, he was always in on the joke. And the fact that we are still talking about it all these years later is kind of fun.
I wouldn’t consider a ‘novelty song’ as being included in worst hit song, novelty is novelty,
I couldn't agree more. Doesn't matter if it was novelty. It was #1. I absolutely HATE Disco Duck. Torture.
@garythomas381. Airplane Patents ? I would have never guessed.. sounds like a brilliant man.
I'm happy you got to golf with him.
Did you ever hear Dr. Demento’s show? Where the weird, wacky, novel, and strange were celebrated. It was some of my favorite Saturday night listening.
Dr. Demento is the man who introduced me to "Weird" Al Yankovic.
I will ever be grateful to him for that! 🤗
I miss Dr. Demento's show
I have an autographed picture of him when I met him at a Boulevard Music tape rental and records store event in Woodland Hills, CA
Blubber
Jesus Christ dude get e Sence of humor bro. The song was actually funny, the beat was catchy making it simply entertaining.
Somehow this song found its way into every roller skating rink in the US.
Yes, unfortunately it did. Lol
There was a whole album from k-tel with these kinds of novelty songs on them. I wish I could remember the name. I know Double Dutch Bus was on that album.
k-tel were always doing compilations and seems to always put them out around Christmas time.
This was basically a novelty song that no one took seriously but I think many people loved it. It's like Ray Steven's Ahab the Arab or Steve Martin's King Tut.
Good call.
I guess I had no sense of humor growing up because I didn't like this song or King Tut. My friends and I did go see Rick's late-night show because we were given free tickets, and the guy told us that Elvira and the Eurythmics would be guests. Well, Only the guy from the Eurythmics was there because they had already broken up. At least Elvira showed up.
I lived in Memphis during the 70's and listened to Dees' and his cast of idiots (his DJ persona) on the radio. When this song came out we enjoyed it as a novelty song and, as you correctly stated, never took it seriously. But, I don't think it's as bad as the Professor thinks.
@@bellonwheels726 the one song I considered a novelty that I really disliked was Everybody Likes Kung Fu Fighting.
There was also The Streak, then there was Jim Stafford's Spiders and Snakes, My Girl Bill, and Wildwood Weed. When I think of truly bad song, a novelty song that makes Disco Duck more like Beethoven in comparison, I think of the vomit inducing song, Convoy.
Growing up in the UK, I heard tons of truly-awful-but-high-charting novelty records in the 80s and into the 90s.
Fellow Brits will shudder at the memory of Agadoo, Mr Blobby, Joe Dolce and many more audio horrors. 😣
I'm American. "Agadoo?" *shudder* Mr Blobby was just creepshow.
Fun memory of mine is when I was at a party when I was in 4th grade and they were playing Disco Duck and Kung Fu Fighting. Everyone was dancing to Disco Duck and when Kung Fu Fighting came on we were doing karate. Just a bunch of wild kids having fun. I had one of the funnest times ever in my life at that party. Fun memories and great time to be a kid in the 70s!
Prof of Rock Should do a video on "Kung Fu Fighting". As I recall the story goes, they just created that whole song in like an hour.
I was 9 in 76 when this came out...and every bit of my 9 year old heart and mind absolutely loved it!🤣 I'm getting ready to turn 56 this month, & I have to say it brings back such wonderful memories.
High School Class of 85 !!
Same age and perspective here!
I was 8 and loved it as kid. Now I just smile and think ... if I could be that young and carefree again.
I was 8.
I turned 15 and still I liked it😃
As an elementary school child in the 70s, I remember when "Disco Duck" came out. To my juvenile tastes, it was hilarious. Honestly, I agree with those who say that "We Built This City" is the worst song of all time. It's trite and takes itself way too seriously. That's one thing you can't say about "Disco Duck." It does not take itself too seriously.
finally, someone with the correct take
I agree with the Prof on this one. That being said, there are some covers of We Built This City that are far better than the awful Starship original, best I've heard is an acoustic version by a band called The Moon Loungers. But yeah, that Starship original is beyond horrible.
Absolutely 100% disagree.
We built this city is a great song.
I'd rather listen non stop to Disco duck than anything from the last 10 years music doesn't exist anymore
When Barry Manilow came out with a greatest hits collection I said to my friend “what a great gift for someone you don’t like”. Guess what he gave me for my birthday. Maybe that’s how this song got to number 1?
Barry's work was actually listenable, it was the constant repetition airplay that killed all desire to hear it.
His worst offering by far was "(Lady That Was)Some kind of Friend(You Turned Out To Be)" in 1982. There's Barry on the album cover dressed in black leather and trying really hard to look all tough.... MAXIMUM CRINGE
The song actually was in Saturday Night Fever. It’s heard in the background at the dance studio when the creepy instructor is teaching the old ladies to disco. And I freaking hate that I know that!
If I remember correctly another Dees song “Dr Disco” was also used in that movie when Tony & his crew were arriving at the disco.
I can honestly say I have never seen that movie
@coogan8825 But to their credit, the producers of "Saturday Night Fever" LEFT IT OFF THE SOUNDTRACK ALBUM!!!
@@MetFan37 Yes I have to say it would have lessened an iconic and awesome soundtrack with great music by having a kitschy novelty song like Disco Duck on it. I'm so glad that it was not included on it.
@@MetFan37 - The Professor mentioned that in the video: Dees's manager wouldn't let them put it on the soundtrack, because he thought it would cut into sales of Dees's own records!
I had to laugh when "Macarena" was included in your montage of the worst pre-2000 songs.
I was working in the radio business in Los Angeles back in the '90s, and when "Macarena" became such a huge hit, I actually sent Rick Dees a note, telling him it would be a missed opportunity if he didn't cash in on the song's popularity to make a "Disco Duck" sequel, "Quackarena." I even got a faxed-back note from Rick that said, "Love it!"
Fortunately for you, I guess, he never went into the studio to record it.
Quackarena...as a song parody maker myself that's genius!
Awesome story. Thanks for sharing.
That is the funniest thing I've read all day! I'm still laughing out loud! If he had done it and used Daffy Ducks voice for the chorus it would STILL be a hit! hahahaha
Holy crap! That is an effing awesome idea.. I'm already imagining a video for it.
🦆 "HEEEEEY, Quakerena!" 🦆
It Would Have Worked He Should Have
Sometimes a song is written just to make you roll your eyes and smile. Disco Duck, Barbie Girl and MmmBop exists for no reason other than to, once in a while, knock you off the tracks and laugh at life for a while and make you think that it's not all bad.
and thats why 'we built this city' and 'footloose' are magnitudes worse than 'disco duck'.
I'm sorry but you are going to have to remove Mmmbop, its a masterpiece. I mean it! I'm an aging rock chick with eclectic tastes and I loved it straight away and I was old enough to be the band's older (ahem) sister. I still love it. I've always hated that freakin duck though. Barbie Girl makes the fillings in my teeth ache.
@@easterworshipper5579 yes, because they take themselves seriously.
I rather like Barbie Girl, just a silly fun song. I bought the CD at a used record store just for fun. I was quite surprised that the ballads in the CD are quite good, and even better is Aquarius on their 2nd CD, which is easily in my top 100 favorite songs.
They’re the perfect songs for losing yourself in stupidness.
I realize I am late to the party here. I just subscribed to you few days ago. By and large, I enjoy your content. But good grief, child! This is simply a happy, peppy little song. It has always brightened my mood since it came out when I was 18. Let it go, darlin'!
This song did so well because most of us saw it more as a poke at disco and novelty song than anything else. We were so busy laughing that we inadvertently turned it into a hit. 😂😂😂
I most certainly did see it that way.
I was young. I was born in 70. But my siblings were 10 and 9 years older than me, so I still saw the cultural scene of the 70s, through them. There was no middle ground. No one was a moderate on the subject. One either loved...or absolutely HATED Disco. Thankfully, I was raised by the "hated Disco" side of the debate.
Hey, it hit #1. Something none of us have done. Good for Rick.
THIS! Hell I didn't like the song but We don't have a #1 Record - Soooo....
It also gave adults the chance to sing Sucks instead of duck....the point of the whole song.
Says more about the morons who bought this piece of garbage than anything Rick had going for him. Rappers have sold millions (billions?) of records but that doesn't make it a noteworthy accomplishment that should be admired.
18:06 Point of clarification -- Rick never stopped hosting the Weekly Top 40. He still hosts it today. What happened in 2004 was that Casey left American Top 40, handing over the reins to Ryan Seacrest. Rick was considered to take over for Casey, but wasn't chosen in the end. The Weekly Top 40 was also dropped from ABC Radio Networks around that same time, but Rick continued hosting the show using different distributors with no break in continuity. The show had its 40th anniversary last year.
I believe Casey left due to them, not renewing his contract with for a significant increase so he left and created his own countdown!
@@shybone6833 Actually Westwood One created it for him. They just used his name, and Casey knew that he was associated with American Top 40, and he wanted to revive that brand with WW1. They said no, and WW1 was not coming through on their end...so Casey changed distributors and AT40 was revived.
@@shybone6833 That was back in 1988. Casey's Top 40 aired from 1989 to 1998 before he rejoined AT40, which had stopped airing in 1995 after it puttered along with Shadoe Stevens as host.
Disco wasn’t great music, but it WAS FUN to DANCE TO!
I was a young kid when it came out and LOVED it. Sometimes songs can just be fun and it’s ok. It’s bad…but it brings back such awesome memories of dancing to it in our living room. I’ll never hate it because it reminds me of being young.
i liked it as a kid
Don’t blame you! I was a young girl when I first heard this and used to love it. Now I realize why people think it’s a bad song.
100%. As I watch this video, I am smiling and laughing.
Kristi R I Great comment by you! I couldn't have said any better myself. That is the special thing about songs like Disco Duck. It brings us back to different time in our lives. Disco Duck is very special to ones like us.
I'm 55 and agree with you fully.
Disco duck proves one thing, people like to be silly on occasion. I was a kid when it came out and I loved it. I loved it for the same reason I loved the chipmunks Christmas album I got in ‘78 or “79: it was silly and fun. And it made me laugh.
Goodness knows we all need to laugh a little and not take life so seriously all the time.
About that time Ray Stevens The Streak came out that actually may be worse than Disco Duck, to some.
Yesterday as the Chipmunks were playing on the radio, my 10 year old told me "this is the best Christmas song... EVER!"
Two words to consider...
Chipmunk Punk.
You want AWFUL? You have AWFUL.
Still better than today's soul sapping music
..no way... There's lots of good or outstanding or kick-a** pop tunes,, Bruno Mars with 24 Karat Magic,, " this one's for the players,, gangsters" (drug dealers of various kinds LOL),, and " I'm a dangerous man with a little money in my pocket",, basically a tune about the club when business is going on...
“Gucci gang Gucci gang Gucci gang”
#1 hit
Agree 100% Dan Ackroyd Alluded to This As Elwood Blues in Blues Brothers 2000
@@FredChristianImpact "By the year 2006 the music known today as the blues will exist only in the classical records department in your local public library".
I'd listen to disco duck 24/7 rather then 3 min of todays so called hits
hubby has forbidden "We built this city" from the house. As a teen when the song came out, he stated it was on the radio every third song during his 2 hour drafting class. the kids (now 23 and 20) love to pick at him about it by playing it on their phones or just belting the opening line out in the car.
100% agree. Only sing I really hate hearing.
Disco Duck was a kitschy novelty tune that caught on for some unknown reason. Sometimes we need a bit of silliness in our lives, kudos to Rick Dees, Ray Stevens, The Playmates, Stompin Tom Connors, Weird Al, Randy Stonehill, and all the others who teach us to not be so serious all the time.
...Tom Lehrer, Stan Freberg, Bob Rivers...
Yep for real just like movies you got comedy, action, drama, horror like people let’s get real ok 👍 it was a hit enough said
Exactly!!! Awesome tune. Awesome times! And I was but a baby at the time!!!!
Honorable mention to the Smothers Brothers.
I agree we all have our guilty pleasures and that's okay not everything's has to be a masterpiece
If "Disco Duck" wasn't bad enough, there was a follow-up called "Discorilla". Until I watched this video, I had mercifully forgotten both of them. Thanks for bringing back my teenage trauma.
One of the few times I'm glad I missed the 70's.
PTSD?
@@aspenrebel Disco was bad enough, but "Disco Duck" took everything bad about disco, turned it up to 11, then overplayed it until I stopped listening to the radio. Yes, PTSD.
@@ladykoiwolfe at least you missed 5 years of it. It was horrifying!!
@@aspenrebel i have heard the BeeGees. I shudder.
So you say the whole planet agrees with you? What planet are you living on anyway? Mars? Disco Duck was a very much loved song in my grade school class in the 70's. Lots of great memories of this song. How much do you remember of the 70's and Disco Duck? You don't look very old to me. We Built This City was very much hated song in my high school in the 80's. What is there to like about We Built this City? The corny title and corny lyrics? The drum machine? The fake electronic noises? The shrill vocals? The cheesy video? The band selling out to just make money? Give me break will you with your obvious gaslighting saying anyone that doesn't agree with you needs to get their ears checked.
I like we built this city lol. My dad played it all the time. Disco duck, I've never heard but I'll listen to it.
I grew up in Memphis and Rick Dees was "must listen to" radio in town. He was easily the funniest morning D-jay ever in Memphis. I later heard his show in LA and I thought it had lost some of its mad cap edge. Part of Ricks charm was that WMPS was a minor station compared to WHBQ, where the big Djay was George Klein, a High School friend of Elvis. Rick could be as wild and irreverent as he wanted to be because initially everyone was listening to the other station. But his audience grew quickly, and everyone in Memphis can remember starting the morning off laughing at his antics on the radio. It was a clean show compared to what was to come. My friend's father was head of the traffic division in Memphis, and frequently police would pull over erratic drivers only to find they were convulsing with laughter listening to Dee's morning show. I always heard Disco Duck as a spoof of Disco that was so competently performed by seasoned Memphis musicians it actually became a hit.
Thank you for the info! I was in high school during his enormous popularity here in California! KIIS fm WAS the station to listen to in Southern california.
I’m from Memphis as well.The guy that did the duck voice lived in my apartments.All of the little kids would wait for him to come outside and he would talk with the duck voice on the record and we would all laugh like crazy. I did some research and Dees made a lot of money and the duck voice guy sued him and that drug out forever.
Were you a big fan of FM100 in the 80s like I was too?
So cool to hear that he was a very entertaining guy on his radio show!
@@savageishbu native memphian. i listened to it in my formative years in the 80s
There are other novelty songs out there, and part of their appeal is they're so unique and different from everything else. Almost every parody that Weird Al Yankovich did was a hoot, from "I Lost on Jeopardy" to "Eat It" to "Yoda". There was that song "Pac-Man Fever". There was Jim Stafford's "Cow Patty". And what about Julie Brown's "Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" and Rupert Holmes' "Answering Machine". Not every song has to be a musical masterpiece.
Because I just love Weird Al. Period.
Homecoming Queen was so much fun!
Got to check out Answering Machine.
Jim Stafford, Wildwood Weed. Sittin' on that sack of seed! lol Stafford is a genius and a very under rated entertainer.
Bingo!
@@dalemartell8639 I was just going to say Jim Stafford sitting on that sack of seed.
Okay my novelty memory “the Streak!”
I really thought you were going to say Tiny Tim and Tip Toe Through the Tulips.
I laughed when you educated me that Hurt Me Make Me Write Bad Checks was a song. Always thought it was a bad pick up line. 🤣
Tiptoe through the tulips was truly the worst song ever
I also thought he was going to say Tip Toe.
Tip Toe inspired record burnings, it made some people genuinely mad, lol
Okay, we've found the song which inspired Jerry Springer to write a check to a hooker!
BTW a friend of mine's brother wrote a check to a hooker.
It bounced.
The pimp was banging on his door before sunup.
It was funny AF.
Rick Dees is a hero for exposing the BS in the music industry. He did it all tongue in cheek.
i agree, I think the professor was a little hard on Rick! With that said, I still love the content from this channel! Great job!
The thing about Disco Duck was that whenever it came on the radio people immediately smiled and giggled. It was impossible to maintain a grumpy mood if that song came on. And I'm sure that's what Rick Dees intended. I think that's why it was popular: it was lighthearted comedy and made 1st listeners say out loud "what the heck?!" lol. It wasn't totally foreign in the era of Ray Stevens, who also would get a song on the radio once in awhile purely for laughs. Disco Duck was also a vicious earworm.
The duck voice made it impossible not to laugh.
Disco Duck was hilarious. It was never mean to be taken seriously. That’s why I can’t rank it among the worst ever list. I have always tended to like novelty songs.
Is it just me or is there some kind of tradition of DJs making bad music that makes people laugh?
@@kevinscheuller4429 That's a good point. It was not meant to be taken seriously, so it ends up in the "So Bad It's Good" category. I would put forward things like "Cause I'm A Blonde" and "Aliens ate my Buick" and anything by the "Rubber Bandits" (Bag of Glue, Horse Outside, Black Man, I like to Shift Girls).
"Escape" (The Piña Colada Song) is a great contender for worst song, but the funny twist saves it.
If you want bad, I'd be looking for Captain and Tennille or a real stinker ... Yoko Ono's screeching ... if you can even call that music.
I like some songs that I admit are terrible. I can also listen to a terrible song all the way through.
It might be a terrible song, but I have great memories of roller skating to Disco Duck as a kid in the '80s!
I did it when the song came out. It was Wierd Al before he became known.
Me too! My sister and I used to dance and jump on the bed listening to Disco Duck.
My mom used to ice skate to these songs! Similar thing.
I was born in 1971 and am happy to say I had never heard Disco Duck until today. Thanks, professor.
Me neither
It's the stuff of demonic nightmares!
Where have you been living, under a rock?
same year. remember the song well
I remember it was on one of those K-Tel "best-of" record releases.
I was born in 71 too, and unfortunately I remember it.
A few years back, I was going to the record shop and my mom asked me to pick up some disco music for her. I am not a fan of disco music, but I bought her the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and a Donna Summer album. When I got home, my mom didn't like what I got her. She said "I wanted disco music. You know like Disco Duck."
When you say you don't care for disco, be careful. Think of Rod Stewart with "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy. Or the Rolling Stones with "Missing You" and disco was it when we seen it bleed over to British super band Pink Floyd and " Another Brick In The Wall" as well as country with Conway Twitty and The Mandrel Sisters and don't forget the Bee Gees from Australia and a hint of disco in Australia's big of biggest, AC/DC. Popularity had many looking to do disco because in those days of old, disco was hotter than hot. It was absolutely on fire. I was a bit shaken but I believed, "I Will Survive". I'd also say "Sultans Of Swing" was one, and others that pulled us from those Dire Straights. Pun intended all the way. Lol
Donna Summer was GREAT!
What I remember the most about 1976 is the Bicentennial. It was a strange year, people were generally in a good mood. That might explain the popularity of a silly song.
I honestly think the reason it doesn't make those lists - you also failed to mention "Monster Mash" on that list, another VERY BAD novelty song but better than Disco Duck (honestly, a song I hadn't even THOUGHT about in decades until I watched this video) - is that they aren't considered REAL SONGS. I mean, at least those other songs are REAL music, they were made by serious musicians. Certainly, most of them were actual hits, too. I recognize the criticism of some of those songs more as opinions hitting at the MUSICIANS, NOT so much the music. People love to hate on Hanson, Vanilla Ice, even Michael Jackson (and think the theme of Ebony & Ivory is chintzy TODAY, not so much in its day). Take those opinions with a grain of salt. If I remember the reaction of the adults in my life in '76, Disco Duck made them laugh. We had just had the long gas lines in the early '70s, we just came out of Vietnam, there had been some really heavy stuff going on in the US for a while, then people were ready to party, and we have the Bicentennial, and people were ready to just be happy about something. I think that's why it hit a chord with people at that time. It just made them laugh, they didn't have to take something so seriously. Take it in its time period - it gave people a smile. They didn't think it was a GOOD song, they thought it was a GOOD LAUGH. It makes people smile. Laughter is the best medicine. We all needed a break from the somber times that had just happened. There was plenty of good music. But very few songs that made us giggle.
I was 24 during the Bicentennial. Your analysis is "right on." Your sociological portrait is as astute as it comes.
And, yes, the song was funny in a silly kind of way. 🎉🎉🎉❤
We could certainly use something like that NOW!!! Things are a LOT worse than anything in the 70's!
Great point, “they didn’t think it was a great song it was a great laugh”. Sometimes songs are analyzed based on their technical and artistic value when in fact, they are usually created to entertain.
My God, someone actually read all that pias clap trap? Music is meant to be enjoyed! Why should everything "mean" something? And Disco Duck was fun! Far better than much of the disgusting stuff the call rap! If you seriously are looking for a song to hate? I'd go just a few years earlier with what truly has to be the worst song ever conceived, and that would be Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through the Tulips! I'd rather take an ice pick to my ears!
Yeah I was thinking a lot of what your were, as well. Most lists probably don't include it because it IS a novelty song. Those lists are most likely focusing more on the songs that are not novelties.
I remember though when Disco Duck was on the radio a lot in the late 70's, and I would cringe every time, and I was only 5 or 6.
Thing is, Saturday Night Fever would be made almost TWO YEARS later. So, evidently, Disco Duck DID NOT kill off the genre…
Exactly. I was thrilled that disco was going to die off. Then came the Bee Gees and the album for that movie and it resurrected disco for years.
Born in 1977, I wasn’t aware of the disco era and am surprised by the hatred of disco. It’s legitimately good music.
I was born in the 80s, but no, disco is terrible. It can stay in the 70s.
It was for dancing...I worked in 2 different discos. Was a fun time.
When I was just starting my mastering lab in 1985, I met and worked with "Bo" Bohanan. He previously worked for Ardent Mastering in Memphis. He told the story about when a local DJ came in with a song to make a single. After he and Larry got the single cut, they had to cancel the remaining sessions because they couldn't compose themselves. "Who in their right mind would write a song called 'Disco Duck'". Later they were stunned when it went platinum, and had to cut more master disks.
I think most people who listen to music do not think of song structure. They think about how that song makes them feel or what memories they bring back. Because of this I think "Disco Duck" will always bring a smile to those who know and experienced it live. Maybe just an eye roll, but it sparks a memory for sure.
"Monster Mash" is worse.
As far as I can tell, very few listen or even pay attention to lyrics or the song content. They just focus on the beat and maybe the hook. That’s why there so many lists that state “songs you thought were about this but were actually about that”.
Oh you Quack me up Prof! Sorry, I couldn't resist.....
I'm from that Era and back at the time, it made 100% sense. Everyone used to actually dance to songs, and in between drinking and doing blow, they needed something to break it all up for a moment to have a collective laugh. And that was Disco Duck. Let me put it this way. It was the Macarena of its time.
As long as they could dance to it, disco nuts didn’t care what the song was. Not unlike todays pop music.
In other words, like a lot of bad decisions, it was fueled by drugs.
I suspect "worst song" lists are going to be full of songs that enough people like that they're played often enough to stick in the memory and are more likely to be divisive than truly bad. Truly bad songs I feel like would just get forgotten because nobody's playing them enough for anyone to remember.
I haven't listened to Disco Duck in years. I just listened to it and it sounded great! I love Disco Duck every bit as much now as I did in 1976. Your video got me to listen to Disco Duck again after many years and is giving me so much enjoyment now. Thank you!
I started this video thinking that no matter what the Professor said, I was going to say "Disco Duck". The reveal at 4:25 came and I laughed out loud, completely vindicated in my hatred for this wretched mess. Thank you, Professor.
Listening to Disco Duck brings back so many fun memories. I miss the 70's. My favorite memory of Disco Duck is learning to disco dance to it and Car Wash in gym class. Both #1 hits.
Have you ever thought of analyzing select KTEL album compilations?
As a young teen I thought this was a fun song, and even had a 45 that I wish I still had just for the nostalgia of it. As I listen to it in recent years, it's just silliness. I will say as you mentioned, We Built This City...I never understood how it got tagged as a bad song. I still love listening to it.
I still have mine. I'll be 57 in a few weeks.
Radio Ga Ga does not get enough hate. Nor does Maneater.
With you on Built This City. Just don't understand all the hate
@@theman4884 That's idiotic. "The song, which makes a nostalgic defense of the radio format, was a worldwide success for the band, reaching number one in 19 countries..." (Wikipedia) Also, it has Freddie Mercury on it.
@@mikeymutual5489 Doesn't mean it does not suck.
I remember Rick Dee's weekly top 40! What a time to be alive!
I remember it starting as "The Weekly Top 30", competing with the now four-hour American Top 40 in 1979.
What’s ironic, Dees wrote this song making fun of the disco movement, so it was never meant to be taken seriously. I think the single was so popular because they were in on the joke.
Having been alive to suffer through this pile of duck 💩 I can say that even though it was funny it was unironically played everywhere 🤮
...a CLASSIC moment of, "ahead of the curve" thinking for Rick, it was brilliant....
Oh, no wonder it’s not a disco song!
Every time I think about the disco era... i think about Frank Zappa's "Dancing Fool" pretty much sums it up for me. 😂
Indeed! Also, the disco era and Bobby Brown Goes Down go hand in greasy hand.
Sheik Yurbouti! Watched him perform live on SNL Soundstage, 1978.
The thing about music is, it ties us to our memories. I was nine when this charted. I remember this was a funny time. The USA was celebrating its 200th birthday. Yes it's a bad song, but you can't beat nostalgia.
Postmodern Jukebox's cover of Barbie Girl is actually really good. Like REALLY good.
Our local AM station ran the top 100 songs of the previous year on New Year’s Day. My sister and I listened all afternoon to hear the #1 for 1966. When it came on, we screamed NO!!! The song was Winchester Cathedral.
That, too, had to be a sendup of 1920s singing.
I remember that!
Oh yes. Cringy lol
Disco Duck WAS a novelty song and I, like you, could have done with never hearing the Ken Pruitt duck voice. But I loved the orchestration and the chorus which I think is what put this song over the top. Do I listen to it very often? No. Is it in my collection? Yes.
For me, it's the background music (orchestration) that makes Disco Duck worth listening to. All some listeners get out of the song is the image of that stupid duck. They seem to ignore the music itself.
I had this 45 record when I was a kid. I actually bought it with my allowance money. I also had Popcorn by Hot Butter. I liked some weird stuff when I was a kid. Muskrat Love by Captain and Tenille. Disco Duck was played at the skating rink too.
I did part with my Disco Duck record in my 20s. I kept Music Box Dancer by Frank Mills 1979. Love this one! Peaked at #3 in May of 1979. I am going to ❤ this series!
Muskrat love was an awesome goofy song. Do you remember the cartoon muskrats they use to play when they played it on TV?
Muskrat Love is actually a cover, believe it or not!
@@Michael-bk5nz Yes. America.
@@Michael-bk5nz what?!? Too funny, didn't know that
@@MyName-pl7zn Yes. Gotta love the 70s.
*Disco Duck* depends if you are a Yakky Duck fan or not. Or even Donald Duck. If you aren't a fan of Donald and Yakky, then you obviously aren't going to like Disco Duck.
Sarah Connor's *Bounce* and N*SYNC's *Bye, Bye, Bye* both deserve a special place in hell. Of course, both songs are 21st century. I'd say pick a Yoko Ono song for worst song of the 20th century.
I'd also say that "Disco Demolition Night" (as mentioned below) has more to do with the fall of disco, the fall of the Bee Gees and John Travolta having a bad 1980's.
16:00 And that's why that bozo is no longer Rick Dees' manager!
I love "We Built This City". Decades ago in the late 70's, I worked construction in a new city suburb of a major metro while deployed with the Army Corp of Engineers. I returned to the place and now call it my home. In the mid-90's, "Jefferson Starship" was at the nearby State fair and when they played, "Built This City", I was in tears. I still love that song musically and personally.
I like it as well
Ditto!
Why do they crucify "built this city" is beyond me. A song is a song. There are worse.there's a long list. Check your collection; you'll find one or two.
As someone who grew up listening to "Somebody to Love" and other classic '60s songs -- albeit listening to them in the '80s and '90s -- I was very disappointed upon hearing "We Built This City". The production slicker than Grace herself, and the synths were harsh. To me, it represented the hippies becoming yuppies in audio form, eschewing their former values for Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" mantra.
I found it most ironic when Grace Slick complained about corporations changing their names, when her band was on its brand new third name at the time. Also, they are a San Francisco band singing about building LA on rock and roll... at least until it turns into one of those songs that references a bunch of random cities like "Heart of Rock and Roll" in a fake traffic report of all things.
@@JonathanLedbetter I see your points. Starship was an evolution of Airplane. It was synthed up like many tunes of that time. I just think it resonates how we are all part of something bigger.
It was written as a novelty parody song and it was a good one.
Disco died at the end of the 70s mainly because it overwhelmed the pop charts for too long AND there was plenty of great music coming out from other genres (rock, prog, folk, country, new wave & punk, for instance) to take its place. I fully believe if there was a significant amount of great music coming out today, hip hop might not be near as dominant in the world of pop today.
-screwyootube1
*I'd say that "Disco Demolition Night" had something to do with that. Now we desperately need a "Rap Demolition Night" to destroy that mistake once and for all! Spread the word people.*
*PS - Blame the RIAA and their ilk labels for why rap has ruined mainstream music. Remember this quote from the original Vice City's Flash FM.*
*"We tell you what's good, then play it till you like it!"*
*PPS - All the good music went to video games in the 1990's. Check it out. Especially Castlevania and Mega Man OST's.*
You honestly cant forget Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face" when it comes to novelty hits. I know it hit number one in the U.K.
Was not as bad as the Birdie Song but there was even worse than that!
That was a good song lol
@@johnnyjohnson1326 My local FM station played it for a while. My parents who never listened to the radio would want to hear it as well as all of my siblings. It was quite the novelty hit. I had no idea it was killing really chart toppers.
It was a great social comment song.
It kept Vienna, by Ultravox, from the top spot in England, which pissed off a lot of DJ's.
Its a novelty... everyone loves a bit of novelty.
"Dancing Fool" by Zappa is the best burn on the disco era by far though.
I still have my worn out "DISCO SUCKS" t-shirt framed in my den.
You have the shirt? This I would love to see!
I may be totally wrong, but I’m a……
I also love Valley Girl by Frank's daughter Moon Unit Zappa, parodying the Valley Girl image that was popular in the 80s.
I always think of Disco Demolition Night…
@@xxlilly_playsxxkiz9980 Disco Demolition Night blew a hole in the field, and the White Sox had to forfeit the 2nd half of that double header. IT WAS WORTH IT!
Starship's attempt at a comeback still gives me night terrors. Imagine hating a song from the moment that you first Heard it. THEN going to you 4th hour choir class and finding out that you 8th grade teacher was such a huge fan of Jefferson Airplane that he starts handing out sheet music for it and Sarah.
The whole class lobbied against the song and several kids walked out. Mr Stafferoni (yes tha was his name and yes we called him Mr Staff) wouldn't budge. So for eight weeks we were forced to sing these songs or get an F. He resurrected them both for spring choir competition. We told him he would finish dead last. He threatened our grades... We took the hit and sang them like we were strangling the special ed kids.
Fast forward a year. Concert/Chamber Choir. Mr Pufhal wanted to do the same songs for the Autumn Pops Concert.
That's four years of being infested with those songs that were universally hated by every kid in my choir class.
😂😂😂😂. We sang The Autumn Leaves day in and day out. It would have been a dream to sing anything else. Trade ya!
@@sharonbowers9929 Gladly.
Proof that people hated boomers even back in the 80's.
@@suspiciouswatermelon7639 Nothing about boomers. The 60s and 70s were the best times in popular music. Real talent, Lots of classically trained musicians, music executives who were willing to take risks on unusual acts, No MTV to hamper less attractive musicians. You don't have that today.
@@ChipmunkRapidsMadMan1869 There was no shortage of 35 yo douches in the mid 80's who refused to shut up about how great the 60's were. I was 15 years old at the time and I hated this.
Actually, ACTUALLY I always have associated Disco Duck with the movie Howard the Duck!!!!!! I hate ‘em BOTH!!!!!!!!!!😝😝😝😝😝😝🤪
I don't know how the US charts work (or did work) but, here in the UK, it was solely based on actual record sales. Sadly, a lot of "novelty" songs became big hits over here because children liked them, so parents would but the records to keep their kids happy for a while. Yes, Disco Duck is dire, but you want to check out some of the stuff we've had as hits over here (Mr Blobby, St Winnifred's School Choir, Lena Zavaroni, Teletubbies, etc), some even getting to number 1 ... they have to be contenders ...
I was thinking the same. My Grandma actually said she did not want the Grandma song it was rubbish, floral dance the list is endless
Disco Duck could only have existed in the 1970's...The Decade that Taste Forgot. From Mood Rings, to Pet Rocks...Leisure Suits to Tube Tops. From Esalen to E.S.T to Primal Therapy. From Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep to Junk Food Junkie... God I miss the '70's! (Some say I've never really left the 1970's)
Hey, don' be dis'n on tube tops.
Them thar boobie girdles put hick-billies at the top of fashion
Great decade to go thru high school.
Damn was to young to appreciate the 70s tube tops and hot pants.
@@galeaiken3841 I went to Catholic school for the most part until high school, and wore tube tops and hot pants as a kindergartner in the '70s, because my mom dressed me. My mom said the nuns called her - had to be in 70, 71 - and told her, "come and get your daughter and change her clothes, this is too sexy for a child to wear" (kindergarten didn't wear uniforms). My mom said she told them, "she's 5 years old, if you think ANYTHING she wears is sexy, you are sick in the head, I'm not picking her up." And she didn't. And that's pretty much how I learned to be a rebel.
Don't forget the Burtha Butt Boogie 🤣
I love Disco Duck, did'nt know it went to #1. My dad had it on an album that was all weird songs. Have'nt heard it since the mid 80s.
It’s been a minute, huh?
I remember in the past at different times, these 3 songs being mentioned as worst; Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks, Daddy Don't You Walk so Fast by Wayne Newton, and Billy Don't Be a Hero by Paper Lace. None are disco, but pretty cheesy. I always thought Disco Duck was kind of a joke song that parents laughed at, but kids loved. As for Disco, one of the songs from that era that I thought was a very nice song was "If I can't have You" by Yvonne Elliman off the Saturday Night Fever album. Maybe one of the reasons I like it so much is it takes me back to when I was a teenager - wonderful times.
Dude, the song was pure genius. Not for its musicality, but for its disco killing intent. I do believe it was made to parody and ridicule disco. My disco loving friends hated it. My rock loving friends played in public whenever they could, just for giggles.
Now that's funny.
I liked rock, I hated it too
Exactly! Ranks right up there with "Disco Demolition Night"
I posted something along the very same lines... 😁
"... Now, I'm guessing here, but I'm willing to guess that its #1 status came from those who enjoyed making fun of disco. If you were a Rocker, you could not like disco. You would "lose your cred".
I even went to one of those shops in the mall that would make you a tee-shirt that said anything you wanted, and had them make me a shirt that said "Disco Fever: Induce Vomiting". I hated disco so very much..."
I've been a fan of Rick Dees since I was in high school. This was late 80's long after Disco Duck. I called his Weekly Top 40 show so much that I finally got on the show in 1990 as a guest DJ. Rick Dees actually called my house and recorded me for the show.
Jericho29, I'm with you, brother! Great to know that other real people on here have been treated to the kindness and fun, unassuming humanity and coolness of the real in-person Rick Dees!
Lies
Wow, Prof, tell us how you really feel about this song! lol The 'worst song' idea is just so subjective. Something the rest of us may consider a hidden gem, or one-hit wonder, might drive others straight up the wall. Barely remember this song and never saw him perform it - despite watching American Bandstand every Saturday, and all the other performance shows at the time. For me, it is not good but not 'the worst' and not much different from parodies done later (Weird Al, though uses the actual music and just changes the words) or just plain weird and funny songs - ala Ray Stevens (The Streak, anyone?). But had fun listening and laughing today.
If Rick Dees single handedly killed disco by writing “Disco duck”, IMO he belongs in the rock HOF; we owe him a tremendous “thank you”.
Also, love your conclusion! I am a punk rock fan, but I like a lot of genres, and disco (good disco) never deserved the trashing it's gotten. It is hard to believe that Lowdown and Still the One were surpassed by Disco Duck.
It's hard to believe Trump was elected president, but theres a long history of stupid I guess!?
I always thought of disco as being a fad that EVERYBODY tried to get in on. There was some damn good disco music. There was also some terrible music. I think the terrible overshadowed the good songs, and the real good talent got taken down with it.
@@JW-eq3vj The good Disco was soul/R&B based. Even at the end of Disco 1979-1980, The Whispers, Evelyn Champagne King, Donna Summer, Pointer Sisters, Cameo, Midnight Star were churning out dancable R&B well into the 80s. Then the change happened when disco went underground and re-emerged in Chicago as House music...and then Detroit got in on it and it evolved into Techno.
I need to listen to these songs at school today and realize how much Disco Duck really sucked compared to these songs.
Oh Lordy,how we savaged "Still The One" at school. Disco Duck nowhere near as bad. "We Built This City....even worse because of the Majesty of the Starship's original pedigree but people really dug these songs. No accounting for taste. Aw,wait,what about "Run,Joey Run!?" or "The Last Game of The Season." by the messianic David Geddes.
Disco is one of my all-time favorite music genres. I love The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, KC and The Sunshine Band, Chic, The Village People, Gloria Gaynor and so much more. Since I am a big disco fan, I always enjoyed Disco Duck. It is a fun, novelty, song. It's the type of song that you're not supposed to take seriously, you just have fun with it.
You're a brave man Stephen for this comment and while I may disagree with your taste in the genre I must admit when Staying Alive is playing I tap my foot every single time 😂
It is part of my childhood! I loved it and disco. I still love disco.
I think Sweet Child of Mine is worse than Disco Duck! His voice is like nails on a chalk board.
@@donnapauley6491 His voice is not great. November Rain is a stone cold classic for my money with an epic video.
Disco can't easily be dismissed. Fairly sure there are many that still love the genre. Embrace your inner disco people!! Even our 31 year old loves it 😉😊
I love this song! It was light hearted and fun. Nothing wrong with that. I love songs like that. In the mid 70’s a collection of songs came out called 40 funky hits, that included Mr. Custer, Seven little girls, Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor and many more. I requested that set for Christmas the year it came out. Santa brought it to me and I still have it. I also have it on a playlist in my Apple Music.
Yes, I agree. I don't think this narrator remembers or has hear even once the songs you have listed. Remember >>> "The Ballad of Irving"? "He was short and fat and road out of the west with a Mogan David on his silver vest ..."
I don't remember that title, or there being that many songs on it, but I did at least have a similar album at that time? I remember Monster Mash and Purple People Eater and (now that you mention it) The Witch Doctor and Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini; not sure if mine had Snoopy and the Red Baron or if I learned that off the radio. I think the cover of my album had art of some monsters doing the Monster Mash.
@@kenthompson5723 I don’t remember that song.
@@woodelfm.2462 I love the songs you mentioned too. The 40 Funky Hits was a 3 record set that was sold on TV only.
@@dmaynardabu Type the song's title into YT search. It's the first song that shows up.
This episode was HILARIOUS! So entertaining.
I was six when this came out, and I thought it was the most awesome song in the world! It still makes me happy when I hear it. Did you hate on The Streak too?😟 Boogity Boogity!
No one can hate on “the streak”. I lost a cat back in May of ‘22 and spent several days crying. On the third day, Ray Stephens’ “the streak” showed up in my RUclips. I guess someone thought I needed something to make me smile. I discovered it’s impossible to cry while listening to Ray Stephens. I spent most of the day looking up his songs.
Silliness has its place and we were created for joy.
I love this song! I also love "We Built This City", "La Macarena", "Achy Breaky Hearty", leave this masterpiece alone! Kiss wish that they could have written a song as great as this. "Come on Barbie let's go party" - they don't write these classics anymore.
LOL! James, God must have given you your taste in music as revenge for that ... "Glencoe thing" ...😱😈😉 just kidding! but, "Cruel were the songs that ravaged my ears, and drove me to eat at McDonald's!"
I still know all the dance moves to Macarena!
I should point out that my Dad bought this single when it came out.
Of course you do - we all do.
My condolences.
I loved Disco Duck, and still perk up when it plays! Good to know he was a great man too…Scout counselor, etc! He deserves credit for making us laugh! Back in the 50’s we had Tan Shoes, and Pink Shoelaces by Dodie Stevens, and Purple People Eater….these songs are priceless! Oh what about Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight! There were many back then! 😊
I was. . 5 or 6, and I demanded my father buy me that record.
Realistically, since all the dance scenes, we’re done to the music of Boz Scaggs neglected to get permission first when they couldn’t obtain permission from Boz Scaggs they immediately to the Bee Gees which they had pretty much a whole album done and worked a few of the songs for the movie, including the duck that was over a weekend it’s amazing that the movie sucked up as well as it did you could never tell it wasn’t actually dance to the Bee Gees and by the way, disco duck was the song of its time and it was a great song your dead on this one professor of rock parody song live onto this just look at Al Yankovic and Jim Stafford, probably one of the greatest songs of all time Cow Patty❤
I think it hits different when a song is a novelty piece, because the measure isn't whether it's actually good or not but instead whether it's fun and funny. A truly good novelty song remains funny or at least fun perpetually, and will always at least bring a smile. A middling one will make you laugh the first time and then chuckle for the next few times you hear it but it gets old quickly and it ends up largely forgotten. Truly bad ones never get a laugh at all and are dismissed immediately.
I'd say this song falls into a rather unique spot on that spectrum.
I think you're wrong about the Disco Duck not having any "so bad it's good" appeal at all. I think it does, at least sort of, in a bizarre sort of way. It's bad enough to be amusing to laugh AT despite not being good enough to laugh WITH, but is simultaneously so mediocre that it cannot hold its humor value for long. Still, at the same time it's memorably bad enough that it hasn't entirely faded into obscurity and is still occasionally paraded around as the butt of jokes at its expense. The joke is amusing enough in its groan-worthy, "it's funny how crap this is" way to be humorous in small doses every once in a great while. It also has humor value to introduce this to those who haven't heard it before to get amusement out of their "ugh, wtf?!" reaction.
More importantly, it also serves well as an unintentional self-parody that highlights all the worst attributes of disco, and can be used to mock the genre with. The fact that it was a #1 hit at all spearheads the "what the fuck were people thinking?!" argument that works to label the entire Disco era as one collective bad idea. This alone has given the joke a longevity that it arguably doesn't deserve, but you gotta admit it serves very well as a weapon to skewer Disco with.
If Disco Duck brought about the end of disco, then maybe it's the hero rock fans didn't know they needed 😅
😏
Not even close. Disco peaked in 1979 - three years after Disco Duck!
@@vedere2 You are absolutely right; disco bashers and "Disco Duck" bashers keep having the chronology wrong on that. Four days before Professor Of Rock posted this video, I replied to him that disco bashers love to cite "Disco Duck" as an example of disco's downfall, but it came out when disco was on the upswing and even before the "Saturday Night Fever" upswing. Then the Professor did the same thing. What happened in 1979 was the stupid disco demolition, loads of disco 12 inches that some considered flooding the market, racism and homophobia of course, but as you said it was three years after release of 'Disco Duck." Generally I love rock AND disco.
Chicagoland radio personality Steve Dahl, brought about the end of disco with "Disco Demolition" held at (White Sox) Comiskey Park, on June 12, 1977.
@@benjaminhawthorne1969 Benjamin Hawthorn, The “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack (best selling soundtrack of all time until 1992) was released 156 days after the day you misstated as “the end of disco.” The Steve Dahl “Disco Demolition Night” event was on July 12, 1979, not June 12, 1977. Also, disco did not “end”; it continued to be made but less commonly and with much less popularity after 1979. Also it was not just the Comiskey Park destructive event that caused its downfall in popularity; other factors included racism, homophobia, and some people's resentment that some radio stations went disco, that some rockers tried disco, that TV commercials commonly had disco beats, that Ethel Merman made a whole disco album (which I actually liked), that record stores had sections of just disco 12 inches, instructional disco records that seeing reminded some rockers they did not know how to dance, etc.. Many thought the disco records destruction was stupid and many were angry that the second MLB game had to be forfeited.
Disco Duck is not deserving to be among the worst songs, and I would even say that it MAY have deserved it's #1 ranking for that week, that being said, if it had stayed there for for than 1 I would have questioned why. It is right up there with some of the best novelty songs like "Purple People Eater" and "Itsy Bitsy Tinee Winee Yellow Poka Dot Bikini", in my humble opinion.
Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini was garbage.
"Disco Duck" was a bit 'cheesy' but it wasn't the worst record of all time. Back in the disco era it seemed to be accepted by patrons of dance halls everywhere and did indeed reach number 1 in the US & Canada and 6 in the UK.
Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face" was far worse imo; number 1 in the UK and Australia, number 2 in Canada in 1981.
Thank you Rick Dees for making a great song in 1976 Disco Duck. I was in 3rd grade when it hit #1 and I have wonderful memories of it being played in our gym class, at the roller skating rinks, and at kid's parties. Disco Duck still sounds great in 2022!
I was in kindergarten when it hit, and it was the same experience for me.
Great memories for sure!
@@Trix897 Thank you for your reply Jane. I'm glad that you also had wonderful memories like I did of Disco Duck in 1976!
Yep, I remember everyone doing "shoot the duck" at the roller rink when disco duck was popular. I was 10 years old so at the time I thought it was great. A disco song for kids! The song still gives me the warm fuzzies when I hear it because it reminds of fun times as a kid. I guess you had to experience it that way to appreciate it. Now that you mention it, it seems a bit dopey. It's all about the memories!
c'MON MAN
But the real street cred… did you call the radio request line over and over?
About a week or 10 days after this song came out I stopped by the record store in the mall. There was a tray of about 100 copies of Disco Duck (45s) at the cash register ( clearly placed at the "impulse purchase" marketing location in the store ). I asked the guy behind the counter "why so many copies". He explained that dozens of people had come into the store requesting the song. They ordered a bunch. By the time the 45s arrived, the bubble had burst. I suspect they just threw them away ... IDK.
It was a stupid song that for some reason we loved. Probably because it was so silly it made us laugh.
I think “what does the Fox say” was worse!
Dude, I love love love all these songs! 💗 Apparently I’m not alone 🤷🏻♀️
Crowdpleaser's law of musical diminishing returns states that 'However bad you may think any song or tune is at the time of its release, there will always be much worse ones in the future until one day you remember any song you once despised with fondness.' Bad songs just fade into obscurity until reminded. Thanks Proffesssor!!!😅
It's a novelty song. It's not meant to be taken seriously. But the bass line slaps and I would say that is the hook that made it popular. The duck voice is the thing that after you hear it too many times will start to make you want to stab an icepick in your head. It's clear they got some pretty good musicians to play on the track. I get a laugh and a smile out of hearing it in small doses.
Too many times being one.
The b-side Is the backing track without the vocals and it's actually pretty good. They could've made a real song out of it.
I loved "Disco Duck" and still do! Rick Dees has a wonderful sense of humor.
I do too! I love it and hearing it brings back great memories of a much better time! 🪩🦆💃🏻🕺🏻
I still listen to this song and it still makes me laugh. How silly and wholesome. How can you be mad at that. If there were different more serious lyrics to this song no one would put it down as a real song.
Disco Duck even made it into Saturday Night Fever, the movie, in the dance studio where the perv instructor who claims to score with 64% of the broads (excuse me while I gag lol) heads a dance class to this tune. Not the highlight of the movie!!!!! And thank God they did not add this song to the album, which I LOVE!
Went all the way to number 4 here in Australia in 1976 .STILL LOVE IT