What do you get when you lump together a precocious, screeching brat on vocals, a nasty kiddie-choir to back her up, a terrible cutesy synth and a ridiculous chicken impersonator? No? It’s Chick Chick Chicken by Natalie Casey.
Released in in the hope of grabbing a hit at Christmas 1983, this is just about as horrible a slice of kiddie pop as you can imagine. Although Natalie later went on to fame in TV soap Hollyoaks and dire ‘comedy’ series Two Pints of Lager, she was just three years old when she recorded her single, which reached the dizzying heights of number 72 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1984 and made her the youngest person ever to have a recording in the UK chart.
Now a respected star of stage musicals (she’s recently been in Legally Blonde and is about to star in the musical version of 9 to 5), some of you with memories long enough may recall her appearance on the BBC’s kids show Saturday Superstore when she had to ask Boy George to take her to the toilet (he didn’t, Culture Club member Roy Hay took her instead), but the assumption is that the poor deluded moppet thought that George was a woman. Having made tinkle Natalie then returned to whisper into George’s ear: “what’s for dinner?”- apparently no longer mistaking him for a toilet attendant but for a dinner lady instead.
Natalie later resurrected her one stab at chart stardom, performing the song in 2008 during a live Two Pints of Lager special. She would have been around 28 at the time; has she no shame?
Produced by Peter Gosling (chickens, geese…what’s next) who during a long career in music for children was involved in Bodger and Badger, Play School, Chockablock, Number 73, Noah and Nellie in the Skylark and many, many more, as an extra I’ve include the even more awful B-side (‘written’ by Peter Gosling), which is confusingly listed on the cover as Natalie’s Disco Party but, correctly judging by the lyrics, on the label as Natalie’s Disco Nursery.
Enjoy.