Inappropriate Songs of my Youth - Part Two

Imagine, a President of the United States who actively encourages Body Shaming for overweight children!  Why, such a scoundrel would probably also cheat on his wife regularly and engage in nepotism, hiring family members for important government jobs.

Indeed.  Oh, no I'm not talking about the annoying guy with the orange hair.  No, this was John F. Kennedy.

Perhaps the beginnings of childhood obesity were noted even then.  Now, JFK didn't invent the National Council on Physical Fitness but he did change the name to The President's Council on Physical Fitness, and as part of the new emphasis adopted as its theme song a remarkable bit of songwriting that will instantly resonate with everyone over the age of, oh mid 50's.

"Chicken Fat".  Also known as "The Youth Fitness Song".  I picked this YouTube version because of the image.  That is exactly the style of clunky, drab record player that was wheeled into the little gym at Lowell Elementary school.  We were all lined up and expected to jump, twist, bend, etc.  How else will you attain the cheerful end result, which was:  "Go you chickenfat, go away, go you chickenfat go!"

If you are really sharp you might recognize the name Robert Preston, or the jaunty up beat style of the music.  Preston of course was the titular character in the 1962 movie The Music Man.  The song in fact was recorded at the same time, and in the same studio as the sound track to the movie!  Meredith Wilson, the composer who wrote the songs for the initial Broadway version and adapted it for the screen, also wrote "Chicken Fat".  Preston was totally in character, and his performance in "Chickenfat" is similar to his expansive, over the top style in such songs as "Trouble in River City" and "Seventy Six Trombones".

Obviously the above is a still from the movie.  Now I don't know if he was in costume as well as in character when he recorded Chicken Fat but I'd like to thinks so.  Oddly the school gymnasium (?) in this picture looks an awful lot like Lowell Elementary school's.  I figure he's just getting warmed up.  Another stanza or two and at least those sluggish looking kids will be hopping about.  Maybe grandma will be shakin' that hoop skirt too!

Millions of copies of the 33rpm, 7 inch record were distributed to schools across the nation.  The original stereophonic master copy seems to be a Lost Masterpiece and all existing versions today are in the same glorious, tinny, magnificently enthusiastic mono that got us jumping and bending in place circa 1964!

Just for fun I left the "Chicken Fat" song play for a while while I moved on to doing homework.  Yikes!  I had forgotten just how compelling, nay commanding, this bit of fitness propaganda really was!  I found myself bobbing back and forth and my keyboard tapping acquired a certain jaunty cadence!

"Once more on the rise, next to the flabby guys, go you chicken fat go away! Go you chicken fat go..."