Kung Fu (song)

Kung Fu (song)

"Kung Fu" is a song by Ash, released as the first single from their album 1977 on 20 March 1995 - as a CD single, limited edition 7”, and standard 7” vinyl.

The song was written in five minutes on Boxing Day 1994 at Belfast International Airport, and recorded in one take on the following day. The song lyrics reference martial arts movie star Jackie Chan and the song was used in the advertising of and during the bloopers at the end of the American release of Chan's film Rumble in the Bronx. Additionally, the song's intro is a sample from kung-fu flick Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, starring Sammo Hung, which was being shown as part of a Channel 4 Kung-Fu film season shown over Christmas of that year. It is Sammo's voice that can be heard in the sample.

Like "Jack Names the Planets", this song was also on the Angus soundtrack. Interestingly, the song was recorded on The Verve's equipment, who were nearby recording their A Northern Soul album at the same time.

The song appears on Intergalactic Sonic 7″s, Ash's first greatest hits collection, and Ash's Tokyo Blitz DVD. Live versions of the song appear on the Barbie 7” EP and the Ash album Live at the Wireless.

When performed live, it traditionally closed the set as a two minute stomper, but since has been moved up the list. On the "Nu-Clear Sounds" tour, it ran to around 5 minutes, with a DJ filling the song with martial arts and computer game noises.

The single was Ash's highest charting so far, reaching number 57 in the UK singles chart, and the sleeve pictured footballer Eric Cantona's kick on a spectator that occurred in January 1995.

The song was 'Single of the Week' in NME, while the incident would top Q magazine's list of Top 50 Most Rock 'n Roll Moments of 1995.

The first B-side, "Day of the Triffids" tells an apocalyptic story of an invasion by aliens, and appears on the Cosmic Debris B-sides collection. It also appears on the US version of Trailer.

The second B-side "Luther Ingo's Star Cruiser" is infamous for having uncommonly explicit lyrics. This was the B-side of the standard 7" vinyl (INFECT 21S) but since it was unsuitable for use in jukeboxes, another version (INFECT 21J) was pressed with "Day of the Triffids" as the B-side. This version was also released as a numbered limited edition.

The music video consists of the band playing the song "Kung Fu" in concert, and occasionally footage of different people performing martial arts moves are cut in to the video. The video was directed by Steven Wells and Nick Small.