Entry · catalog no. 1194
the funky chicken
/ /ðə ˈfʌŋki ˈtʃɪkən/ /thuh FUNK-ee CHIK-in
noun; also verb phrase, to do the funky chicken · Memphis, then nationwide · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
A dance built on the bird: arms out and flapping from the elbow, knees bent and turned in, the legs buckling and recovering underneath. Rufus Thomas named it and set it to a rhythm on Stax in 1969, and the record is what made it a step with a name rather than a thing people did at parties.
“He came off that wall doing the funky chicken and the whole floor gave him room.”
2.
By extension, any loose, flailing, undignified way of moving — used affectionately as often as not.
“Don't put him in the front row, he's going to be up there doing the funky chicken.”
Origin & Attribution
Memphis, 1969, out of Stax Records. Rufus Thomas — WDIA disc jockey, Beale Street Palace emcee, veteran of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, billed as the world's oldest teenager — told Rob Bowman he improvised it mid-set after playing with Willie Mitchell's band at the University of Tennessee, then worked it up at a date in Covington, Tennessee. He described the rhythm as the pattern of his earlier record The Dog, cut in half.
1969
Rufus Thomas records Do the Funky Chicken for Stax, produced by Al Bell and Tom Nixon with the Bar-Kays behind him
1970
The single peaks at number five R&B, twenty-eight pop, and eighteen in the UK; the album Do the Funky Chicken follows
1972
At Wattstax, 20 August, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Thomas performs it and pulls thousands of people out of the stands onto the field — filmed for the 1973 documentary
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Memphis, then nationwide · 1970s
Spoken by
Black Southerners first, nationally within months; a party and reunion staple since
$THEFUNThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded57 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
62/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1969
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Rufus Thomas, Do the Funky Chicken, Stax Records, 1969
song · recorded
■
Rob Bowman, Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, 1997, p. 196 — Thomas's own account of improvising the dance
book · printed
■
Wattstax, dir. Mel Stuart, 1973 — Thomas performing it at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 20 August 1972
film · documentary
■
+ Cite a sourceJoel Whitburn, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles 1942–1995, p. 442
reference · printed
See also