Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Chicken Fat: An Age Test


It has come to my attention that there are people who are first hearing the song Chicken Fat on Apple's latest app commercial.

As a child who was forced to perform the Chicken Fat exercise regimen (shown above) at least once a day in second grade, I just want to set the record straight.

Chicken Fat (a.k.a. The Youth Fitness Song) was written as part of John F Kennedy's physical fitness program in 1962. It was written by Broadway composer Meredith Wilson and performed by Broadway star Robert Preston.

There are two versions: a 2 minute 12 second version, and a 6 minute 30 second version, and they were used in schools from the 1960s-1980s. As for my second grade teacher, Mrs. Wolfenden, she had us do it every time the class started getting antsy or noisy--as happens when you have thirty 8 year olds all crammed into a portable all day. And looking back as an adult, I have to say that I think it was rather effective in settling us down and getting the twitches out.

What do you think? Should we bring it back, or just keep it as an Apple app commercial?

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