Carl Douglas
Biography
Jamaican Performing & Recording Artists
From: Jamaica
Best Known for: Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting, First Jamaican to top Billboard pop charts.
Bio: Douglas was born in Jamaica and was raised in between California and Jamaica during the late 1950's. He attended college in Europe studying studio engineering and worked in England doing engineering for a few years. In 1964, Douglas started a group called the Big Stampede releasing the singles “ Sell My Soul to the Devil” and “Crazy Feeling” which appeared on the UK pop charts. 1966 produced another group, the Explosions that recorded two singles for Phillips Records, a label based in Spain. Douglas then returned to England and joined a band called Gonzales. The band did not last long and he began working as a session vocalist for Pye Records.
In 1974 Douglas was working with producer Biddu during when the necessity to record a b-side to "I Want To Give You My Everything", resulted in "Kung Fu Fighting", a song which apparently took only 10 minutes to record. When the Douglas composition was presented to the A&R department at Pye Records, they wisely elevated the song to an a-side. Capturing the contemporary interest in Kung Fu in films and magazines, and bestowed with a catchy chorus, the song topped the charts in both the UK and USA. Douglas, gamely dressed in martial arts garb, executed his "hoo!" and "haaa!" grunts while performing the song and kept up the novelty long enough to chart again with "Dance The Kung Fu". Three years later, Douglas made a return to the UK charts with the Top 30 hit, "Run Back", since when little has been heard of him, though his most famous single re-entered the UK singles chart (albeit in a re-mixed form), in 1998. He resides in Germany where he runs a publishing company that co-ordinates films, documentaries and advertisements and is in the process of recording new material to release.
source : http://caribbean.halloffame.tripod.com/Carl_Douglas.html
Biography
Jamaican Performing & Recording Artists
From: Jamaica
Best Known for: Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting, First Jamaican to top Billboard pop charts.
Bio: Douglas was born in Jamaica and was raised in between California and Jamaica during the late 1950's. He attended college in Europe studying studio engineering and worked in England doing engineering for a few years. In 1964, Douglas started a group called the Big Stampede releasing the singles “ Sell My Soul to the Devil” and “Crazy Feeling” which appeared on the UK pop charts. 1966 produced another group, the Explosions that recorded two singles for Phillips Records, a label based in Spain. Douglas then returned to England and joined a band called Gonzales. The band did not last long and he began working as a session vocalist for Pye Records.
In 1974 Douglas was working with producer Biddu during when the necessity to record a b-side to "I Want To Give You My Everything", resulted in "Kung Fu Fighting", a song which apparently took only 10 minutes to record. When the Douglas composition was presented to the A&R department at Pye Records, they wisely elevated the song to an a-side. Capturing the contemporary interest in Kung Fu in films and magazines, and bestowed with a catchy chorus, the song topped the charts in both the UK and USA. Douglas, gamely dressed in martial arts garb, executed his "hoo!" and "haaa!" grunts while performing the song and kept up the novelty long enough to chart again with "Dance The Kung Fu". Three years later, Douglas made a return to the UK charts with the Top 30 hit, "Run Back", since when little has been heard of him, though his most famous single re-entered the UK singles chart (albeit in a re-mixed form), in 1998. He resides in Germany where he runs a publishing company that co-ordinates films, documentaries and advertisements and is in the process of recording new material to release.
source : http://caribbean.halloffame.tripod.com/Carl_Douglas.html
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