The song is also used in a popular Las Vegas video slot machine called "Ducks In A Row".
In the Beverly Hills 90210 episode "Duke's Bad Boy" Steve Sanders insults David Silver's producer by asking if his last hit was "Disco Duck."ĭJ Shadow sampled Disco Duck's trademark riff on the track "Right Thing/GDMFSOB," from his 2002 album The Private Press.
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Template:FactĪlso in 1977, Peter Pan Records put out a series of children's records featuring Irwin the Disco Duck.ĭisco Duck was also referenced in an episode of Animaniacs, when the Warner siblings attend a karaoke club and Dot Warner flips through the book, saying "See if they have Disco Duck!" It became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in October 1976 (and ranked 99 out of the 100 most popular songs of the year according to Billboard magazine).
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Scott and Willem a German Parody Version called "Tarzan Ist Wieder Da", and would later become the theme song of the defunct Philippine reality TV show The Misadventures of Maverick And Ariel. Disco Duck is a satirical disco novelty song performed by Memphis disc jockey Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. He is also well known for his 1 hit single 'Disco Duck,' a Satire of the Disco trend, credited to Rick. Dees also contributed to the USA Today syndicated radio program, as an entertainment reporter. His Weekly Top 40 competed with Casey Kasem 's American Top 40. The 1979 Disney-produced album Mickey Mouse Disco, a late entry into the disco genre, featured a track called "Macho Duck," (inspired mostly by the Village People hit, Macho Man) with the voice of Nash on the track, in response.ĭisco Duck was covered in 1977 by D.J. Rick Dees (born Rigdon Osmond Dees III, March 14, 1950) is an American radio host. Had Disco Duck been included in the film's soundtrack, royalties would have theoretically earned Dees at least $3.5 million, as the soundtrack has sold over 35 million copies to date. According to Dees, his manager at the time made the unwise decision to halt plans to include the song on the film's soundtrack because of fears that it would compete with sales of Dees's own album. On American Bandstand and other similar shows he lip-synched to the recording alone on stage with an unseen person performing the "duck" using a hand puppet, but when he appeared on The Midnight Special he gathered together a band, backup singers, and possibly even Pruitt, the voice of the duck on the record, and performed the song live.ĭisco Duck even made a "cameo" appearance in Saturday Night Fever, in a dance club scene in which a group of senior citizens were learning to dance disco-style. But after a brief mandatory hiatus, Dees was hired by WHBQ-AM, WMPS's primary competition in Memphis.īy the time Disco Duck had become a hit, Dees and his "Idiots" starting making the rounds of the popular TV music shows to promote the song. When Dees talked about the song on his show one morning, the program director, citing conflict of interest, promptly fired him. Station management expressly forbid Dees from playing the song on his own show, and rival stations refused to play it for fear of promoting the competition. Nationally it peaked at #1 on Octofor one week, but held the #2 spot for the following four weeks and stayed in the Top 10 for ten weeks altogether.įor all its success, Disco Duck was shunned by radio stations in Memphis, including WMPS-AM, the station Dees worked for at the time. To receive these updates automatically each day, subscribe by email using the box on the right and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.Disco Duck became a nationwide hit by the early fall of 1976. Arts Councilįor more about North Carolina’s history, arts and culture, visit Cultural Resources online.
He attended Grimsley High School and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in radio, television and motion pictures. Rigdon Dees III was born in Florida, but was raised in Greensboro. At the time of the novelty hit, Dees was working as a disk jockey at a radio station in Memphis, Tenn. On October 16, 1976, Rick Dees’ song “Disco Duck” hit number one on the Billboard charts.