"Chicken Reel" is a dance tune. It was composed by Joseph M. Daly in 1910. Joseph Mittenthal added lyrics in 1911.

Along with "Turkey in the Straw

Turkey in the Straw

"Turkey in the Straw" is a well-known American folk song dating from the early 19th century.The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the...

," "Chicken Reel" is probably best known for its use in early animated cartoons as a catchy tune used to represent animal activity. Originally composed as a novelty song, it has since passed into modern folk tradition. Today, the tune is usually played without the words, which would often have been sung in the minstrel

Minstrel show

The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....

 style (in stereotyped African-American vernacular).

Chicken Reel was made popular again years later by Les Paul

Les Paul

Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...

 who recorded the song as a catchy instrumental, whimsically mimicking chicken sounds on his guitar.

"Chicken Reel" was arranged for symphony orchestra by Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...

; his arrangement was recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra

Boston Pops Orchestra

The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....

 in 1992.

Lyrics

The lyrics as written by Mittenthal:

Way down in Carolina where the sweet potatoes grow

There lives a dusky maiden by the name of Liza Snow

She used to go to parties where they'd always make her sing,

But say you ought to see that Baby do the pigeon wing.

They held a dancing contest and were goin' to give a prize

They all had on their finest and it now was up to Lize.

Just who was goin' to win it ev'rybody there could feel,

When Liza hollered to the band to play the Chicken Reel

Clear the crowd away

Tell the band to play

When you hear me say "GO" My honey

Chorus:

Oh, you Chicken Reel, how you make me feel

Say it's really so entrancin

Who could really keep from dancin',

That's the music sweet, like the chicken meat

Give it to me with the dressin

I don't need no dancin' lesson

Put all the other fine selections right away

That is the only tune I want to hear you play

When I get married if there's music I will say

"Hey boss keep a-playin' Chicken Reel all day

One night when from a party she was walkin' home with Bill

Now he's a steady feller and the night was dark and still

It seems he stoe a chicken and when Liza heard of that,

She said I'm gonna wear it on my go-to-meetin' hat.

I guess you'r goin' crazy answered William with a smile,

But Liza said "Go on you havn't heard the latest style."

When first she wore it out the people asked her to explain

but Liza simply said Why I have chicken on the brain.

Clear the crowd away

Tell the band to play

When you hear me say "GO" My honey

(Chorus)

External links

• "Chicken Reel", Edward Meeker
  Edward Meeker
  Edward Meeker was an American US singer and performer, best known for his appearances on the recordings of Thomas Edison, as an announcer, and performing songs like Chicken Reel and Take Me Out To The Ball Game, as well as reading vaudville skits and providing sound effects.Meeker was born in East...
  
  (Edison Blue Amberol 2347, 1914)—Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
• Digitized sheet music from the original 1910 Publication