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#1 on WPGC Today in 1976
Rick Dees got his start in radio while still in high school at WGBG in his hometown of Greensboro, NC. Other stops at WCAR in Chapel Hill, WSGN in Birmingham and WKIX in Raleigh followed. By 1976, he was doing mornings at WMPS in Memphis. Fearing repercussions from the FCC for conflict of interest, Dees was barred from playing 'Disco Duck' on his show, while competitors in the market were not about the play the tune and promote him. As the song was nearing #1, Dees talked about the song and how he could not play it but did not air the tune itself. Management nevertheless let him go. Predictably, after his 45 day no-compete was over, RKO's WHBQ promptly hired him.
The tune was inspired by Jackie Lee's 1965 novelty hit, 'The Duck'. Rick wrote the tune in a day but it took three months to find anyone willing to record it. Estelle Axton (she was the 'ax' in Stax Records along with her brother, Jim STewart) had formed her own label, Fretone and agreed to record it. As popularity of the song soared, going on to eventually sell a staggering 6 million copies, RSO picked up national distribution. In true novelty tune fashion, it skyrocketed to #1 nationally and hit #1 on the WPGC Musicradio survey on 09/18/76. See enlargement.
Dees himself did not do the voice of the duck. Jim Pruitt who had worked with Rick previously had the honors of doing so, but was unable to continue in the role when Dees went on national tour. Another colleague of his, Michael Chesney quacked his way to fame for the live shows. As insanely huge as the song was, Dees missed out on another potential fortune in royalties when his manager turned down a request to use the tune on the soundtrack of 'Saturday Night Fever' (though the song is used briefly in a scene in which Seniors are learning how to 'move their feet to the Disco beat'), for fear it would siphon off sales of Dees' own album, 'The Original Disco Duck'. Based on the success of the song and the prominence it brought him, RKO moved Dees to mornings on KHJ. When the format was changed to Country in 1981, he moved to KIIS-FM. The rest is radio history... Listen to Jackie Lee's, #14 hit in 1965. |
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