Could you imagine if a White House put this out today?

[thyme4change]

www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/06/13/chicken_fat_song_apple_iphone_5s_commercial_uses_kennedy_era_exercise_anthem.html

Sound Familiar?  If so, you may be a Baby Boomer who knows it from gym class. “Chicken Fat” was a product of President Kennedy’s Council on Physical Fitness, a program that sprang from Kennedy’s sense that the nation’s youth was, collectively, getting flabby. In 1961, the president appointed Bud Wilkinson, football coach at the University of Oklahoma, to direct the Council and devise a series of exercises youngsters could do to improve their fitness and gauge their progress. Meredith Willson, the composer of The Music Man, which had recently ended its Broadway run, contacted Wilkinson and said he wanted to write a fitness theme. Within a week, “Chicken Fat” was complete.

Here are the lyrics:

"School Version"

Touch down
Every morning
Ten times!
Not just
Now and then.
Give that chicken fat
Back to the chicken,
And don't be chicken again.
No, don't be chicken again.

Push up
Every morning
Ten times.
Push up
Starting low.
Once more on the rise.
Nuts to the flabby guys!
Go, you chicken fat, go away!
Go, you chicken fat, go!

* The rest of the lyrics to this masterpiece may be found HERE (includes both versions).  Sorry, but it's just too long to be shown on the boards in its entirety. - mmhmm, Politics moderator

[busymom]

Ugh!  Yes, I was part of the generation tormented by that song.  That song was played, I believe, all through the 60's... 

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

This must be a US thing - I don't recall ever hearing that song or the lyrics aired here in Canada - and yes, I'm old enough to have heard it if it had been.

[Virgil Showlion]

I prefer the 2010's version:

Food stamps
Every morning
Ten times!
Not just
Now and then.
Kick that Starbucks habit,
See that skim milk grab it,
And don't buy whole milk again.
No, don't buy whole milk again.

Self esteem
Every morning
Ten times.
Don't binge
Take a selfie.
Bad genetics are to blame.
Don't tease fatty, you'll cause shame!
But don't buy whole milk again.
No, don't buy whole milk again.

[moon/Laura]

moving to YMOT at thyme's request.

[Chocolate Lover]

I've heard it on the commercial and wondered where on earth they got that song. Now that I know it's even more of a   moment than it was before. 

[Deleted]

This was played at the beginning of every gym class, and we "performed" to it.

I'm not sure why a White House couldn't put this out today. Is there something offensive in the lyrics you don't show?  Otherwise, it's just a song to exercise to . . . sort of like dance aerobics in the 1980s. I wouldn't mind finding a copy.

Now our other great girls' gym exercise whose lyrics consisted of "We must, we must, we must increase our bust" would be considered offensive today. 

[thyme4change]

I suspect some overly sensitive soul would not be happy about a song calling inactive children "Chicken Fat."  

[chiver78]

I would suspect that some people who already post* unflattering comments about the First Lady's body in response to her platform of healthy eating would have some things to say about the Chicken Fat skit.

I caught the apple ad tonight. had I not seen this thread prior, I think I'd have been scratching my head about it.


ETA: *post all over the interwebz, not just in our little safe corner of the world.

[Deleted]

Jun 16, 2014 21:41:10 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I suspect some overly sensitive soul would not be happy about a song calling inactive children "Chicken Fat."  

I guess in the 1960s we weren't as sensitive, which is your point.  We never felt like it referred to us . . . just maybe the area around your middle or something.  All girls wanted to be cute ("we must, we must, we must increase our bust") so we happily performed the exercises in the song. 

But I still don't see why anyone even in these days being offended by the song.  It really isn't calling kids "fat."  It is calling "chicken fat" a no-no. 

I will say, though, that this was a time when schools considered P.E. a "major" subject just like the "core" subjects of today.  I didn't get the Freshman Book Award my ninth grade year because I had all A's including an extra A in an academic subject (my aunt wouldn't let them assign me to a study hall), but a C in P.E.  I got it because (gasp!) I took a Ping-Pong paddle into the dressing room, and the P.E. teacher TOLD us we would make an F if we did.  So my final grade averaged to a C.  The guy who got it took fewer courses, but managed not to screw up.   

Isn't it funny what you remember from high school?  But trauma from this song is definitely not in the Top 50. 

[MarleyKeezy78]

I'm offended they would make anyone listen to such a crappy song all the time  That and the fact they paid someone to come up with this garbage

[Virgil Showlion]

Calm down
Marley Keezy
Ten times!
Not just
Now and then.
Drop those bacon rashers,
Nuts to chicken bashers,
And don't be a cynic again.
No, don't be a cynic again.

Buck up
Marley Keezy
Ten times.
Praise it
Singing out.
You'll be a flabby pig
Unless you do the chicken jig.
Go, you cynicism, go away!
Go, you cynicism, go!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I heard that commercial last week and it was driving me nuts where I had heard the music from!

[NoNamePerson]

Holy crap, I was more stoned in the 60's than I realized. I never heard that song   

[MarleyKeezy78]

I just now saw the commercial with this song  Gawd!!!

[swamp]

That song was a staple of my dance classes in the 1970s.

[Cookies Galore]

I like the use of this song in the apple commercial much better than then ruining the Pixies' Gigantic in the last overplayed commercial. Probably because I have no previous love and/or association with the chicken fat song. It's actually kind of cute.

[thyme4change]

Jun 18, 2014 20:09:12 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

I like the use of this song in the apple commercial much better than then ruining the Pixies' Gigantic in the last overplayed commercial. Probably because I have no previous love and/or association with the chicken fat song. It's actually kind of cute.

Yup - a song about a giant black male member really didn't make me want an iPhone.

[Cookies Galore]

Jun 18, 2014 20:30:07 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Jun 18, 2014 20:09:12 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

I like the use of this song in the apple commercial much better than then ruining the Pixies' Gigantic in the last overplayed commercial. Probably because I have no previous love and/or association with the chicken fat song. It's actually kind of cute.

Yup - a song about a giant black male member really didn't make me want an iPhone.

Lol! I never want ianything but I freaking love the Pixies! I got so sick of that damn commercial! Annoyed the hell out of me.

[Opti]

I don't remember hearing it either NNP.

I think they'd be right to bash Obama if he couldn't commission a

better song.

[NoNamePerson]

Jun 18, 2014 20:55:44 GMT -5 Opti said:

I don't remember hearing it either NNP.

I think they'd be right to bash Obama if he couldn't commission a

better song.

Whew, thanks for posting. Glad to know I'm not the only one