Swiss Watching trivia, No 12: Birdie Song

August 12, 2010, 2 Comments

The Birdie Song

Forget fondue and the Red Cross – Switzerland most memorable gift to the world, though perhaps for all the wrong reasons, is an exceedlingly irritating little song and dance. You know the one, it nearly always gets played at chavvy weddings and junior discos. Originally called Der Ententanz (or duck dance), this ridiculous ditty began life in 1963 in an après-ski club of Davos, but its high-point came in the early Eighties with La Danse des Canards in France, The Birdie Song in Britain and The Chicken Dance in the States. In total, there have been 370 versions in 42 countries selling over 40 million copies. Some duck, some dance, as Churchill might have said, though I’m sure he would never have flapped his arms on the dance-floor. In 2000 it was voted the most annoying song of all time, beating another classic – Teletubbies. And the man to blame for it all: a Swiss waiter called Werner Thomas. I wish he’d stuck to opening bottles.