"Land of 1000 Dances" | ||||
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Single by Chris Kenner | ||||
B-side | "That's My Girl" | |||
Released | October 1962 | |||
Genre | Rhythm and blues | |||
Label | Instant | |||
Songwriter(s) | Chris Kenner | |||
Chris Kenner singles chronology | ||||
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"Land of 1000 Dances" | ||||
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Single by Cannibal & the Headhunters | ||||
from the album Land of 1000 Dances | ||||
B-side | "I'll Show You How to Love Me" | |||
Released | February 1965 | |||
Genre | ||||
Label | Rampart | |||
Songwriter(s) | Chris Kenner | |||
Cannibal & the Headhunters singles chronology | ||||
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"Land of a Thousand Dances" (or "Land of 1000 Dances") is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A version by Thee Midniters reached number 27 in Canada on March 22, 1965. [2]
The song references a number of dance styles/moves including the Twist, the Alligator, the Mashed Potato, the Watusi and the Pony.
The original Chris Kenner recording, which peaked at No. 77 on the Billboard chart in 1963, mentions 16 dances: the Pony, the Chicken, the Mashed Potato, the Alligator, the Watusi, the Twist, the Fly, the Jerk, the Tango, the Yo-Yo, the Sweet Pea, the Hand Jive, the Slop, the Bop, the Fish, and the Popeye. Kenner's original recording included a brief, gospel-influenced, a capella introduction with the words: "Children, go where I send you / (Where will you send me?) / I'm gon' send you to that land / the land of a thousand dances." This 18 seconds was left off the single release to facilitate radio airplay, and the phrase "Land of 1000 Dances" never appeared in any subsequent recording.
The song is famous for its "na na na na na" hook, which Cannibal & the Headhunters added in their 1965 version, which reached number 30 on the Billboard chart. [3] The hook gave the song further notoriety. The "na na na na na" hook happened by accident when Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia, lead singer of Cannibal and the Headhunters, forgot the lyrics. [4] The melody to this section was also created spontaneously, as it is not in Chris Kenner's original track. The "na na na na na" hook was later borrowed in the 1994 song "Here Comes the Hotstepper" by Jamaican artist Ini Kamoze. [5]
"Land of 1000 Dances" | ||||
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Single by Wilson Pickett | ||||
from the album The Exciting Wilson Pickett | ||||
B-side | "You're So Fine" | |||
Released | July 1966[6] | |||
Recorded | May 11, 1966 | |||
Studio | FAME, Muscle Shoals, Alabama | |||
Genre | Rhythm and blues | |||
Length | 2:28 | |||
Label | Atlantic | |||
Songwriter(s) | Chris Kenner | |||
Wilson Pickett singles chronology | ||||
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The song's best-known version was by Wilson Pickett, who recorded the song during his first set of sessions at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, [7] backed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and the Memphis Horns. (He had previously recorded in Memphis.) His recording was released as a single and appeared on his album, The Exciting Wilson Pickett . The single became his third Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 1 hit and his biggest ever pop hit, peaking at No. 6. [8] In 1988 a re-recorded version by Pickett was featured in a concert during the movie The Great Outdoors , while the original recording is featured at the end credits of the movie. In 1989, the earlier Pickett version was ranked number 152 on Dave Marsh's list of The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. [9] The version is later used in the 1997 movie The Full Monty . Pickett's version also appears in a 2017 TV commercial for Hulu, the first episode of Season 3 of Sex Education , and a 2022 commercial for the Samsung Galaxy.
The song appeared in Just Dance 3 as a playable track.
Chris Kenner version
Chart (1963) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Billboard Hot 100 | 77 |
Cannibal and the Headhunters version
Chart (1965) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada Top Singles (RPM) [14] | 42 |
US Billboard Hot 100 | 30 |
Wilson Pickett version
Chart (1966) [15] [16] | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada Top Singles (RPM) [17] | 6 |
UK Singles (OCC) | 22 |
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 6 |
U.S. Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles | 1 |
Ted Nugent version
Chart (1981) | Peak position |
---|---|
U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 47 |
J. Geils Band version [18]
Chart (1982) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Billboard Hot 100 | 60 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [19] Wilson Pickett version | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Novelty and fad dances are dances which are typically characterized by a short burst of popularity. Some of them, like the Twist, Y.M.C.A. and the Hokey Pokey, have shown much longer-lasting lives. They are also called dance fads or dance crazes.
Thee Midniters were an American rock group, among the first Chicano rock bands to have a major hit in the United States. They were one of the best known acts to come out of East Los Angeles in the 1960s, with a cover of "Land of a Thousand Dances" that charted in Canada in 1965, and an instrumental track "Whittier Boulevard" in 1965. Thee Midniters were among the first rock acts to openly sing about Chicano themes in songs such as "Chicano Power" and "The Ballad of César Chávez" in the late 1960s.
Ini Kamoze is a Jamaican reggae artist who began his career in the early 1980s and rose to prominence in 1994 with the signature song "Here Comes the Hotstepper". The single topped the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as record charts in Denmark and New Zealand, reaching number four on the UK Singles Chart.
Christophe Kenner was an American, New Orleans–based R&B singer and songwriter, best known for two hit singles in the early 1960s, "I Like It Like That" and "Land of 1000 Dances", which became staples in the repertoires of many other musicians.
The Watusi is a solo dance that enjoyed brief popularity during the early 1960s. It was one of the most popular dance crazes of the 1960s in the United States. "Watusi" is a former name for the Tutsi people of Africa, whose traditions include spectacular dances. The naming of the American dance may have been inspired, in particular, by a scene in the 1950 film King Solomon's Mines which featured Tutsi dancers, or by its sequel Watusi.
"In the Midnight Hour" is a song originally performed by Wilson Pickett in 1965 and released on his 1965 album of the same name, also appearing on the 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett. The song was composed by Pickett and Steve Cropper at the historic Lorraine Motel in Memphis, later the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Pickett's first hit on Atlantic Records, it reached number one on the R&B charts and peaked at number 21 on the pop charts.
"Monster Mash" is a 1962 novelty song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. The song was released as a single on Gary S. Paxton's Garpax Records label in August 1962 along with a full-length LP called The Original Monster Mash, which contained several other monster-themed tunes. The "Monster Mash" single was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on October 20–27 of that year, just before Halloween.
Cannibal & the Headhunters were an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. They were one of the first Mexican-American groups to have a national hit record, "Land of a Thousand Dances", recorded on the Rampart label. They were the opening act on The Beatles' second American tour, backed up by the King Curtis band. They played at the historic Shea Stadium concert from August 15 to August 30, during the 1965 tour that was headlined by The Beatles.
"Here Comes the Hotstepper" is a song co-written and recorded by Jamaican dancehall artist Ini Kamoze. It was released in 1994 by Columbia Records as the lead single from his 1995 album of the same name as well as the soundtrack to the film Prêt-à-Porter. It is known for its "naaaa na na na naaaa..." chorus inspired by the Cannibal and the Headhunters version of "Land of 1000 Dances".
"I'm in Love" is a song written by Bobby Womack. It was first recorded by Wilson Pickett in 1967, which gave him a top-ten R&B hit on Billboard's chart in 1968, peaking at number 4 as well as peaking at number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section is a group of American session musicians based in the northern Alabama town of Muscle Shoals. One of the most prominent American studio house bands from the 1960s to the 1980s, these musicians, individually or as a group, have been associated with more than 500 recordings, including 75 gold and platinum hits. They were masters at creating a southern combination of R&B, soul and country music known as the "Muscle Shoals sound" to back up black artists, who were often in disbelief to learn that the studio musicians were white. Over the years from 1962 to 1969, there have been two successive groups under the name "Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section" and the common factor in the two was an association with Rick Hall at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals.
"Don't Knock My Love" is a hit song performed by R&B singer Wilson Pickett and written by Pickett with Brad Shapiro. Released in the spring of 1971 from the album of the same title, it spent a week at number-one on the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles Chart and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. The song, which was produced under a funk tempo was Pickett's last number-one single and one of his last hits for Atlantic Records.
The Exciting Wilson Pickett, released in 1966, was the third album by R&B and soul singer Wilson Pickett. The album charted at No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard R&B albums chart and No. 21 on the popular albums chart, becoming the highest-charting studio album of Pickett's career. The making of the album saw Pickett end his relationship with Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had cut his early singles, and move to Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he would record for the next two years. According to AllMusic, this album firmly established Picket's "stature as a major '60s soul man". The album launched four major hits for Pickett, but AllMusic emphasizes that the album cuts, "of nearly an equal level", will be of more interest to collectors.
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The infectious "na na na" bit comes straight from the oldies-radio standby "Land Of 1000 Dances," first written and recorded by New Orleans R&B artist Chris Kenner in 1962.