PLYMOUTH TWP. --

In the heavy-hitting world of popular music it sounds like a feather-weight title, a brag more prone to puns like "crying fowl" than headlines blazing "claim to fame!" Worthy more of clucks than claps.

Yet here it is:

Local band leader "Jolly Joe" Al Truszkowski believes his group, the Bavarians, was the first in the United States to record "The Chicken Dance."

The chicken dance? Everyone recorded "The Chicken Dance." Check Amazon.com. The Marshmallow Peeps did "The Chicken Dance." so did Polkacide, and the Sadie Green Sales Ragtime Jugband--they played the melody on the saw, with jug and washboard back-up.

It's on something called "Go Cardinals, University Louisville's Greatest Hits"--presumably tunes by the school band. Tiny Tim--he of the ukelele and "Tip Toe Through The Tulips"--cut a version for "Goobers: A Collection of Kid's Songs." Fuzzy Muppet Elmo dolls and fake hamsters in even faker feathers do the chicken dance.

Jolly Joe--"45 years in the business" and proud of it--is not deterred. "The first time I heard it was when we were making our album 'Follow Me,' "the amiable band leader explained. "We needed another song to complete the album. At that time my sax player, who is now deceased, said there's a song from Germany, it's a kid's song called 'The Chicken Dance.'"

Truszkowski concedes he can't prove he was the first in America to record the tune--there's no official "Chicken Dance" registry. But he challenges naysayers.

"If anyone thinks they made it sooner than me, show me the date on their album, the date they recorded it."

Truszkowski couldn't offer an exact date for his own recording, but figures it was "1968 or '69." And he concedes he misjudged the staying power of the poultry prance.

"The first time I heard it I thought it would be a nice novelty song, but it wasn't going to go anywhere."

Now it's practically the national novelty anthem. Old or young, coordinated or klutzy, start playing it and folks stand by the dozens to mimic beaks with their hands, fold arms into wings and shake their behinds like tail feathers.

As truszkowski pointed out, "If you present the song the right way, people are going to dance."

But the big question is, who hatched it?

"Who wrote it? I don't know," Truszkowski conceded. "I think it originated in Germany as a folk dance."

It turns out the question "Who wrote 'The Chicken Dance'?" evokes more theories than "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

On one Web site, the Basques--an ethnic group centered in northern Spain--take some pains to distance themselves from the enduring fad. "Although we often hear 'The Chicken Dance' at Basque-American events, it is not of Basque origin."

The article on the site wings a few variations on the dance's name: "The Duck Dance," "Dance Little Bird," "Bogel Tanz," "La Danse Des Canards" and "El Baile de los Pajaritos," to name a few.

The dance is apparently a huge draw at Oktoberfests, with the Cincinnati event--Oktoberfest Zinzinnati--claiming to hold "the world's largest Chicken Dance." And it's traditionally led by a different celebrity each year.

Past honorees were Weird Al Yankovic, Davy Jones of the Monkees, Tony Orlando and--last year--Verne Troyer, the actor who played Mini Me in the Austin Power spy-spoof flicks.

But it turns out the dance isn't German. and though the origin stumped some of the great local minds -- we asked two colleges for a professor versed in the dance, but none were found -- enough research will lead you to Switzerland.

The original name, apparently, was "The Duck Dance," or more exactly "Der Ententanz." The composer was Thomas Werner, a Swiss fellow who wrote it -- depending on whom you ask -- in the 1950s, 1960s or early 1970s.

And in one letter circulating on the web, the composer's son claims there are at least 140 versions of the song worldwide, selling 40 million copies.

The dance may have hatched in the land of the Alps, but it's free-range now. along with Jolly Joe and the Bavarians, the title appears on the albums "Memories from Poland," "From Russia With Love" and "Bella Notte: Italian Children's songs and Lullabies"

The chicken has danced onto the soundtrack of the TV animated series "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius," and the movie "Grumpier Old Men."

The Swiss tune seems more veratile than a certain army's pocket knives. It has been recorded on albums designed for Halloween, Easter, birthdays, babies and a wide range of parties.

Truszkowski can vouch for the all-purpose nature. He's performed it for weddings and at nursing homes. "I can't count the number of times I've played it."

Not bad for a melody he never heard until his band practiced it from sheet music. Learning the song without actually hearing it first posed no problems, Truszkowski insisted.

"There's no Chopin, Tchaikowsky or Beethoven involved in it," he said adding that reading music runs in his family. "My father was a musician for 60-some years."

"If I get tired of it, I might as well get out of the business. It's a labor of love. It's my livelihood."

OK then, let's do another round!

Now you're in the swing,
You're clucking like a bird,
You're flapping your wings,
Don't you feel absurd?
It's a chicken dance,
Like a rooster and hen,
It's a chicken dance,
Let's do it again ...